Peter, thank you for continually highlighting some of the crap that goes on down here and also for the Great Barrier Reef stuff. It is mind boggling and exasperating when we continually see politicians giving lip service to climate change at one moment and then signing a new deal to allow coal mining or fracking or whatever the next. We’ve recently had a win in Queensland whereby underground coal gasification has now been banned but it took an environmental disaster and a bankruptcy (to avoid the fines) to bring it about. Its a small step and fracking is the next target. Hopefully the work of Greens MPs like Jeremy in the video but also landholders who are “Locking the Gate” will make a difference.
Was talking to someone yesterday about this. He mentioned that the river has always had some amount of gas coming out of it, even before the fracking started. I’m not sure if this is true or not as I haven’t looked any further into it. I’m sure there will be a lot of opinions on both sides but probably no tangible data.
I expect a proper analysis of the river and surrounds probably wasn’t done before the fracking well got approval…
Its a real conundrum as there actually isn’t any reliable data to support the claim that methane has always bubbled up in this river. One could argue that it would be inevitable as the presence of coal seam gas is obvious given that miners are fracking it now. All there is is anecdotal evidence from the landholders and locals around the Condamine River who pretty much all say they have never seen it bubble and here is the thing…if it was bubbling before through natural fissures, it is probably a safe assumption that opening up large pockets of gas to these fissures is going to increase the amount of methane that escapes. There is more than enough evidence from ground based measuring that methane concentrations are higher in areas where fracking is occurring, not from the wells themselves but from natural fissures, than in neighbouring areas where there is no fracking but with the same underlying geology. But in the case of the Condamine River, we aren’t talking about 1 or 2 wells. Check out the link to get an idea of the scale.
The Condamine river flows into the Darling river which in turn flows into the Murray which is one of Adelaide’s (my cities) water sources. A long way downstream but still a real worry – what else is fracking doing to our rivers?
And its definitely new and unnatural because the local Indigenous people and later Europeans settlers certainly haven’t mentioned it ever happening before which they would have had it been going on before.
Excellent documentary—-reminded me of Gasland, the 2010 doc about the fracking problem in the U.S.
Four Corners looks like it does the kind of reporting we used to have in the U.S. before the mass media got taken over by the corporations and became propaganda and “infotainment”.
Trailer for Gasland—the same kind of ugliness and stupidity as Gas Leak!
PS Re: the “naturally occurring leaks”—–no doubt some coal seam gas leaked “naturally” in the past, but the gas companies in AUS are just following the lead of those who say “the climate has always changed” and “this isn’t because of anything man has done”. Right!
Reblogged this on Views àla JoAnn and commented:
If you’re not sure fracking is cruel and unusual…
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
This is really “fracked up”!! Wow … and you wanna do that where?
Peter, thank you for continually highlighting some of the crap that goes on down here and also for the Great Barrier Reef stuff. It is mind boggling and exasperating when we continually see politicians giving lip service to climate change at one moment and then signing a new deal to allow coal mining or fracking or whatever the next. We’ve recently had a win in Queensland whereby underground coal gasification has now been banned but it took an environmental disaster and a bankruptcy (to avoid the fines) to bring it about. Its a small step and fracking is the next target. Hopefully the work of Greens MPs like Jeremy in the video but also landholders who are “Locking the Gate” will make a difference.
Was talking to someone yesterday about this. He mentioned that the river has always had some amount of gas coming out of it, even before the fracking started. I’m not sure if this is true or not as I haven’t looked any further into it. I’m sure there will be a lot of opinions on both sides but probably no tangible data.
I expect a proper analysis of the river and surrounds probably wasn’t done before the fracking well got approval…
Its a real conundrum as there actually isn’t any reliable data to support the claim that methane has always bubbled up in this river. One could argue that it would be inevitable as the presence of coal seam gas is obvious given that miners are fracking it now. All there is is anecdotal evidence from the landholders and locals around the Condamine River who pretty much all say they have never seen it bubble and here is the thing…if it was bubbling before through natural fissures, it is probably a safe assumption that opening up large pockets of gas to these fissures is going to increase the amount of methane that escapes. There is more than enough evidence from ground based measuring that methane concentrations are higher in areas where fracking is occurring, not from the wells themselves but from natural fissures, than in neighbouring areas where there is no fracking but with the same underlying geology. But in the case of the Condamine River, we aren’t talking about 1 or 2 wells. Check out the link to get an idea of the scale.
https://www.facebook.com/jeremybuckingham/photos/a.838854276133762.1073741832.791925860826604/1172739542745232/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/jeremybuckingham/photos/a.838854276133762.1073741832.791925860826604/1172739542745232/?type=3&theater
Thanks for that, East Coast Twiterati.
The Condamine river flows into the Darling river which in turn flows into the Murray which is one of Adelaide’s (my cities) water sources. A long way downstream but still a real worry – what else is fracking doing to our rivers?
And its definitely new and unnatural because the local Indigenous people and later Europeans settlers certainly haven’t mentioned it ever happening before which they would have had it been going on before.
45 minutes long doco news show Four Corners Gas leak on this issue of fracking and its effects can be seen here :
Excellent documentary—-reminded me of Gasland, the 2010 doc about the fracking problem in the U.S.
Four Corners looks like it does the kind of reporting we used to have in the U.S. before the mass media got taken over by the corporations and became propaganda and “infotainment”.
Trailer for Gasland—the same kind of ugliness and stupidity as Gas Leak!
https://youtu.be/dZe1AeH0Qz8
PS Re: the “naturally occurring leaks”—–no doubt some coal seam gas leaked “naturally” in the past, but the gas companies in AUS are just following the lead of those who say “the climate has always changed” and “this isn’t because of anything man has done”. Right!
Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.
Australian MP Sets River on Fire to Protest Fracking
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/26/headlines/australian_mp_sets_river_on_fire_to_protest_fracking