Shale Gas & Fracking - Week 4

It's the final week of the MOOC and it's a shame because I am thoroughly enjoying it but all good things come to an end!  This week we have learnt about regulation, communities and public engagement.  There's little point in me using this blog post to repeat the course material, I would rather summarise my closing thoughts on the issue of fracking to society.  I will admit that my views have changed somewhat during the period of the course.  Opinions amongst those who are directly engaged or have an interest in fracking, appear to be polarised - for or against.  At the beginning of the course I was against and now that we are approaching the end of the course, I'm still against.  So what's changed?  Well, three weeks ago I was very dismissive of pro-fracking views, whereas I now have a greater understanding of the pro-fracking arguments.

Professor Sarah O'Hara provided an excellent presentation on the perceptions of shale gas where she summarised some of the results from The University of Nottingham shale gas survey, which has been running since March 2012.  One of the most interesting results, from my point of view, was that although there has been a decline in the yes vote since the Balcombe protests, still over 50% of the population are of the view that shale gas extraction should proceed in the UK.  Public opinion really is split and in my opinion, that's not surprising when you view the issue from the perspectives of UK national energy security, an alternative to 'dirty' coal and a 'bridge' to a low carbon economy.  If you look at fracking from these three perspectives in isolation and within the framework of a well regulated and therefore, hopefully, safe environment, there is almost (but not quite!) a compelling argument to proceed with fracking for shale gas.  In my opinion, however, where the argument is flawed is when you look at the bigger picture and in particular, the urgent need to tackle climate change by drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions and well before the timescale of a 'bridge' to a low carbon economy.  So I believe we need massive global investment into renewables, or even 'safe nuclear', now rather than pursuing a diversion into shale gas.

That's it!  I've had my say.  Thanks to Sarah, Mat and Wil, together with their supporters and all the guests, for a really first class MOOC, which has been a fantastic learning experience for me.  It's been great!