It’s the 8th of September 2022 — Liz Truss is the new UK prime minister and the royal family has flown to Balmoral to be at the bedside of the queen.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is ongoing (over six months now), and Gazprom has cut natural gas supplies via their pipeline to Europe.
Winter is coming and the UK government, even with its newly appointed head, is panicking like a coop of chickens having spied a fox. “Let’s re-institute fracking!” is the war cry.
So let’s talk about fracking…
Fracking is drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas and oil. Sounds OK right?… but this process can cause earthquakes, contaminate water supplies, and release harmful chemicals into the environment. These chemicals can be harmful to humans and animals if they drink the water. Some of the harmful chemicals used in fracking are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. These chemicals can cause cancer, birth defects, and other health problems.
The current view of the UK government on fracking is that it is a promising technology that could help the UK become less reliant on imported energy, create jobs and growth, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The government has said that it will support the development of the industry, but has also said that they must do it in a way that is safe and environmentally responsible. However, it decided to ban fracking in the UK in 2019.
Using fracking to extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations has become a controversial topic in recent years. There are those who believe that fracking is a dangerous practice that poses risks to the environment and human health, and should it be banned. There are also those who believe that fracking is a safe and efficient way to extract natural resources, and it should be supported.
The pros of fracking include it is a relatively new technology, so there is room for improvement; it can extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations that would otherwise go untapped; it is less expensive than traditional methods of drilling; and it creates jobs.
The cons of fracking include it can contaminate water supplies; it can cause earthquakes; it can release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere; and it can lead to industrialization and urbanization in rural areas.
It is unclear what the long-term effects of fracking will be. However, there is evidence that fracking can have negative effects on the environment and human health. For these reasons, I believe we should campaign against fracking until we can do more research to ensure that it is safe.
According to the best-case scenario, fracking would not produce enough gas to meet even 1% of UK demand for the next three years. Even after an immediate start, we would still have to wait another ten years for over 5% of UK demand to be met by domestically produced shale gas.
But what percentage of our energy requirements comes from overseas, anyway? The UK had a self-sufficiency score of 1.36, which was above the 0.96 average across all OECD countries. The UK’s diversity score of 0.69 was also much higher than the OECD average of 0.38 and was the third highest overall after the US and Australia. This means that we are much closer to being able to survive with local (not imported) resources than other countries.
Summary: Fracking, bad. Unnecessary. Possibly dangerous. Poll points to be had by misleading unknowing voters.
The UK is much better placed than many other countries in the World to deal with this sort of modern warfare (economic/technological/social-propaganda)—so why is the newly appointed leader of the conservative party making such a big thing of it?
Posturing, of course. Ready for the next election.
Outside Looking In—Exasperated of Greece.