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?
cynical_scientist says:
August 23, 2013 at 8:33 pm
As an anonymous coward hiding behind a pseudonyn, I really liked the quotation from Oscar Wilde.
What’s your real name, cynical_scientist? 🙂
And most of that plastic camping gear is made by underpaid exploited workers in Asia. They buy it because its cheap.
Fracking has been going on for over 50 years.
Now it’s only “dangerous” because, done properly, it is productive and profitable.
Is the perceived “danger” to the environment or to the “controlist” schemes?
(I think I just invented a word. I couldn’t think of a substitute for the idea that didn’t have a political/ideological bent.)
That sadly misinformed person surrounded by petroleum based products is a tragic example of the hypocrisy of so-called “environmentalists” today. Why not recognize and encourage doable solutions instead of sitting there trashing up the countryside protesting? Most of them haven’t a clue, just catchy slogans to drum up donations for “the cause”.
On May 30, 2012, I attended the California Department of Conservation workshop in Ventura. The CDC was seeking input on hydraulic fracturing seeking for the purpose of drafting new regulations. Attending were several well financed groups including the Environmental Defense Center (EDC).
Towards the end of the workshop, I was given the opportunity to give my input. I turned to the audience and asked, “How many people in this room concerned with contaminated water have even heard of Ecosphere Technologies, Aquamost, Water Tectonics, or even GasFrac?” From the silence and blank faces, it was obvious that nobody in the room had, including representatives from the CDC. Since the Frac Workshop, several more companies such as Clean Wave, CLLEEN FRACK, Frac Pure and others have been added to the growing list of start-ups in competition for the frack water treatment business.
By treating and re-using frac water, drillers are using up to 90% less water during hydraulic fracturing. That saves water. Drillers don’t have to use persistent chemicals to kill bacteria. Ecosphere, for example, uses ozone in a patented 4 step high energy cavitation process that eliminates the need for toxic bactericides. Transportation involved in disposing of toxic wastewater is eliminated. That reduces air pollution from trucks. These are not only environmentally sound solutions, they reduce the costs of fracking which has caught the driller’s attention. Today, billions of gallons of frack water has been treated and reused at somewhere around 1,000 wells.
I repeat, that person protesting “fracking” surrounded by petro products is clueless.
@ferdinand meeus Engelbeen
Seems like large portions of Holland are sinking with or without any sort of drilling.
“Large areas of the Netherlands are sinking, often to below sea level. “The Netherlands is a bathtub that could fill up completely in case of flooding,” according to one researcher. But the authorities say there is no cause for alarm. Sea and river water is kept out by natural sand dunes and man-made dykes.”
“In some parts of the Netherlands the ground level has sunk over the past millennium by as much as three metres, at a rate of 15mm a year. The subsidence is caused by the compression of ancient peat layers – weak soil consisting of dead vegetation. The weight of clay and sand on top is gradually compressing the peat layers.”
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/holland-sinking-no-cause-alarm
WUWT?
Bernie
Peter Miller says: August 24, 2013 at 12:40 am
And, of course, you have to ask the question: “Who, or what, will be the greatest beneficiaries if these Ecoloons are successful in stopping fracking in the UK and the rest of Europe?”
Answer: Step forward Gazprom
_______________________________________
And also the gas fields in Algeria.
You have to wonder if these Eco-Goons ever see the big picture, or whether they are all simply myopic. What they want, is for Europe to be reliant on:
a. Russia, who has already turned the gas taps off to Ukraine, to make a political point.
or
b. Algeria, which is a close cousin of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. Stability is not their second name.
One wonders if these Eco-Goons want to see the destruction of Europe as a wealthy technological region.
.
Rishi says
‘so, basically, i cannot protest against anything, because i have been made into a hypocrite…i cannot protest against gmo food, because i eat it; i cannot protest against the bad air, because i am breathing it; i cannot protest against any chemicals, because i am using them and i cannot protest against bad land use, because i am part of the problem.’
looks like you can’t protest against bad grammar and punctuation either
mogamboguru says:
August 24, 2013 at 9:05 am
mogamboguru, Matt Ridley has an interesting blog post on fraking where it lists all the minerals used in the operation. It is worth a read:
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/the-five-myths-about-fracking-%281%29.aspx
As several have already said, fraking is already an old technique, what is new is the possibility to turn the drill heads at a certain depth horizontally and drill in the respective strata.
“Normal” oil/gas recovery was about 2-3 % of the total that was underground. That was al that was possible to extract. There have been needed many wells one near the other to be able to extract more of the oil there.
Horizontal drilling allows the much better targeted drill and fraking exactly the area with oil, resulting thus in better productivity, & less drills as it would be needed before horizontal drilling was technically possible.
As Matt says:
“In the debate over shale gas – I refuse to call it the fracking debate since fracking has been happening in this country for decades – the opponents do seem to be astonishingly cavalier with the facts.”
And again from his post:
“It was the American senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who once said: “You are entitled to your opinions, but not to your own facts.” “
“I’m always gobsmacked at the ignorance and complete cognitive dissonance of the green mentality.”
