Radical environmentalists are doing their best to create fear about fracking and to inflame the public so as to outlaw fracking in the United States and the UK.
The latest effort has reached as far as the UK, where anti-fracking groups have seized on a recent University of Michigan study, showing that ethane emissions from the Bakken, where fracking of shale is concentrated, has caused an increase in ethane, where atmospheric ethane had been declining over the past few decades, to call for banning fracking.
The study was led by Eric Kort, University of Michigan, assistant professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, with co-author Colm Sweeney, a scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The University of Michigan press release said that ethane quickly dissipates in the atmosphere, but that the process of breaking-down the molecule helps to sustain methane. It also said that ethane can help to form ozone, which can increase smog levels.
The press release emphasized the negative effects of ozone, but did not establish how much ozone was being created by ethane, and merely speculated on how it might affect the formation of smog.
Pallavi Phartiyal of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, has said in the past that fracking should be banned because not enough is known about its harmful effects.
Falling back on the precautionary principle is the usual response of radical environmentalists to all new developments.
The precautionary principle establishes that development should stop unless we know precisely how a new activity or product will affect the environment and people. Of course, the precautionary principle would have, if in effect at the time, prevented the development of electricity and penicillin, as well as a host of other medications and products.
In this instance, it’s being used in an attempt to stop fracking.
It’s also interesting to witness the interlocking relationships of radical environmental organizations as this story evolved.
- It was first published by the University of Michigan on April 26.
- It then appeared in an article in the Independent, a UK newspaper, owned by the Russians who oppose fracking in Europe, on April 29.
- It was next referenced in a breaking news story by an investment group Seeking Alpha on May 1, highlighting stocks that might be negatively affected.
- It next appeared in a DeSmog article on EcoWatch’s web site on May 6.
From Michigan, to the UK, to an international news story and back to the US in a little over a week.
The episode also, once again, demonstrates how these environmental groups use fear to achieve their objectives.
The objective, of course, is to prevent the use of fossil fuels of all kinds, including natural gas.
A few years ago, environmental groups lauded natural gas as a bridge fuel, now, with the crippling of the US coal industry, natural gas is just another fossil fuel menace.
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Nothing to Fear, Chapter 16, Tragic War on Fossil Fuels, explains the harm being done by trying to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Nothing to Fear is available from Amazon and some independent book sellers.
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/1miBhXy
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