There’s been a lot of hullabaloo in the UK over the Balcombe fracking protests. WUWT reader Eric Worrall writes in with this comparison photo.
Original picture source: http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-08-16/anti-fracking-activists-camp-without-permission/
Here is a tagged version of the same picture of all the plastic high tech synthetics used by anti fracking protestors in England, captured in a single photograph.
![frackpic[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/frackpic1.jpg?quality=83)
It really makes you wonder – do anti-fracking protestors think nylon tents, PVC groundsheets, and plastics grow on trees? No doubt the tents also contain high tech synthetic fibre sleeping bags, and gas powered camp cookers.
Do these hypocrites actually think about what sort of world they would have to endure, without the cheap hydrocarbons, and cheap plastic synthetics, the petroleum source of which they oppose?
Patrick B says:
Odds are some or all of their clothes include fabric derived from petroleum.
Just about all buttons appear to be made from plastic now, along with many zips. Even cotton often requires petroleum derived fertilizer and no modern farmer would be without the internal combustion engine invented by Rudolf Diesel.
Greg says:
If they were protesting about drilling for oil your comments might make sense.
That’s exactly what the company concerned are drilling for.
Neil says:
They want to drill a mile from the village of Balcombe!. Can anyone here look me in the eye and say if they had a house in Balcombe, that they would not be concerned about fracking under their houses?
How many of these protestors actually come from Balcombe? Some of them have come from as far away as The Netherlands.
These appear to be far more “professional protestors” than NIMBYs.
Lars P says:
Oh Yes, the residents there will be really happy to get some nice wind turbines around the village to get some intermittent electrical current mostly when they do not need it and have solar on the roof that is so efficient during the rainy days,
IIRC there have been NIMBY objections to wind turbines. Including on the basis of environmental damage. Yet these havn’t attracted “protest camps”.
Even though oil and gas extraction is, in practice, typically far less disruptive than wind turbines.
Les Johnson says:
If you wish to protest against oil and gas development, then you need to do it in canvas running shoes, with natural rubber soles, while living in canvas tents, and wearing only hand grown and hand manufactured cotton clothes.
Best avoid getting to the protest using vehicles which are made from and fueled by petroleum products too 🙂
I don’t recall seeing any stables at Balcombe or even any diesel cars with all the plastic parts replaced…
I live in an area where a lot of horizontal drilling is going on. Fracking takes a lot of water so some have been well paid for water. Additionally, royality owneres have been paid well and some have been paid very well for the products produced from the wells. Here the well spacing is typically 640 acres (1 square mile) so well sites are usually two miles apart. I’d much prefer to have a low profile well site every two miles rather than high profile windmills every 1,000 yards or less. Thirteen miles away is a coal fired power station. It provides not only power, but a nice lake for fishing. I prefer it to a windmill farm. They drilled a horizontal well a mile away. It is a lot less of a nuisance than the nearby railroad. By the way there haven’t been an earth quakes, well contamination, or other problems.
Rich Lambert says:
August 25, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Do you by chance live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area?
Babsy
No, north central OK. Apologies for misspelling owners.
benfrommo says: @ur momisugly August 25, 2013 at 6:38 am
Gail, I too was like you and believed geothermal was the way of the future. But I think I should correct you on this score…..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thank you very much for the information. You just saved me a lot of money and aggravation.
So it looks like all of the various ‘Green’ options are money pits. Why am I not surprised.
What are bike frames made out of ? I get the rubber tyres but, the wheels ? the handle bars? and if Neil is still functioning ? have you ever figured out yet how they make a beer? and get into glass??
richardscourtney – just steve:-
final comment from me as I find (willful?) ignorance of what I actually wrote/commented, coupled with criticisms of what I didn’t say, don’t subscribe to and actually ask about because I stated I don’t know. Les was helpful/informative. There were ( a few) others who did actually ‘get’ the hypocrisy arguement.
To sum up – 1 My main gripe is at those crying ‘hypocrisy’ – the arguement is clear
2 I’m not satisfied that the effects of fracking are all known, specifically say a hundred years or more from now – no-one knows – the more knowlegeable comments/experience expressed here notwithstanding. Esp with regard to subtle point below. I would not frack in my own back yard but would in a remote area.
one e.g. – ‘just steve’ says ‘none of the environmental disasters you claim have happened’ what/where claimed environmental disasters???
Another point, subtle, but interesting and mentioned earlier (and clarified by les) is the filling of such fracked areas with highly toxic waste. Some of these wells are damaged and leaking. How do you clean that up?! Where will that stuff go over the next decades? Can you trust humans where profit rules? NO
One last point on real hypocrisy that not many of you will ‘get’ – the bigger picture, even hypocrisy can drive an issue the right way.
I object to the “Holier-than-thou” attitude.
“Neil says:
August 26, 2013 at 3:11 am
I object to the “Holier-than-thou” attitude.”
And so do I. Don’t go near Cornwall for fear of “radiation”.
tobias says:
August 25, 2013 at 11:53 pm
All “commercial rubber” today is man-made from oil and petroleum feedstocks. “Natural” tree-sap rubber is rare and not used in bicycle tires because it is (1) too expensive and (2) not refined (commercially and statistically) “stable” enough to be drawn into the ultra-fine fibers needed to make the bike tires. Particularly because high-end bike tires are made very lightweight and with very fine tire treads to reduce rolling resistance. Natural rubber is not wanted by the tire manufacturers.
