Surviving the Climate Crisis

 

An important work entitled “The Future We Choose - surviving the climate crisis" has recently been published by Manilla Press. It is written by Christiana Figueres the former UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change and Tom Rivett-Carnac who was senior political strategist for the Paris Agreement.

Unfortunately, the style of writing (especially for the first half of the book) is somewhat convoluted and might be off-putting for many. But it is a work which needs to be persevered with, for it provides solid proposals on the type of avenues we need to pursue to guarantee the future of humanity.

As a taster, I give below very brief summaries of ten forms of action it presses that need to be widely pursued to protect the future of mankind. These are covered in separate sections in the second half of the book.

1. Move to the development of onshore wind turbines in place of fossil fuels.
2. Remove 80% of our cars from the roads and what remain should be electric forms of transport.
3. Defend the truth. Scientists generally agree that Global Warming is extremely dangerous.
4. Eliminate waste – reduce, reuse and recycle. Move beyond the mindset of
   consumption and ownership.
5. Undertake an energy audit of your home and reduce your air flights, especially if you live in a wealthy country.
6. Reforest the earth. In addressing climate change few actions are more urgent.
7. Linear GDP growth can no longer be the priority. More stuff does not mean a better life. Invest instead in a clean economy.
   8. We can use technology responsibly, delivering emission reductions. It is now possible to completely redesign our central energy grids.
   9. We need to build gender equality. Women often have a leadership style that is essential to responding to the climate crisis.
   10. Most important of all, we all need to involve ourselves in democratic politics to end operations in which corporate interests have captured the operations of our political systems. 
   
   Added 25 April - This could be a key development - click here. 
   Added 26 April - Also click here.
   Again 26 April - For virus deaths per thousand of national populations. The top nine nations are all European with the UK in fifth place, although it has no record for such total deaths in care homes and the like. So its real position could be higher and worse. Click here.
   May 9 - Click here. 
    

The Way Ahead For Labour

   

   As a consequence of Labour's collapse at the General Election and the move towards  electing a fresh leader, a serious yet comradely debate is needed within the Labour Movement on what our future direction of travel should be - and who can best lead this. Even if this is unlikely to happen, some of us should try to push for it. 
 

   The Manifesto that we should have been fighting the general election on should now form a major part of our discussions in relation to our direction of travel. For apart from the section on Brexit which arose from an unsatisfactory attempt to reconcile conflicts inside both the PLP and the wider movement, it is a very important document. Although as a Manifesto it should really have honed-in on what could feasibly have been delivered within the lifetime of the new parliament. Yet it was so fully directed at overcoming the major strengths of the controls of capitalism, that many of its proposals would have been undermined by such very powers within the operations of a mere five year period.

   Sidney Webb in shaping Labour's old Clause 4 and planning earlier socialist programmes from near the end of the first world war, was so fully aware of the powers of capitalism that he stressed the need for care and gradualism. He was even depicted as walking slowly in front of a socialist steamroller holding a red flag. For when any specific expliotive power of capital is tackled, it is itself likely to turn to fresh devices that will then further need to be dealt with - and that slows up the process. We can't just wish away the powers of Capital. It requires steamroller type persistence and gradually mastering anti-social activities.

   Labour's recent Manifesto should not be seen as something which could ever have been delivered in the life of a single parliament, but as a general direction of travel. The Manifesto did, however, start out on a key item which needs to be a top priority (before we run out of time) - the need to tackle climate change via what it called a "Green Industrial Revolution." On this, the Manifesto covered the key areas of the economy and energy, transport, environment and animal welfare. It is a pity that its proposals were not given wider publicity - even by the Party itself. There was even a case for the Green Party pulling out of many parliamentary contests and joining in the support of Labour Candidates on this key matter.

   The other key sections of the Manifesto were on the need to "Rebuild Our Social Services", how to "Tackle Poverty and Inequality" and the need for "A New Internationalism". But as this was a Manifesto for a General Election in which we were seeking to become a Government for the next five years, it was not something we could democratically have fully hoped to deliver in that period. Yet there were few references in the Manifesto to time restraints. Apart from a time qualification which was made in saying that ''Labour will deliver free full-fibre broadband by 2030" and not by the likely next election in 2025.

   There were, however times, when the Manifesto went over the top in its claims. Such as - "We will adopt an ambitious Vision Zero approach to UK road safety, striving for zero deaths and serious injuries". Well that is not going to happen as long as we have road transport - although actions could significantly reduce such killings and injuries.

   Then the section sub-headed "Ministry for Employment Rights" contains the need for no less than 30 key items. It is difficult to see these getting onto the statute books within a five year period - unless we adopt a Militant-style Enabling Act. Which is more a revolutionary socialist technique than a democratic socialist approach.

  Yet the direction of travel in the Manifesto (except over the matter of Brexit which is now mainly outside of Labour's control) is something which we fully need to press for. Which candidate for the Labour leadership will now see that this is the type of approach (given a sensitive form of gradualism) that needs to be retained as a basis for its agenda? 

