In response to Greg Paterson’s January 5 reaction to my piece about Coal Seam Gas (CSG) on December 22, 2011, I would firstly like to express my appreciation over the fact that enough interest was created to warrant a response. Secondly, I see no need to attempt to justify my own existence in a world like ours today – given the fact that attempting to live in any way outside this system (i.e. without a fixed address and a tax file number) is essentially illegal. So Greg: grass eating outlaw/cave dweller I will never be.
In your letter, you have done nothing to convince me that CSG is not ‘all bad’- nor have you attempted to refute the facts I mentioned – but I do agree with your point that the other industries you mention also have some soul searching to do. And a few of them are just as bad as the CSG industry – so don’t mistake me, here. All you have shown is that you have managed to lead a fairly ethical life – growing your own food, and attempting to be self sufficient. Oh, and you personally may not have experienced any accidents while drilling for CSG while at work: I wish all workers in your industry were equally conscientious. But if you, yourself, have personally grown food and produced energy of your own – then you would know 100 per cent that one does not have to resort to a grass diet, to be free from CSG – neither do a range of electrical gadgets in my house need to run on CSG (or oil or coal), or therefore provide excuses for what I called a filthy and evil industry.
I also find it misleading to suggest that government bodies have been surprised by the growth of the CSG industry: as the movers and shakers, on a never ending quest for the fastest buck possible – to prop up an otherwise floundering economy. I doubt that their own drive to expand this industry would result in any self surprise.
To reiterate: it has been well and truly demonstrated with the international CSG experience, that drastic, unforgiving damage occurs to farms, creeks and the natural environment, as a result of the Coal Seam Gas extraction process. Methane can infect the aquifers – resulting in the water being completely unusable: as you might have seen, it can even catch fire if you put a match near it. That is not to mention all of the other toxic chemicals that come from the fracking process: some ingredients in the fracking fluids, some naturally occurring toxins (including radioactive compounds) – liberated into the water supply during the process of extraction. How does any one farm on a property when their bore or creek is completely contaminated? Furthermore – as we are talking about the risk of the entire Great Artesian basin here – being obliterated through this process – don’t you think it’s a little premature to be defending such an industry, when your own self sufficient paradise could be destroyed by this? But that’s not to mention the impact on nature – plants and animals being killed in a variety of ways, from this kind of destruction. And that’s not even getting started on all the other issues – what happens to all of the salt waste; landholder’s rights being negated by the status of this industry, excessive noise, continuous deceit, other forms of pollution, etc? In the past week, there has been news about fracking causing earthquakes in Ohio, plus the suspicious deaths of foresters in NSW near a drilling site.
There are so many ways to generate power – without needing CSG. Ultimately, technology will see that renewables can do all of this job, but in the meantime- don’t you think it would be wise- in the face of the continuous increase of worldwide pollution (not just CO2)- that the safest options are taken in the meantime – rather than the most offensive ones? And so, when I mentioned the fact that the recent advertisements which depicted CSG mining coexisting peacefully and beautifully with fresh green fields- with the word ‘natural’ being repeated ad nausem: I stand by the judgement to compare this kind of propaganda with that used, to legitimise DDT and Asbestos in earlier decades. CSG is as natural as asbestos – and equally dangerous. I will not apologise for this comparison: history will serve all necessary proof. This is an evil and filthy industry – populated mainly, I might say, by normal, everyday people, like both you and me, Greg, who have to work somewhere, so they do this job, and a tiny minority then become the devil’s advocate thus forth, to justify their own pay packet, at the expense of the common good.
Name and address withheld
