Some linky goodness

I know that I need to tell you about Plettenberg Bay (as promised here), but all in good time. In the meanwhile (what’s a meanwhile?) here are some interesting stories for your perusal.

This is not to be confused with a Wednesday Ephemera post, despite the obvious similarities.

Fracking news: In a post that is more about the disgraceful hounding of the late Tony Twine than our energy reserves or whether or not we should be extracting them, comes the (repeated) news that there’s LOADS of gas under the Karoo and even if we can get at just a bit of it, it will have a HUGE effect on the country.

The potential was so mind-boggling Twine tried to tone down expectations. He ran his econometric model on just 10% of what the US’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) had published as the Karoo Basin’s “recoverable reserves”.Even at this conservative level, the model concluded shale gas would create 850 000 jobs and, for a minimum of 25 years, generate annual economic growth equivalent to 9.6% of 2010’s GDP.

In a country so bogged down by youth unemployment, a frankly terrifying economic outlook and widespread pessimism WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING to move on this?

Things which are connected to Fracking news: While the US economy continues to recover, use of clean shale gas instead of coal has assisted in reducing that country’s carbon emissions to levels not seen since 1994:

Last year, the US saw its lowest carbon emissions since 1994, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008 during the economic crisis. It marks the second year in a row that carbon emissions have dropped despite a growth in gross domestic product. Prior to the last few years, economic growth had been closely tied to increased carbon emissions.

Other fracking related posts on 6000 miles… 

Today’s bizarre story of the day: A man who forgot to book the venue for his wedding decided that rather than admitting this to his wife-to-be, he’d phone the place just before the ceremony and claim that there was a bomb on the premises.

…as she got dressed on the morning of the wedding he slipped out of the house, went to a phone box and, disguising his voice, told the receptionist at Liverpool Register Office, which is part of St George’s Hall:

“This is not a hoax call. There’s a bomb in St George’s Hall and it will go off in 45 minutes.”

The call, 11 days after the Boston Marathon bombing, provoked “terror” and the building was immediately evacuated and emergency services called. He was given a 12-month jail sentence after admitting making the hoax call.

And yes, they’re still together. Awww.

Bascule Bar at the Cape Grace is now a bit rubbish: According to this post, anyway. I haven’t been there for years, but they do (did?) stock Tamdhu, which is my whisky of choice when I have a spare £9 to drop on a shot. Would it be worth putting up with the (allegedly) rubbishy chairs, the lack of soul, the poorly motivated staff and the thieving prostitutes though?

What is worse is that prostitutes are camped out at the bar. I’m not naïve – Bascule is at The Cape Grace Hotel, a superb 5 star property. Ladies for hire are a fact of life at many 5 star hotels in tourist cities.  But at Bascule, they have taken over. There are many stories around of customers being robbed and accosted by the women. A few Friday evenings ago I went with an old friend – someone who at one stage shared a wine locker with me… That Friday it resembled a seedy pool bar, without the pool tables. There was a 19-year-old prostitute at the bar – and she left with an elderly German tourist. Another woman at the bar stole a bottle of cider – slipped it into her handbag. There was not a glass of whisky in sight.

Actually, I think it probably would. Especially if they get some pool tables in.

Nigel Clough is the new Blades manager: a little over 20 years after United ended his Dad’s managerial career with a 2-0 win at the City Ground (Glyn Hodges and Brian Gayle the scorers, if memory serves) in a game that he played in, Nigel Clough has been announced as the new Sheffield United manager. The board at the club have said some lovely things about him:

Nigel was the clear, first choice of the board. He brings an approach to the game that is well suited to what we are trying to achieve at Sheffield United. Nigel has enjoyed managerial success in the game. He knows how to inspire first team players to give their all and has a proven track record of making an academy a key ingredient to the club’s success. We count ourselves lucky to have Nigel aboard.

Just as they did about David Weir a few months back:

We are thrilled to appoint David and the three-year contract emphasises the fact that he will assist in a change in club culture. I have stated before that the club needs to act differently and David is young, has a great pedigree and will bring a new vision and leadership to the club.

Weir was rubbish and lasted just 13 league games.
So what of Nigel? We’ll surely keep you informed.

Faces of Resistance

More fracking protests, this time in the UK. Despite the fact that the democratically elected government has researched the subject and their independent experts have come to the conclusion that things are ok and that fracking should go ahead, some people have decided that they don’t think fracking should go ahead, because… “stuff “, and they’ve organised a campaign of “civil disobedience”.

And who better to spearhead this campaign than these perfectly reasonable characters as introduced to us in the Grauniad’s “Faces of Resistance“.

‘White Rabbit’, 35
Activist from London

Balcombe frackingRabbit says he has been involved in WikiLeaks revelations and, as a result, cannot reveal his identity. He says he is protesting in the West Sussex countryside because fracking and Balcombe have become a central battleground. “One issue is that extracting shale gas is just speculation. I mean, it’s creating an artificial bubble. How many more bubbles do we need?”

