Hey there folks!
“Fracking” is a swear word in TV sci-fi show ‘Battlestar Galactica’, made up so that they can say bad language without actually using it, and in the recent re-imagining to really carry the roughness of the characters in the horrendous situation that they are in. It is also used by the energy industry to talk about the pumping of large volumes of water into the ground to get gas out the other end. There are some problems with this, which we will attempt to illustrate.
Here is a chirpy song that explains this for you, in rather optimistic terms: http://youtu.be/oHQu3SeUwUI
Companies like Shell are continuing to frack for oil; that is using dynamite to unsettle layers of silt and shale under the surface of the earth to release possible fossil fuels, unperturbed that they are causing massive environmental destruction in the process. If it doesn't hurt them or their wallets, why should they care? They just don’t give a frack!
Originally it was oil that was being sought using this method, which was bad enough if it leaked, but now companies are more dangerously looking for gas, which if, or when, it enters the water table, could lead to massive contamination of drinking water.
Ok, so what is the problem, bar regulations not being followed, and why is this done anyway? Well, the simple answer, at least to the second question, is: we need gas. The better answer is: in many places in the US, there isn't really a lot of money in the land to do anything else with it, as shown here: http://www.cnn.co.uk/2012/03/09/us/new-york-fracking/index.html ($1000 an acre ain’t bad!)
And here: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/fracking_pennsylvania/
And even here amongst others things in this series: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html
Studies show that the concrete walls of the wells must not crack at all, otherwise water supplies will become contaminated. This is already happening in between 5 to 6 percent of most wells already in existence, and led to the Gulf of Mexico explosion and the leak in the North Sea where structural instability was as much as 45 percent.
But it does bring in the money, as shown in this Bloomburg report, which also talks about the many failures from the very start of the process, and how many millions of federal dollars have been ploughed into the industry since then:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-23/decades-of-federal-dollars-helped-fuel-gas-boom
When you hear the words ‘gas’ and ‘boom’ in the same sentence, you have to be slightly concerned.
The best thing about all this for the UK is that everything underground belongs to the crown, so no money for the little guys like the farmers in the US. There’s more about the UK outlook here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/17/whats-the-truth-about-fracking
So, here are some videos that explain what could go wrong. They are well made and well researched as well, as well as being about wells. This is The Sky is Pink by Josh Fox, which tells the story from the US viewpoint: http://vimeo.com/44367635
And here’s Fracking Hell: http://vimeo.com/17518865
Following the BP Oil Spill Report, after the company decimated the coastline of the Mexican Gulf, it was revealed that they had committed numerous eco crimes in the name of big business, and had ridden roughshod over regulations, claiming everything would be ok, because they said so! With this reputation, it was slightly upsetting to find out that they were given the honour of being official sponsors of the 2012 London Olympic Games, as if athletes and officials supported this environmental decimation. The Gulf stream pelicans themselves weren’t so keen on the bill! We have recently seen price of rigging within the gas industry, so we can be fairly sure that it isn’t just oil and gas prices that are being rigged (oil rig, geddit?), but the truth about their safety too.
In December an event called Get Fracktious! is taking place, run by the Campaign Against Climate Chaos on National Climate Awareness Day, 1st December 2012. Details of the event are as follows: http://www.campaigncc.org/getfracktious
Campaign leaflets can be found here: http://www.campaigncc.org/leaflets
Terminating the environment is something that robots from the future who hated humanity would do, not our own species who are supposed to be part of the eco-system. Let’s not give in and reduce ourselves to the crude level of grunting, “Oil be back!” Let’s say “hasta la vista!” to this negative, destructive behaviour and build a renewable, sustainable future instead. The future is in YOUR hands. To find out what Greenpeace is doing on this issue, go to the Energydesk: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/newsdesk/energy/data/how-fracking-may-be-dr...
Go easy, step lightly, stay fracking free!
Tom Read & Helen Marshall, Norwich Greenpeace Members
P.S. If you want more on top of this, here some talking heads from Duke University talking about their research on wells: http://youtu.be/sq0LFhw-klMr
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