Environmentalists and fracking proponents at loggerheads in UK and US

[caption id="attachment_6940" align="alignleft" width="225"] Natural gas drilling sign[/caption]

Gordon Matilla----It isn't just the United States and the Keystone Pipeline, as well as shale gas, where the oil and gas companies are looking to make a killing in the energy production but the UK involved as well in the debate over the environment and energy needs, as folks deliberate opportunity versus environmental risk.

Energy stories have dominated the British press for some time with accent on energy production, as protestors are determined to the stop progress at the Balcome fracking site.   The energy industry looks to making Britain a self-sufficient nation with respect to natural gas and job creation.

And the US is seen as an example for exporting Shale gas as the UK looks also to fulfilling nine years of gas demand. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, is in favor of the plan, even as President Barack Obama continues to try to balance the needs of the US and the concerns of environmentalists.

Proponents of natural gas believe the Shale Gas drilling could bring about bring a serious boost to the UK economy and create over 74,000 jobs, especially in the North West

Envronmentals in the UK, however, argue against fracking for the same reasons they are concerned about the process in the US, that it harms the environment. Specifically they are concerned about the chemicals that release pollutants into local water and cause fires. They also worry about earthquakes, as two minor ones have occurred near Blackpool.

In the US proponents of fracking say natural gas has more benefits for energy than other sources such as coal. That's because it can burn cleaner. Furthermore leaders in the gas industry point to the economic growth as another major reason for developing natural gas.

Opponents like Michael Kelly, who is the media liaison for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project maintains, “There are so many unknowns about this that we're creating a mass health experiment, and it's being conducted without the consent of the people who are most likely to be hurt by it.”

Delta, Central Mississippi disaster potential from its history

[caption id="attachment_4187" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Levee in West Memphis"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - People worry now in the South and Central areas of the country for good reason.  They have faced disasters before, great floods in the 1920's and 1930's and the earthquake that impacted much of the Central US in 1811 - 1812, the type experts say could happen again this year.

This year the government has decided to use planned levee removals in certain areas of the South and Central areas to relieve the potential of more disastrous flooding in major population areas.  But the promises made today are not unlike those made in the past, when people were told the levees would hold, and they didn't.

Earthquake issues may be the focus of the Pacific Northwest, but experts tell us that a deep fault under the earth, with a much greater and wider potential for damage, lies in the Central Mississippi region, a place hard hit in the winter of 1811 - 1812.  It was then the mighty Mississippi literally swamped whole areas of the region, across farmlands and small towns, as three earthquakes of the time, estimated 7.5 - 8.0 brought fear and destruction.  This too is a fear to bring government focus about the need for protecting populations, especially in the areas surrounding major cities.

Memphis and New Orleans have felt the floods from these periods of history.  They are the places of a romantic past, unique in music and culture, and major attractions in the South.  They represent the great plantations, the sweeping history, the images of people singing, swimming joyously along the riverbanks.  But this year the river's tributaries aren't look upon with welcome, as the flooding threatens farmlands once again.

TV stations in Memphis and other areas tell us residents fear the same type of flooding that occurred in 1927 could happen again.  Many residents have evacuated; others are poised to leave.  The Mayor of Memphis, John Holden, has warned residents in those areas anticipated to be most impacted.  Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, has also ordered evacuations in low-lying areas, while Bobby Jindal has voiced an alert for 19 parishes in Louisiana, most especially Vidalia, a place that could be hard hit from floodwaters.

Memphis saw the Mississippi reach 43.8 feet on Tuesday, poised to reach 48 feet on May 1, just below the record set in 1937 at 48.7 feet.  In Louisiana it is expected the waters may top the levee walls with heights over 50 feet.  Already hundreds of people have taken to shelters.

The regions called the Central Mississippi area has seen the pain of floods before, and this year it has reeled from tornadoes.  An earthquake potential concerns government authorities and has created predictions from faith groups that it will come this year and create the kind of havoc that could be part of an Armageddon scenario, with people fighting each other and the demonic wrath of Satan there to help.  Some scientists say there is no certainty an earthquake will occur this year or even in the very near future, although the potential is there, given the number of quakes in the area.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is the most active seismic area in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and is located in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, western Kentucky and southern Illinois. Some believe the 3.8 earthquake in Arkansas in February of this year is a harbinger of what is yet to come.  FEMA is setting up a disaster preparation drill for this month.

In the meantime, the South is preparing for the worst from flooding, as the areas considered to be among the most beautiful treasures in American history, in Memphis and New Orleans,  folks hope won't face Mother's Nature's wrath as happened many times in a place where people fear it may occur again.  In the Mississippi Alluvia Plain scientists tell us habitat, already under threat, can be seriously hurt by events that upset its delicate ecosystem, as has already occurred from oil spills and the topographical nature of the area itself.

The people fear a repeat of the floods of 1927.

Authorities see problems happening in greater magnitude now and in the future, as a result of climate change.

Johannesburg endangered by earthquakes caused by rising mine-water

Adriana Stuijt - Geo-physicist
Prof Ray Durrheim warns that Johannesburg earthquakes will increase in
intensity and frequently unless the Government intervenes by pumping out
the rising minewater levels in the thousands of tunnels below.

Durrheim,

who has studied the earthquakes in the gold-mining city for the past 25
years, said the latest quake measuring 2,9 on the Richter scale, is
'worrying'.  That's two earthquakes of a similar scale within just two months.
Any
quakes above 5 on the open-ended scale will spell disaster for the
millions of people living in greater Johanneburg, he warned.

"People
face life-threatening situations for instance when glass windows crack
open during quakes; and buildings can sustain structural damage,' he
said.

The financial sector of the country is also endangered if their
headquarters and communications-networks located in the Johannesburg
CBD, are damaged.

The Times, who interviewed him, said Prof Durrheim
pointed out that that's exactly what happened on March 2005 when the
mining town of Stilfontein North West province was struck by a 5.8
earthquake.  Apartment buildings, houses and business premises were
damaged and 38 people were injured. And Stillfontein does not have a
large high-rise complex as does Johannesburg.

Mineworkers also had to be rescued from the shaken shafts below.
The
government's Council for Geo-Science claims however that 'they don't
know what the earthquakes are caused by as they are still investigating
its causes.'

The rising levels of the poisonous, chemically-polluted,
and highly radio-active minewater threatens to engulf greater
Johannesburg in an environmental crisis unless the mine-pumps are turned
back on. 
The acid goop will start bubbling to the surface within 17 months. It's now only 500m below the ground and rising steadily.

In some places it already has: the sites of the Standard Bank head-office and Gold Reef City are flooding slowly.
The
acid goop also eats away at the foundations of the buildings throughout
the region, endangering the residents because the buildings can
collapse.

The acid water also causes sinkholes and a growing number of fault-lines beneath mining towns in East- and West-Rand

This article was submitted by an independent journalist from the Netherlands who was a reporter for the South Africa Times for many years before her retirement and return to her country of origin.  Her knowledge of environmental affairs and human rights concerns as well as medical issues on the continent of Africa is significant, and we appreciate her contributions to GHN.