 

Seraphina ‘Angel’, 31
Spiritualist from Notting Hill, West London

Balcombe frackingCamped by the side of the road for a fortnight already, “Angel” said it was her destiny to protest at Balcombe. She said she felt compelled to travel to West Sussex to register her disapproval against the hegemony of the “new world order”. She added: “I am here as an awakened rainbow warrior from the Maya calendar whose prophecy states that you’ll come back to save the Earth. Here I am.”

I think that it’s pretty clear that  Cuadrilla will immediately cease and desist their perfectly legal and acceptable plans to extract  shale gas from West Sussex. Jonathan Deal and his local loonies will surely now be looking for “awakened rainbow warriors from the Maya calendar” as this is obviously key to preventing fracking plans in South Africa.

Carbon dioxide emissions in US drop to 20 year low. Why?

I mentioned this article from Slate.com briefly yesterday, but it’s worth putting on here as well as it does rather poke a bit of stick into the ribs of the local environMENTALists currently going nuts over the SA Government moratorium on fracking being lifted.

Carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years. Estimating on the basis of data from the US Energy Information Agency from the first five months of 2012, this year’s expected CO2 emissions have declined by more than 800 million tons, or 14 percent from their peak in 2007.

The cause is an unprecedented switch to natural gas, which emits 45 percent less carbon per energy unit. The U.S. used to generate about half its electricity from coal, and roughly 20 percent from gas. Over the past five years, those numbers have changed, first slowly and now dramatically: In April of this year, coal’s share in power generation plummeted to just 32 percent, on par with gas.

It is tempting to believe that renewable energy sources are responsible for emissions reductions, but the numbers clearly say otherwise. Accounting for a reduction of 50 Mt of CO2 per year, America’s 30,000 wind turbines reduce emissions by just one-10 the amount that natural gas does. Biofuels reduce emissions by only 10 megatons, and solar panels by a paltry three megatons.

All of which further demonstrates the benefits of shale gas, not just for the South African economy, but also for the environment. And with Eskom currently building the  largest dry-cooled coal fired power station in the world at Medupi in Limpopo, which will burn through almost 15 million tonnes of coal each year for the next 40 years, it would be nice to have a safer, cleaner, more efficient yet viable alternative.

UK fracking gets the go ahead

Hate to say I told you so.

A hugely slanted article in the Guardian this morning informs us that a report recommending that fracking be given the go ahead in the UK is “all but certain to be accepted by ministers”, effectively allowing trial wells to be drilled as a first stage in tapping the estimated 4.7 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in Lancashire.

Still, as one of the comment on the article points out:

As for the risks, I doubt this a good place to gauge them. Mainstream papers are pretty clueless when it comes to gauging the real risks of anything to do with science or engineering.

The fact that the health and safety obsessed “nanny state” in the UK is prepared to go ahead with fracking and for deposits beneath Lancashire – which amount to around 1% of South Africa’s estimated reserves – is further evidence that when the process is considered rationally and independently, without the emotional hubris of the misinformed and misinforming green brigade, sensible decisions can be made. See here for more of the terms and conditions included in the report (the bits the Guardian chose not to report).

There’s a lesson for South Africa to learn here. I just hope Ms. Dipuo Peters is watching.

City to frack CPD?

Wow. This is huge.

The contents of a previously confidential and completely fictitious City of Cape Town report which were revealed during routine business in the Western Cape High Court this morning look set to cause outrage across the city.
The report, commissioned late last year, outlines details of plans to move the Cenotaph from its present site on Adderley Street in the City Centre to a disused quarry on Chapman’s Peak Drive where it would be used as part of a hydraulic fracturing rig to extract the rich deposits of natural gas discovered at the site during preliminary survey work by the toll company Entilini last year.

The plan marries together three contentious issues which are described by the report’s anonymous author as “awkward problems which could prove potentially costly vote-wise at the next election, but which require addressing”. The author goes on to suggest that “tying the three together would likely limit the amount of negative PR generated by these issues should we address them separately”, but notes:

On face value, this plan makes good financial and political sense and makes the best of several difficult situations facing the City; namely, (a) that the position currently occupied by the Cenotaph is the preferred site for a MyCiti bus station, (b) that the City contract with Entilini requires that we must upgrade the Chapman’s Peak Drive toll plaza and a huge office park, and (c) that the natural gas deposits beneath Chapman’s Peak Drive are of such value that it would be foolish not to act upon them.
However, we should expect stiff opposition to each of these issues, given the historical significance of the Cenotaph, the emotional attachment of Hout Bay residents to Chapman’s Peak Drive, and the current negative publicity surrounding the process of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).

The report suggests that certain environmental and financial points regarding the plans should be emphasised in media releases and interviews, including:

  • The convenience and improved carbon footprint of public transport when compared to private cars.
  • The recycling of the Cenotaph material and the return of those stones to their natural home in a quarry.
  • The cleanliness of natural gas when compared to electricity from coal.
  • The offset of expensive costs of new toll plaza and first stages of the Entilini office park through selling natural gas fracked from the Chapman’s Peak Drive site.

The confidential report appears to have been distributed to appropriate departments within the municipality.
City officials were unable to comment on the report at the time of writing.

Watch this one folks – I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing a whole lot more about it.