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Fracking

Turtwig

This was recently banned in Clare and to be honest I know little of what fracking is. However, some of the sources folks linked me to are, well, the kind of material that reeks of pseudoscience and sensational crap. So does any skeptic here actually any knowledge or inkling of more objective based information. All I've found so far is that Newscientist indicates very little research has been done into the area and that the present "risks" appear exaggerated.

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5uspect

People in such situations will always over exaggerate the risks they perceive. On the other hand the oil companies will also be just as bad when it comes to being honest about the risks.

You see the same thing with drug companies for example. People have concerns about side effects and the companies will bury unfortunate trials.

Fracking has huge potential for exploiting difficult gas reserves, but the methods currently used appear to be somewhat crude and risky to the local water table.

Turtwig

Yeah, I know that's why I'm finding it so bloody hard to find stuff that I could consider less biased. I'm still not convinced on a causative mechanism by which it may be harmful or dangerous. Everything seems tenuous at best. Sorry to probe you 5uspect but how do you perceive the risk to the local water table?

5uspect

From what I've seen you can get gas leaking into the local water supply after the procedure since the fracking opens large cracks in the shale to allow the gas to pool for extraction. There is a risk that this exposes the local water table which may be ruptured. There are some dramatic videos floating about of people lighting up their kitchen taps, but again a youtube video isn't hard evidence.

Also hydraulic fracturing uses a lot of different materials to achieve the desired result and there doesn't seem to be any kind of regulation yet over what is used. There is the unfortunate comparison the methods used to plug the recent gulf oil well.

Belfast

The Truth About Fracking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW_xJqPjE_I

5uspect

It's worth pointing out that this video is from a Libertarian group. The kind of people who don't like messy regulation getting in the way of the pursuit of profit.

Turtwig

Belfast wrote: »

The Truth About Fracking
http://youtu.be/NW_xJqPjE_I

Thanks for posting this video.:) It was interesting however I would like to make one point. To a skeptic( or sceptic depending on your preference) there is no such thing as "the truth". You can only be ever be less wrong than your previous position. No matter how much you might like to think otherwise you are most probably still always going to be wrong.

Belfast

5uspect wrote: »

It's worth pointing out that this video is from a Libertarian group. The kind of people who don't like messy regulation getting in the way of the pursuit of profit.

As you say reason has its own agenda.

Hard to know what is true about Fracking apart for the fact there is a lot of money to be made from it.

Libertarians are opposed to state regulation, not all regulation.

Libertarians believe best regulation comes from the market. If you damage someone else property you will be sued and have to compensate the injured party.

robindch

I'm going to make a prediction:

Some years from now, when fracking is more common and the dangers of it are well-understood, documented and publicized by qualified scientists and professionals, there'll exist a pro-fracking lobby funded from nobody quite knows where, which will use the same tried and tested tactics that are currently used by creationists and global-warming denialists.

Mark my words!

Belfast

robindch wrote: »

I'm going to make a prediction:

Some years from now, when fracking is more common and the dangers of it are well-understood, documented and publicized by qualified scientists and professionals, there'll exist a pro-fracking lobby funded from nobody quite knows where, which will use the same tried and tested tactics that are currently used by creationists and global-warming denialists.

Mark my words!

People have a habit of believing what they want to believe and make the facts fit, especially if the is money in it for them or they just cannot bear the thought that they may me wrong.

I sure the must be some people still out the who think the Earth is Flat.

CrazyPiper

Jernal wrote: »

This was recently banned in Clare and to be honest I know little of what fracking is. However, some of the sources folks linked me to are, well, the kind of material that reeks of pseudoscience and sensational crap. So does any skeptic here actually any knowledge or inkling of more objective based information. All I've found so far is that Newscientist indicates very little research has been done into the area and that the present "risks" appear exaggerated.

On the other hand, many scientists also feel the full implications of the technique have not been investigated sufficiently to ensure that groundwater won't be permanently affected:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=safety-first-fracking-second

Rigor Mortis

robindch wrote: »

I'm going to make a prediction:

Some years from now, when fracking is more common and the dangers of it are well-understood, documented and publicized by qualified scientists and professionals, there'll exist a pro-fracking lobby funded from nobody quite knows where, which will use the same tried and tested tactics that are currently used by creationists and global-warming denialists.

Mark my words!

Dont want to get into a debate about the rights and wrongs of it, but fraccing is not uncommon, has been used in the oil and gas industry for many decades. Being uncommon in Europe and America is not quite the same thing.

IRWolfie-

I know this is performing necromancy on a dead thread. but for the record I never saw what the fuss was against fracking. This podcast is interesting on the topic: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4275

Just Like Heaven

I don't really know enough about fracking to even have a fully formed opinion on it.

I remember seeing this very effective website last year though. Worth a scroll through.

http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

IRWolfie-

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

I don't really know enough about fracking to even have a fully formed opinion on it.

I remember seeing this very effective website last year though. Worth a scroll through.

http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

It's a nicely designed website but it's light on sources for the claims.

Just Like Heaven

Yeah definitely designed for spreading through facebook.

fourfuxache

The only thing Ireland is going to gain from Fracking is a disrupted Water Table. It doesn't matter if we had the highest resource of fracking gas in the world. Because at this present moment in time we are worse off than 3rd world countries when it comes to profiting from our Natural resource. We are actually at the bottom of the Scale GLOBALLY !! BP promised jobs when it came to its bid to drill off our Northern waters we pumped $Euros into their venture, once they reached their bullseye all their promises were forgotten. Donegal Airport were going to fly Supplies(from local food suppliers etc) to their rig what happened? They Flew everything from Belfast.
There's been lots of Messed up results in America. In Australia Farmers are up in Arms coz they can drive right in and start tracking without consultation, and accidents happened!!