Natascha Gets It Wrong Again

On 28 June the following item appeared in the Times newspaper from Natascha Engel the former MP for NE Derbyshire and former Shale Gas Commissioner. I then give my criticisms of her stance.         
Net-zero carbon target is reckless and unrealistic

natascha engel

As Theresa May takes to the G20 stage in Japan to urge her fellow leaders to follow the UK’s moral leadership on climate change, she should hope that their parting gift is, politely, to ignore her.

As impressive as the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 sounds, other countries will recognise the capacity it has to destroy UK plc for generations to come. The lack of scrutiny of what would be the most expensive and socially disruptive public policy since the Second World War is truly remarkable.

The announcement and cross-party self-congratulations last week were short on any ideas about how we get there and who picks up the tab. The chancellor has estimated that the cost would be more than £1 trillion. That’s £1,000 every second for the next 30 years.

That may please our international competitors but it’s unlikely to be a domestic vote winner. Given that the UK contributes just 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it’s also unlikely to have any effect on climate change.

The problem with putting targets into law is that no amount of legislating can make magic happen. In fact, we have seen too often how setting a target distracts us from what we are trying to achieve and results only in the time-honoured massaging of statistics.

Recently the Department for Business published the impressive fact that in 2018 “total UK greenhouse gas emissions were 43.5 per cent lower than in 1990”. This sounds remarkably like we are on track (or very nearly) to meet the 100 per cent target.

A few days later, the Department for Environment published a less selective statistic which included the UK’s consumption emissions. These include, for example, the carbon emitted in the steel we now import from China after Redcar was closed (at a cost of more than 2,000 jobs) and our doubled coal imports from Russia, with a fivefold higher carbon footprint compared with coal mined in the UK. Added together, our actual carbon reductions since 1997 are 3.4 per cent.

So our carbon emissions over the past 20 years have dropped by less than 5 per cent — and we think we can reduce them by 100 per cent in the next 30 years?

About 80 per cent of the world’s energy use still comes from oil, coal and gas. If we want global emissions to fall we need to decarbonise, to capture and store carbon dioxide. Developing the technology and making it pay is what other countries might buy from us. Meaningless targets and virtue signalling, on the other hand, will simply be ignored.

Natascha Engel was the UK’s first commissioner for shale gas.

Natascha ignores the fact that the UK is in a key position to seek to lead the world in moving away from the considerable dangers of greenhouse gas emissions. And thus be able to press other nations (especially via international institutions) into following our proposed pattern. We can lead by example.

We have (a) a huge coast line for our size which experiences masses of tidal waves, (b) with numerous running rivers down to the sea, (c) persistent winds which are growing due to the results of the world's gas emissions and (d) periods of record sunshine. Under modern technology we are in a position to expand considerably on our use of such power sources.

In terms of greenhouse gas emissions we are, in fact, in 17th position out of the world's 187 nations. If we take a lead in removing greenhouse emissions, we begin to be in a key position to influence developments in much large nations such China, the USA, India and Russia who because of their sizes are currently responsible for 53.6% of the world's harmful emissions.

We can take a lead towards climate change (1) by example (2) by doing our bit (3) in working on and with other nations to extend our objectives and (4) using pressures inside international institutions.

We can't just sit back and do nothing if we wish to save the planet. One item would be to drop the idea of fracking.

6th October :  Just Discovered, Natascha new job from 2 months ago - see here. 
What she seemingly covers - see here.
Then there is all this about her - click here.

9th October : More on Natascha's fracking failures - see here.

 

6th November 2021 : Wide coverage on Natascha -  https://www.desmog.com/natascha-engel/ 

Key Coal Authority Information

      The Coal Authority at Mansfield

A valuable update on the Coal Authority's discoveries about former mining operations appears in their recent 32 page publication which is a Modern Law Supplement entitled "Meet The Experts". Click here for its electronic version.

Although it is not mentioned as such by the Coal Authority, it contains information with wide implications for the dangers of fracking in such areas - which includes my local North East Derbyshire.

Amongst the information it supplies is (1) that nationwide it deals with 1,200 incidents and subsidence claims per year, (2) it is currently managing £4 million worth of liability on behalf of the Government, (3) it treats over 120 billion litres of water every year, (4) recently it dealt with a subsidence project where thirty houses had to be demolished, (5) it inspects 10,000 mine entries annually, (6) it has information on 173,000 mine entries, (7) 57,000 such mine entries are situated in urban areas, (8) 130,000 properties lie within only 20 metres of at least one mine entry, (9) most conurbations in Britain (outside London) are sat on coalfields - which is no less than 25% of all properties, (10) it manages a compensation scheme under the Coal Mining Subsidence Act and (11) land effected by coal mining can be restricted in its use, mainly for purposes of public protection - a point it needs to be pushing in relation to the dangers of fracking.

Via a Chart it also shows that (a) 11% of the total UK is situated on coalfields, (b) 600 surface hazards are reported each year, (c) 27% of coalfields are in risk of groundwater flooding, (d) 15% of the coalfield is effected by Radon and (e) 1 in 4 of all properties lie in British Coalfields areas.

Page 13 provides a map showing such Coalfield Areas in Britain. These can be studied more deeply here via using the Coal Authority's Interactive Map (click here).

