British designer sends anti-fracking message with bloodied baby doll

LONDON — British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood took to the streets of London on Monday cradling a “fracked baby of the future” in her latest show of opposition to hydraulic fracturing.

The 74-year-old, known for her environmental campaigning as well as her bold designs, held a doll covered in bloodstains and with a missing hand, which campaign group Talk Fracking called a “limbless, radiation-scabbed ‘Fracked Baby of the Future’”.

Standing in front of a mock election billboard captioned “Let’s stay on the road to a fracked future”, Westwood posed for pictures with the doll, surrounded by post-apocalypse figures on stilts. Britons vote in a national election on May 7.

“I’m trying to get across to people the danger we’re in,” she said. “We have to stop the destruction.”

The UK is estimated to have substantial amounts of shale gas trapped in underground rocks. The fracturing method of extraction involves blasting the rock formations with chemicals and water to break them up and release gas.

The government supports developing the reserves but has faced opposition to fracking, because of concerns over the danger of groundwater contamination and earth tremors.