The “metal” parts of all high-end bicycles are today made from exotic alloys and alloy blends to be as light weight as possible and to resistant corrosion while retaining high strength and get acceptable fatigue resistance against vibration. (Only ultra-cheap China-knockoff kid’s bikes use “steel” anywhere nowdays.) Carbon fiber resins and filaments are often used in frames, but seldom in handlebars, seat posts, wheel rims, pedals, etc. ALL require natural gas and coal products (coke) for the furnaces and melting and forging process; and commercial electricity grids for the “commercial” power to make the bicycles, forge them, weld them, paint them, light up the assembly floor and the shops and warehouses for the parts,etc, etc,etc,etc,
You cannot make today’s bicycles in a horse-and-buggy energy environment. You “can” make bicycles in the 1890’s energy environment, but then they’d ride like a 1890’s bicycle. And be as reliable as an 1890’s bicycle. And would be as expensive (in hourly-wages) as an 1890’s bicycle. And would have to be shipped by horse-buggies and sailing ships to get the where they’d be unloaded by hand labor and carried to a horse-and-buggy to get to the ……
Remember Deepwater Horizon??
“By 22 June, the Facebook page “Boycott BP,” started by Lee Perkins,[54] had over 688,500 “likes” from Facebook users, and generated media stories.[55][56] By 3 July, the online petition “Boycott BP” posted by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen had over 22,000 pledges from people who pledge not to buy any BP products for three months.[57] Across the US, thousands of people participated in dozens of protests at BP gas stations and other locations.[58][59][60]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
I guess they were all hypocrites.
It could be true that if the rules are followed there is no unsafe system of manufacturing energy. But do you really trust the energy companies to follow the rules??
I am guessing the girl in the photo does not!
@RACook, In my reply to Neil I was trying to be kind of sarcastic not even sure about that, as in that even riding a bike it might be just as detrimental to the environment , adding in the actual factory production of said mode of transportation, again , I think (and not being up on the english language) It may have been misunderstood, sorry if I am not clear , but being very serious here, can we carry on the conversation?, This web site is really startung to teach me I have been following for a while but I am learning. The up to date Artic Ice site is great and connections to everywhere other web sites are astounding , A big thanks to AW and all off you.
Not sure, the pinnacle thing? and what does it take and the sacrifices it takes. Frankly it will forever take sacrifices to get to the top in my humble opinion , I am in my 60’s and remember the moon landing and today there is a new telescope in Chile, we should never stop, sorry if I am a bit all over the place tonight
I love material things but the time has come to admit we are not in control of nature and our abuse of it in our continued growth and mining. Fossil fuels and their byproducts in chemicals and plastics are the enemy we need to address no matter how hard it would be without them. If we loose this battle, we loose it all….if we keep fracking, our water could be so messed up on day that living in a cave and living off the land won’t even be an option…water=life. If we can’t guarantee the casings won’t leak over time..then we are cutting off plan b which is no more mining and manufacturing. Isn’t plan B to live off the land like our ancestors did? Fracking=killing plan B.
Would you have any suggestions to share on neo-sophisticate cave wall decoration?
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Use organic paint.
@ur momisugly Kim Feil —
1) Apparently, you did not read the posts above yours on this thread. If you had, you would not be as ignorant as you are of the LOW risk fracking poses to anyone’s water supply.
2) How in the WORLD are petroleum products “the enemy”? Unless you back up your generalities with some facts and data, your post might as well have never been written.
3) No. Living off the land like our ancestors did is not “Plan B;” it is simply what happens when society completely breaks down. For real life experiments with real data see: The Cuba Experiment and The Zimbabwe Experiment.
(re: Babsy’s Q) “Use organic paint.” (Gunga Din)
LOL, good one. And LOTS of mirrors (most of those protestors are just look-at-me narcissists; protesting is their theater).
Janice Moore says:
August 27, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Since we’re all soon to be living in caves, I thought it would be good to get a sneak preview of decorating tips from the first issue of “Better Caves and Gardens”.
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So a fuel is only evil if it’s in “fossil” form? If we get rid of kerosene is it OK to go back to sperm whale oil for oil lamps?
Oh, as far as water goes, there is this thing called “rain”, nature’s “distilled” water. Build more dams.
I’m fully a believer of choice. They don’t want people to have something then do not allow them to have it.
If they want the gas imported then bill them the loss of currency value through trade imbalances.
If they do not want natural gas then simply ban them from having it.
If they want energy from sources that result in our present wars for control of other countries resources and money, then I suggest they sign up for it. The consequence is they signed to join join the army.
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Hmmm….I’m not sure gardens would be allowed. I’ve only ever heard of one that wasn’t man-made.
Here in Spain there is quite a tradition of turning caves into homes and some of them are quite beautiful! There are two within a 1/4 mile of me .
Some examples of cave homes –
http://tryingtobalancethemadness.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/fascinating-cave-houses-from-around-the-world/
Anything ‘for the children’, you know…
BREAKING NEWS!!
Balcombe protesters forced to eat Pâté !!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency#Psychological_symptoms_and_mental_disorders