What The Frack Is Our Government Thinking?

by @rickbosch

If you were online on Friday, you would’ve read, somewhere that the moratorium (read “ban”) on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) was lifted by our government. Now, I am not a scientist, I am merely a guy who loves nature and more specifically, our picturesque Karoo. What this idiotic decision entails is pretty severe and I will try to explain it here in simple terms as best I can. I don’t care if you know what I’m about to tell you, but please do keep reading, knowing your enemy is half the battle, and let’s make no bones about it, fracking is the biggest enemy our Karoo has faced since, well, forever.

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As a starting point we need to know what we’re fighting, so we need to establish what the hell fracking is. According to the BBC it is “The process of drilling down and creating tiny explosions to shatter and crack hard shale rocks to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. The process is carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer. The process can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels.”

This diagram explains it pretty well.

image credit: BBC

Now, the main problem is that all of the water and chemicals they shove into the ground aren’t removed. The water isn’t purified before it reaches other water sources and in a landscape where water is a most precious resource, let’s say for example, the Karoo, the effects could, and will, be devastating.

I never fully understood exactly how bad it is until I watched the 2010 documentary, Gasland, where filmmaker Josh Fox exposes the vicious nature of this supposedly “safe” gas extraction method. From flammable water, to continuous gas leaks, poisoned water sources and dying animals, nothing good comes from fracking, except for those lining their pockets.

Whether it’s done “properly” or not, whether it’s “regulated” or not, fracking is a terrible thing and when you combine a beast with such a destructive nature with a landscape as unique and awe- inspiring as the Karoo, there can only be one outcome. It’s a sad day when our government chooses money over the preservation of our natural landscapes. There will inevitably be the arguments for fracking, job creation, maximising our existing resources, the cash influx, etc etc, yadda fucking yadda. It’s all rubbish.

Fracking will not create millions of jobs, it will not solve our economic woes, it will not empower the people. What it will do is waste the one thing which the Karoo cannot afford, water. The whole problem is centered around water, here are some scary numbers for you, from the creator of Gasland’s research.

“Generally 1 – 8 million gallons of water may be used to frack a well. A well may be fracked up to 18 times.” When you consider that a gallon is 3.78541 (let’s use 3.8 for easy digestion) litres, then that equates to 3.8 – 30.4 MILLION litres of water to frack a single well. Then consider the fact that every well may be fracked up to 18 times, are you kidding me? That is a staggering 547.2 MILLION litres of water. That water will never be cleaned, recycled or reused because of the chemicals used in the process, what it will do, however, is contaminate the underground water supplies which the Karoo depends so heavily on.

The numbers of the fluids used also frighten the bejesus out of me, Fox’s research also for that “for each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.” Whether or not that will be different in South Africa remains to be seen, but I think the numbers really do speak for themselves, whether we know what’s going into the ground, or not, is kind of irrelevant in my opinion, it’s all dire.

Look, I could go on for days about this, but I can already feel the emotions welling up inside me, so I will sign off for now. I will leave you with this though, go do yourselves a favour and watch the documentary, Gasland, the devastation and destruction fracking causes was really unbeknown to me I am ashamed to say until Fox’s documentary enlightened me.

Now, all of these stats and things have to do with the USA, so you may be forgiven for asking, “but what about here in South Africa? What are the implications here?” Luckily I am a resourceful guy and found this…

I know it’s 24 minutes long, but trust me when I say this, you need to see it. This is your country and the unearthed crew had taken it upon themselves to spread the word and lead the way against fracking in SA. For more information about the documentary and the team producing it, head over to the unearthed site, have a look around, educate yourselves, because this is far from over. I will try to keep you updated with these developments and hopefully we can actually make a difference, because I cannot imagine a life without the Karoo.

For too long decisions have been made on our behalf, decisions powered by stupid, driven by greed and I, for one, am fucking sick of it.

The Professor, or in this case, Rick,
Out.

For more info on fracking check out https://www.facebook.com/uneartheddocumentary