You shouldn’t be. If they were smart, they wouldn’t be Greens.
The Green movement may have been well-intentioned when it was formed, but today it’s just Communism by another name. Most of the ‘protestors’ are just typical Leninist ‘useful idiots’, and the only sad part is that anyone listens to them.
Mogamboguru – You need to know that French Governments are the most protectionist of the advanced economies. They make Canada look laissez – faire. France has banned Fracking simply to protect its nuclear industry, which is part State owned.
“You’re mistaking the leaking of injection wells, with leaking of fractures. The vast majority of well leaks are from casing failure, or failure of the cement sheath. The leaks are localized, but still must be repaired. ”
and are routinely accomplished unless the envio-nazis have forced them to drill more than a mile underwater.
Every so often we get a new troll on WUWT, today it is Neil, of the slightly hysterical ecoloon variety. Clearly someone without a shred of geological or engineering knowledge, but with the burning desire of the typical ecoloon to drive humanity back to the happier environment of when energy was either expensive or unavailable and life was brutish and short.
For the record, fracking is a proven safe technology. There are certain caveats, such as fracking should not be allowed at depths of less than 1,000 metres, or in seismically active areas. Also, the safeguards learned the hard way in the USA should be rigorously enforced.
The subject of global warming has now become boring to the general public and has been steadily discredited. So the ecoloon fraternity, best represented by the likes of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, need a new scary source of revenue, so step forward fracking, a convenient alternative to Global Warming for the purveyors of bad science.
I’d love to see what these anencephalics would do if you suddenly took away all the things pictured in the photo, and told them they could never have anything made from petroleum again.
I think they would be like a clam out of its shell.
ralfellis says, “One wonders if these Eco-Goons want to see the destruction of Europe as a wealthy technological region.”
Perhaps you have revealed the meaning of the words on the plaque? The progressive eco-activists are modeling the glories of tentvilles and government “NGO” handout subsistence living.
“Coming to a town near you soon.”
@Gail Combs –
You make so many excellent points with which I heartily agree, but I would point out the following:
Geothermal also can have a dirty little secret. The installations at the Geysers in California are a case in point. The effluent that comes back up after injecting the steam into the wells is laden with toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, selenium, lead, mercury, thallium and hexavalent chromium, and it is very difficult and expensive to remove them. I learned this while working for a municipal electric utility here in California that gets some power [from] the Geysers plant.
Okay, it seems like I have some additional self-education to do regarding fracking.
Allow an old man some slack to catch up with the 21st Century.
Will you?
Re: Chad Wozniak
> Geothermal also can have a dirty little secret.
Geothermal has to frack to create an underground reservoir for the pumped water to get the heat. The two projects in Cornwall I pointed to earlier intend to create this reservoir in granite formations and thus will release any radon in the granite.
NOTE: I have no issue with them fracking for geothermal, neither do I have an issue with any radon released as result. I do have an issue with people objecting to fracking for oil or gas and giving geothermal a free pass.
Gail/Miller:-
I’m often gobsmacked at the ignorance and complete cognitive dissonance of those willing to put down anyone who tries to debate an issue.
It is clear that you gail and miller have not properly read the comments I have made along this thread and choose to criticise what you misperceive or assume I wrote? Seems so. Total lack of comprehension of those comments if read at all.
Had to find someone to dis eh? Feel better now?
I just cannot believe/stoop to your level of discernment. You are totally ignorant.
======================================================================
As Will Rogers said, “Everybody’s ignorant … only on different subjects.”
Ignorance is common. The willingness to become less ignorant is not. Particularly after one has already made their opinion known.
(One thing I’ve learned here on WUWT is that there is always somebody who knows more about a subject within site policy than I do.)
Just up from my nap, during which I realized the irony of an anti-technologist advocating for thorium and against radon. It is quite mind boggling, the toxicity of the most powerful entropy engine in the Universe – ignorance.
Neil,
So glad you’re smart enough to not put anyone down during a debate.
I wouldn’t use gobsmacked in reference to your appearance here.
Faceplant is more like it.
John – just reused/modified phrase of others here who don’t read what you write and then criticise you for a position you and others don’t hold, crying hypocrisy, etc, etc – mindless activity.
Doug – still can’t fathom what you are on about… am sure you are comp generated regurgitator rehash program commentor – someone trying out their prog/AI skills?
Neil says:
August 24, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Gail/Miller:-
I’m often gobsmacked at the ….
Stop going ad hominem Neil.
Gail explained above what US patents are used for fracking and what chemicals are involved:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/23/friday-funny-fracking-protestors-and-their-petro-sourced-belongings/#comment-1398935
I like reading her posts which are often well said, well documented and well argued.
Neil If you have arguments post them. If you fail to convince is maybe because your arguments are weak, and maybe you are not right.
Think about it.
Many of that rent-a-mob crowd were recently protesting about a new road between Hastings and Bexhill. I expect they’ll find something else to fuss about soon. One of the lady protesters was quoted as saying (complaining about police tactics) “They crushed our meditation tent”.
IIRC anyone in Balcombe can drill down in to the aquifer, but they are restricted to pumping 80 tons a day.