Fracking: here we go

Yesterday the government invited companies to bid for licences to begin the process of hydraulic fracturing, to give it its full name, throughout the UK. Just to give a quick summary of how it works, large quantities of fresh water (it has to be fresh; salt water would damage the drilling equipment, though why they couldn't simply make equipment that would resist salt water I don't know, what I do know is that fresh water, drawn from the same rivers you and I get our drinking water, will be used, and in vast amounts) is pumped deep underground under pressure, opening up little fault lines in the shale rock, freeing the oil and especially gas that is "locked" within. The water, now toxic, is lost: it will stay down deep, well below (we are reassured) the aquifers many of us depend on for our clean water supply.


By these means, we will, apparently, be the beneficiaries of a limitless supply of gas, and almost as much oil, guaranteeing us "energy security" (the new buzz phrase, meaning we will no longer be at the mercy of the Russians, who could turn off the gas tap any time they chose) well into the 22nd century.


However, when you burn fossil fuels of any kind, you release carbon dioxide, a significant factor in global warming, a phenomenon now accepted by everyone except a bunch of right wing nutters who unfortunately are still able to punch well above their weight on the world stage. Also, the fracking process is also at risk of leaking vast quantities of methane into the atmosphere, a gas with six times the effect of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Naturally we are reassured this won't be a problem, though these reassurances are offered mainly by the people most likely to profit from the process. Meanwhile the sustainable energy resources, wind, solar, wave etc, are still sidelined as off-the-wall, hippy projects with no real prospect of making an impact. It suits the oil companies and automotive industries to keep the world in a fossil fuel based economy- it just doesn't suit the Earth: the only place we've got to live.