Sunday, June 30, 2013

Ugo Bardi on "Plundering the Planet", part III

Quelle: www.kontext-tv.de

Fracking, tar sand, shale oil: „immense historical error“ / Short term profit interests decide about investments


With oil prices rising, „unconventional“ oil and gas resources become attractive for investors: tar sands, shale oil and shale gas, which is extracted by a controversial technology called „fracking“. The exploitation of these sources is an „immense historical error“, Bardi says. Fracking might be even more climate-damaging than coal, as it releases Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Additonally, groundwater resources in vast areas have already been polluted by fracking, as in the US. Renewable energies are able to deliver much cheaper and cleaner energy – if environmental costs are taken into account. However, the system is not conceived to make such decisions, as it focusses only on short term, immediate profits."

Who

Ugo Bardi is a member of the Club of Rome, faculty member of the University of Florence, and the author of "Extracted" (Chelsea Green 2014), "The Seneca Effect" (Springer 2017), and Before the Collapse (Springer 2019)