daveza
Honorary Master
Yup - loans to Zimbabwe.
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SA lifts moratorium on fracking
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Yup - loans to Zimbabwe.
It is water, dragon-cum, wizard's spit, old machine oil, a touch of benzine, some tetrahydrochloride, recycled acid pool water from the gold mining waste dumps, tincture of acid-reflux from condemned prisoners' last meal. This enables the drills to go sideways to penetrate the gas layer and hey-presto, up comes 100% Shell Pure Natural Gas, pre-circumcised and priest-blessed, ready to be compressed and loaded onto Chinese-built gas-carriers and hurried by rail to the nearest port (probably Port Elizabeth) to be loaded onto 1 million ton LPG carriers for delivery in the Far East.
When said SPNG has pumped itself dry, all the KAK above will spew out the hole and leak into the artesian wells that were drilled by farmers in the 19th century and turn the karroo sheep orange. The springs at Montagu will turn white people the colour of fake tan and black people like Somalians.
That is a successful fracking hole. The rest will be disasters, with broken drilling bits, explosions setting off the gas prematurely.
I cannot wait. New Zealand here I come
When said SPNG has pumped itself dry, all the KAK above will spew out the hole and leak into the artesian wells that were drilled by farmers in the 19th century and turn the karroo sheep orange. The springs at Montagu will turn white people the colour of fake tan and black people like Somalians.
That is a successful fracking hole. The rest will be disasters, with broken drilling bits, explosions setting off the gas prematurely.
I cannot wait. New Zealand here I come
Just out of interest, have you spent much time in the Karoo?
So does mining...
So does mining...
So does mining. Additionally mining costs more and carries even more severe and pertinent risks than those you mentioned. Why aren't all of you up in arms against mining too?
daveza
Honorary Master
Mines exist.
We want to stop fracking wells before they exist.
The principle remains the same. In fact mines pose a more serious health and safety concern, both directly and indirectly. Your argument that absolutely ANY risk is too much risk is simply absurd. Risks exist because we do not know everything and what we know for a fact so far about fracking (without extrapolated conjecture) is pretty decent so long as certain standards are maintained. The economic benefit to the country is fantastic - any investment in the country to this extent is. To claim that fracking must be stopped while contributing to your mining-sector orientated pension portfolio (which no doubt nearly every single commentator in this thread does) seems just a little...well...ironic to me.
Personally, frack away as long as it is in a controlled fashion and you tree-huggers keep an eye on them...
daveza
Honorary Master
Sure - depending on what is at risk.
The risk of permanently contaminated fresh water in the Karoo is a risk way too far.
As said previously - are the pro-fracking lobby prepared to guarantee absolutely a 0.00% contamination?
I bet not.
Are the mines able to? Are the chemical companies able to? Are the sink shafting companies able to? Are the pesticide using farmers able to? Obviously not. Why should the frackers be held to a different standard?
daveza
Honorary Master
If you lived in the Karoo and were reliant on the little pure fresh water they have access to then the question would be redundant.
But my point is the pro-fracking lobbyists categorically deny the possibility of pollution - but I've yet to see a guarantee on the table.
Can you point out the quantifiable risk to drinking water, specifically to the Karoo?
daveza
Honorary Master
The use of any of 750 additional chemicals added to the water used for fracking - one of which is Benzene.
No no, I'm talking about a quantifiable risk assessment of the site itself and the associated, verifiable numbers. Those will exist. Until then, to demand it be stopped due to the various risk factors would be, well, more conjecture. Of which we've seen enough of with Gaslands, thanks.
BTW, we add a plethora of chemicals to purify drinking water too. Some of them toxic to begin with.
My point here is you're demanding they be held to a higher standard than all other companies in South Africa, while not being able to argue specifically why. Mining rights are dished out every week in this country - surely those should be of higher priority to oppose, from your perspective?
daveza
Honorary Master
If there are risk assessments available I haven't seen them - but it is known that benzene is a component of fracking chemicals.
My understanding is there is no way to remove the benzene from contaminated underground water on such a large scale - and one cannot use benzene contaminated water for any human or animal use.
As for mines elsewhere, if they were in an area where there is a serious shortage of fresh water and this is put at risk then they should receive the same priority as fracking.
But you're calling for it to be banned, in which case you've made the assumption that there is no prevention of benzene contamination, and that if there was, the water it contaminated would be used for human consumption. Problem here is that fracking is specific to the area, as are the associated risks. Another thing to note is that the long-term economic benefits to fracking absolutely outweigh a marginal group of inhabitants having to be moved, or provided alternative, sanitary measures, which you're assuming the frackers will not provide.
Those calling for its banning imo do far too much emotional assuming and far too little rationalising of the macro situation. There is no doubt that the oil companies are renowned for unscrupulous dealings. What is forgotten however is that of all companies in the world, they contribute far more in relative terms from a CSR point of view than any other industry...
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What I saw was ghost towns, properties getting sold for R200 a pop, thousands with no income, a large area with no income besides sheep.
Sweltering in summer and freezing in winter.
It was around 15 to 20 years ago but still, it's only export was "reformed druggies" and sheep.
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We don't have a government in the traditionally accepted sense of the word.
What we do have is a cabal composed of comrades interested only in the personal wealth that will accrue to them as a result of any decision they might make, supposedly on behalf of the country.
The moratorium was never intended to be any more than an appetite-whetting period for oil companies with huge slush funds for deals like this.
Fracking is going to happen because the personal rewards to the decision makers will make the arms deal look like a church poor box.
That's a bit like Stalin (the ANC hero) killing his perceived enemies ethically.