Sunday, October 14, 2018

Fracking's threat to global warming

One of the world’s leading climate scientists, James Hansen,  warned that future generations would judge the decision to back a UK fracking industry harshly.

“So the UK joins Trump, ignores science… full throttle ahead with the worst fossil fuels,” Hansen told the Observer. “The science is crystal clear, we need to phase out fossil fuels starting with the most damaging, the ‘unconventional’ fossil fuels such as tar sands and ‘fracking’.”

Hansen warned the UK energy minister, Claire Perry, that the decision was a serious policy error that would contribute to “climate breakdown”. Hansen warned that young people could inherit an environment “out of their control” if fracking was pursued. “If the UK were to join the US by developing gas fields at this point in time it will lock in the methane problem for decades,” he wrote, adding that fracking would fatally undermine the UK’s attempt to fulfil its climate obligations.

“The fossil fuel companies are well aware methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and yet they seem willing to continue on a path which can have disastrous consequences for our grandchildren,” Hansen said.  

Hansen warned that any politicians or officials who push ahead with fracking would bear “disproportionate responsibility” for the consequences.
“I urgently call upon politicians of any persuasion to reflect on the peer-reviewed scientific information that is readily available and which clearly points to the need to rapidly phase down fossil emissions,” he wrote. “A task made much more difficult and probably implausible if the world exacerbates the problem by expanding fossil fuel emissions via fracking technology.”
Last week it emerged that Perry was considering relaxing rules on the earthquake limits on fracking, making it easier for companies to push ahead at sites in England.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said it was “imperative that the government heeds the advice, concerns and warnings of leading scientists over fracking”.
“The severity of the warnings from the IPCC report underline why fracking is a dead duck,” said Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at the CPRE. “We must speed up the transition to renewable energy – we have absolutely no time to mess around introducing a new carbon-emitting fossil fuel industry.” Fyans said it was essential that the government listen to the “views and concerns of communities who will see their local environment industrialised” if fracking goes ahead.
“The current proposals to fast-track fracking through the planning system, which the government are consulting on, will take local people’s voices out of the discussion,” he said. “Whether or not you agree with fracking, it is a fundamental democratic right for people to be able to voice their concerns – we cannot deny communities this opportunity.”

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