LANCASHIRE, England, April 28 (UPI) — Emma Thompson recently defied a court-ordered injunction by shooting an anti-fracking bake-off at a restricted site set aside for fracking.
The Academy Award-winning actress, accompanied by her sister, Sophie, filmed the spoof — “A Frack Free Bake Off” — in Preston, Lancashire Wednesday in protest of the government’s recent allowance of 200 new fracking locations.
Protesters have been banned from the site since 2014, since land owners filed for the injunction, the Independent reported.
Greenpeace volunteers took part in the production, building a makeshift film studio on-location out of wood and solar panels. Thompson and her “Masterchef”-winning sibling competed, in Great British Bake Off fashion, during the show, aimed at raising awareness of alleged governmental hypocrisy on environmental policies.
“I’ve been aware of this issue for a while with my work with Greenpeace and it came to a head for me when David Cameron went to the Paris Climate Conference and signed on to the protocol and then on the sly at Christmas, when nobody was looking, gave the nod to 200 fracking sites in Britain,” Thompson said.
“It proved to me our government is saying one thing and doing the opposite.”
The Guardian reported the talented duo created clean energy-themed cakes and released a series of clips showing off their baking skills. Local baker Kate Styles judged the competition, the full episode of which is expected to air Thursday, with the help of netizens via Twitter.
Police reportedly arrived on-scene during the bake-off but made no arrests at the time.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process of injecting liquid into the ground using excessive force in order to break up rocky earth for oil or gas-extraction, is a highly controversial issue in terms of environmental safety and sustainability.
The United Kingdom has yet, as of December of last year, to begin the actual fracking process, but is reportedly in the exploratory phase of it, according to BBC.
