Fracking-- just when you get your head around one environmental disaster. . .

[Michaelangelica]

Oh shit

Was just out at Tyalgum, where Mollison has a place and they are looking at doing this there! Although the Tweed shire and Byron, i think. are looking at passing a moratorium on CSG exploration. Actually Tweed has passed a vote unanimously supporting the moratorium, but have only a short time for it to pass before some licences are approved.

Thanks matto
Has the Tweed moratorium gone though?
http://www.tweedecho.com.au/index.ph...606&Itemid=800
http://northernriversguardians.org/?page_id=445

N.Y. Assembly Approves Fracking Moratorium - NYTimes.com
30 Nov 2010 ... A vote sends a message about safety concerns related to this type of gas drilling.
green.blogs.nytimes.com/.../n-y-assembly-approves-fracking-moratorium/ - Cached - Similar
New York Governor Vetoes Fracking Moratorium, Issues Partial Ban ...
11 Dec 2010 ... New York Governor David Paterson today vetoed a bill that would have put a temporary hold on any new permits employing fracking, however, ...
ecopolitology.org › Energy - Cached

[Michaelangelica]

TECHNOLOGY does not inflate like a balloon, expanding human power over nature evenly in all directions and at all scales. It grows like a sea urchin: long spines of ability radiate out towards specific needs and desires.
Some of those spines now reach dizzying distances, allowing what would once have been impossible tasks; coaxing kilowatt hours by the million from the inner workings of atoms, or driving tiny oil pipes miles through the crust of the Earth.
But the spines are brittle, and they stand alone.
When one breaks—as happened on board the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago (see article), or at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan last month—there is no ameliorative technology on a par with that which has failed. Instead there is floundering; there is improvisation; and there is vast damage. What was a continuous, miraculous conduit from the depths of the Earth or the heart of the atom becomes a noxious, tangled and inaccessible mess about which, for months, nothing can be done.

There is no way to fill in the space between the spines so that they are proof against catastrophe, or easily fixable at any point of failure. But there are rules that can make it easier to cope with the failures of such brittle technologies.

The first is that the firms involved have to accept that eveeven if things seem safe and sure in day-to-day operations, disasters still happen. For years before Deepwater Horizon the oil industry planned on the basis that the blowout preventers on top of wells would live up to their name. The nuclear industry routinely tells itself that partial meltdowns such as that at Fukushima are less likely than the record shows them to be. . . . .

http://www.economist.com/node/185866...ceofsafetynets

[insipidtoast]

TECHNOLOGY does not inflate like a balloon, expanding human power over nature evenly in all directions and at all scales. It grows like a sea urchin: long spines of ability radiate out towards specific needs and desires.
Some of those spines now reach dizzying distances, allowing what would once have been impossible tasks; coaxing kilowatt hours by the million from the inner workings of atoms, or driving tiny oil pipes miles through the crust of the Earth.
But the spines are brittle, and they stand alone.
When one breaks—as happened on board the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago (see article), or at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan last month—there is no ameliorative technology on a par with that which has failed. Instead there is floundering; there is improvisation; and there is vast damage. What was a continuous, miraculous conduit from the depths of the Earth or the heart of the atom becomes a noxious, tangled and inaccessible mess about which, for months, nothing can be done.

Amen.

I just got done watching the documentary, Gasland. What is going on is outrageous.

[springtide]

Watched Catalyst the other day on peak oil or "the oil crunch" - the pressure for this kind of exploration and extraction is going to get insane. There are a few big problems the world is going to face over the next 50 years - we have all done a bit of research and we are taking actions in our own way, but to see a global avalanche comming in the next 5 years or so on government standard staple television does make me think that when the majority agrees with the minority then there is going to be some scary times ahead.

[frosty]

Did anyone else watch gasland ?

[Michaelangelica]

Watched Catalyst the other day on peak oil or "the oil crunch" - the pressure for this kind of exploration and extraction is going to get insane. There are a few big problems the world is going to face over the next 50 years - we have all done a bit of research and we are taking actions in our own way, but to see a global avalanche comming in the next 5 years or so on government standard staple television does make me think that when the majority agrees with the minority then there is going to be some scary times ahead.

I watched this (ABC Science Crude The Incredible Journey)
http://www.abc.net.au/science/crude/
Before I saw it I thought I was up-to-speed on Global Warming.
A must see series about 1 1/2 hours

[permasculptor]

Did anyone else watch gasland ?

Yes I did.I was horrified!As I am continually at the stupidity of the money people.

[frosty]

Yes horrifying plus of course depressing .........

I have fought against many types of pollution for many years eg I was involved with the problems arround ALCOAWagerup ........


Te govt agencies supposed to be responsible for monitoring these things take a lot of pushing to get them to even try to do their job but so far eventually they do do something


we all know these companies rationalise that there will be a certain number of deaths and illness but they consider the profit is worth the downside of the possible payouts

but so far there has always been that standard they are supposed to meet ......... that is what terrified me - they can do what they like and no one can do anything

as we get shorter of oil and energy this is what we face

[Michaelangelica]

Yes all to do with "acceptable risk"

Avideo on the subject
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_860976.html

[annette]

Great song!

People need to mobilise before governments sign off on Environmental Authorities. They are advertised and open for public comment. The trouble is there is so much money to be made from coal seam gas extraction. Another worry is that different pieces of legislation regulate different parts of the industry and well,(pardon the pun) you know what happens when different parts of government regulate different aspects of an industry, one hand doesn't talk to the other. And regulation is reactive rather than proactive.