Anti-fracking in South Africa
What the Frack?
Fracking is simply this: it is a process of drilling 1 to 5 km under the surface to a layer of shale where natural gas is trapped. Using millions of litres of water, sand and an array of chemicals (many of which are carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting or just plain toxic), the rock is repeatedly fractured by high-pressure explosions underground, allowing the gas to be collected. Tens of thousands of wells have been dug in 32 American states, Canada, Australia and many other parts of the world, and a groundswell of popular protest has started.
This is because groundwater has frequently been contaminated as a result, either with methane or the chemicals.
Just Google ‘fracking’ (short for hydraulic fracturing) on the internet and you’ll be hard put to choose between the hundreds of heartrending accounts and YouTube videos from all around the world. Ordinary people who have experienced this method of gas extraction close to their homes have recorded their experiences.
Poison, radioactivity, contamination
They are horror stories. The water coming out of their taps becomes flammable, contaminated with methane and oil, undrinkable. They suffer strange lesions, cancers, tumours. Their livestock is poisoned, sometimes with radioactive substances brought up from underground as waste material. Arsenic and other substances poison their vegetables and crops.
Each account is a little different, but almost every one mentions the fact that the oil and gas companies who came to drill and fracture the earth assured them that it was safe.
Shell did the same to this crowd, but the attendees had done their homework and remained completely skeptical except for one emerging farmer who asked hopefully about job creation.
Attack of the FalconThe fracking concessions in the Karoo areas cover a slightly narrower band than Shell’s band, including the towns of Merweville, Leeu Gamka, Rietbron, Jansenville and Aberdeen.
Sasol and other companies are looking at another broad swathe northwards, including Bloemfontein and surrounds.
Long term plan for the gas recovered through fracking includes use for power stations to be set up across the Karoo (with the attendant power lines, substations and the rest).
After the repeated entreaties for Shell to drop the bid or to rather look into solar and wind energy, the last ominous word on the matter came from Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates.
“If it’s not Shell, it will be someone else.”
Read more at Fracking in the Karoo /fracking-in-the-karoo.html
Fracking is simply this: it is a process of drilling 1 to 5 km under the surface to a layer of shale where natural gas is trapped. Using millions of litres of water, sand and an array of chemicals (many of which are carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting or just plain toxic), the rock is repeatedly fractured by high-pressure explosions underground, allowing the gas to be collected. Tens of thousands of wells have been dug in 32 American states, Canada, Australia and many other parts of the world, and a groundswell of popular protest has started.
This is because groundwater has frequently been contaminated as a result, either with methane or the chemicals.
Just Google ‘fracking’ (short for hydraulic fracturing) on the internet and you’ll be hard put to choose between the hundreds of heartrending accounts and YouTube videos from all around the world. Ordinary people who have experienced this method of gas extraction close to their homes have recorded their experiences.
Poison, radioactivity, contamination
They are horror stories. The water coming out of their taps becomes flammable, contaminated with methane and oil, undrinkable. They suffer strange lesions, cancers, tumours. Their livestock is poisoned, sometimes with radioactive substances brought up from underground as waste material. Arsenic and other substances poison their vegetables and crops.
Each account is a little different, but almost every one mentions the fact that the oil and gas companies who came to drill and fracture the earth assured them that it was safe.
Shell did the same to this crowd, but the attendees had done their homework and remained completely skeptical except for one emerging farmer who asked hopefully about job creation.
Attack of the FalconThe fracking concessions in the Karoo areas cover a slightly narrower band than Shell’s band, including the towns of Merweville, Leeu Gamka, Rietbron, Jansenville and Aberdeen.
Sasol and other companies are looking at another broad swathe northwards, including Bloemfontein and surrounds.
Long term plan for the gas recovered through fracking includes use for power stations to be set up across the Karoo (with the attendant power lines, substations and the rest).
After the repeated entreaties for Shell to drop the bid or to rather look into solar and wind energy, the last ominous word on the matter came from Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates.
“If it’s not Shell, it will be someone else.”
Read more at Fracking in the Karoo /fracking-in-the-karoo.html