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What the Frack?!
Peak oil is upon us. We've now used up all the cheap oil, that was easy to extract. This is why oil prices are rising. The remaining oil reserves on this planet are harder to get out.
By burning all the cheap fossil fuels, we've set off global climate change. The best thing we could do is leave the rest of the fossil fuels in the ground, and develop renewables like solar and wind.
Instead, our government is beginning to extract all the remaining fossil fuels it can. The methods we have to use to get the hard stuff out are far more dirty, expensive, environmentally damaging than anything we've seen up to now. they will add to the CO2 in the atmosphere, and the extraction processes also will use up lots of fuel.
The government is planning three principal extraction methods: mining lignite, fracking for gas, and oil drilling, onshore and offshore.
Lignite mining is very similar to Canada's infamous tar sand oil extraction. Lignite is low grade coal. It's open cast mining will dig up huge areas of Southland's rich agricultural land. Much of the lignite will be sent to China to fuel its coal-fired power stations; some will be made into diesel, some into fertiliser.
We've already seen campaigns against deep sea Oil drilling projects on the east coast. They also plan a deep sea rig off Taranaki this summer, also off Christchurch. They're prospecting all over New Zealand, to find where to put the next ones.
Fracking is perhaps the scariest for our local quality of life. They send a pipe into the ground, and force down huge amounts of water filled with several hundred highly toxic chemicals. This breaks up rock and shale, to release oil and gas. They say it won't reach the water table. It does though.
They have to dispose of huge amounts of contaminated water. What they can't put back in the ground, they evaporate into the air, and spread on the fields, or take off the topsoil, spread the water and put the soil back on top. Not only are our water tables irretrievably poisoned, we also have air pollution; cattle eat the grass, so it gets to us in milk and meat. And it causes more frequent earthquakes!
This is being done already in Taranaki, and local people are complaining of nasty health effects. In America, many people are no longer able to drink the water from their wells. In some places you can set alight the water from the tap! Terrible health damage is happening. The film 'Gaslands' (youtube) says it all.
permits are being granted to prospect over most of our country, to find where to frack and drill oil onshore. Many permits are already granted, the rest are pending. The areas immediately above and below Auckland will be prospected. Any of us could soon have this in our own backyard.
Then the high grade coal in the Denniston plateau will mean the loss of a large area of beautiful native bush on the South Island's west coast .
Why are the government keeping on getting fossil fuels out, wrecking or clean green image for good and all, instead of organising renewables - which has to happen eventually?
They want quick money from it. However this is questionable. extraction is expensive too. Also, the foreign companies who do it get the money. The lignite project is planned by New Zealand's Solid Energy – but the government plan to sell 49% of solid energy to China after the election. we can't even change the plans after that, it won't be in our control.
This is all being kept very quiet. most people aren't aware what's going on in our own back yard.
Coal Action Network, to which I belong, is concentrating principally on coal, especially lignite - because coal is the worst offender for world climate-change, and that's the most pressing issue for all of us. New Zealand's contribution to Climate Change may seem small – that lignite could power the world for 3 months. It's not an insignificant contribution.
NZ's net emissions in 1990 were 61MT. We have agreed, conditionally, to reduce this by 10-20% by 2020.
Our current gross emissions are 75MT but we are allowed to subtract forestry planted since 1990, even though that carbon will all go back to the atmosphere when the trees are harvested.
The lignite projects would add 17MT/y to global emissions, though how much of this would be counted as NZ's responsibility under Kyoto is unclear. However, all of it would enter the atmosphere so we have at least a moral responsibility for it.
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