We could do with knowing how far these Coalfield Areas co-inside with the territory issued to INEOS and others under the Government's Inland Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDLs) as shown here.
  

Fracking On Our Doorstep

 

The Derbyshire County Council has produced a very important document entitled "Shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (fracking)" for its area. It can be found via this link. The document provides a set of key links of its own, including access to documentation which has been submitted to it by the firm INEOS Upstream Limited. This firm holds authorisation from the Government to engage (under due procedures) in the exploration and exploitation of shale gas reserves across most of North Derbyshire and various others areas.

INEOS are expressing an interest in searching for shale gas in a field on land adjacent to Bramleymoor Lane, near Marsh Lane in the Parish of Eckington. It is border territory and the fields to the immediate south are situated in the Parish of Unstone.

Link here for the two page opening letter from the Office Director of INEOS to the Head of Planning Services at the County Council. This next link is to a 25 page document (including four  pages of maps) which is an application to drill a vertical core well in the above field. Then there is a further and important location map to be found via this link.

Yet all of this INEOS documentation needs to be handled with care. It is intended to give the impression that INEOS will merely be engaging in a vertical search for shale gas in an isolated rural area and that little disruption will occur.

Well that will certainly not be the case if they find what they are seeking.  For the next stage will be to seek to use this site to engage in horizontal underground fracking, which can cover lengthy distances. On page 6 of the INEOS publication entitled "INEOS - the energy behind UK manufacturing" it claims that its horizontal fracking activities can run up to 2,000 metres (which is around a mile and a quarter).

Near the field they will be operating from there is the built-up area of Marsh Lane. which commences just 300 metres (some 330 yards) from the field they will be operating in. Whilst the full 2,000 metres they claim they can operate over would reach Eckington, Troway, Apperknowle, West Handley and Middle Handley.

Then there is the possibility that horizontal underground fracking could reach much further than INEOS indicate. A firm called Halliburton in the USA have recently engaged in such an operation for a distance of three and a half miles. (See this link).  And INEOS can operate at the top level of this technology. So there is even a possibility of them extending their underground operations as far north as Mosborough in Shefield. South to Staveley, Brimington and the northern sections of Chesterfield. East to areas of Killamarsh. Then west to Dronfield over as far as its by-pass.

Even if the above are only extreme possibilities, wide sections of urban areas could still find fracking taking place beneath their homes, schools, roads, shops, churches and the like. We need to be aware of the range of unhappy possibilities.

On top of which,  the application to operate from Bramleymoor Lane is likely just to be the tip of the iceberg. Next they will come for the rest of North Derbyshire and surrounding areas. So INEOS need stopping even before they get started.


  

   

Fracking In Areas With A History of Coal Mining

There are a large number of "Petroleum Exploration and Developent Licenses" which the Government has agreed with firms as the first stage of the development of fracking operations -  click here for the agreement in my own area which the Government have made with INEOS Upstream Limited.  INEOS hold a series of such agreements across wide areas of the East Midlands.

From the indications given by a platform speaker at a meeting I recently attended at Shirebrook in North Derbyshire, the firm INEOS will be applying at five sites in the East Midlands (soon after the New Year) to start its explorations for shale gas and oil. But this might just be the tip of the iceberg for such surveys do not normally need planning permissions when the above "Petroleum Exploration and Developent Licenses" are in operation - unless the work is due to last more than 28 days or it effects European-designated wildlife sites as in the Peak District.

Initially INEOS will engage in vertical core drilling.  This is, however,  just an opening which will lead on to underground horizontal drilling which uses seismic fracking techniques - this is what might take more than 28days. These are done to discover and then exploit shale gas and/or oil deposits. It was stated by INEOS that the horizontal techniques could be run for numbers of kilometres from their starting points. That enables vertical operations which might take place initially in farmers' fields to then take place under many people's homes, children's schools, public buildings, roads and the like. For it was in such areas (often built for coal miners) that coal getting took place in the past.

The Coal Authority have an important web-site which shows the extent of the differing types of mining operations which took place in North Derbyshire (and many other areas) in the past. This can be found by clicking here .  If this link does not work then you can google into "Interactive Map Viewer Coal Authority" to find the connection. But note that the Coal Authority hold the copyright on this material, so maps can't be reproduced for publication without their permission.

You will need to keep double clicking onto the general map on the above Coal Authority site, until you reach the best specific map for the area you wish to examine . Even then you can go a stage too far and will have to return to the start of the exercise. Once successfully established you can then, however, scrawl around to many other areas - anywhere in the country.

Note the tick-box headed "Planning" in the top right hand corner of the maps. The "Change Theme" section which can be found in the top right hand corner is well worth clicking into. A key item to tick is "Mine Entry". This will produce a series of red crosses indicating differing forms of mine shafts. These cover small "bell pits" (where a shaft was dug directly into a shallow coal seam and coal was extracted in something of a bell shape), up to major pit entry and exit shafts. Hence Dronfield where I live had coal near the surface in the past and still has in certain places. From the Coal Authority's discoveries we find over 230 red crosses - for a variety of differing forms of  operations. Yet Shirebrook shows only two red crosses, but these are for a major deep mine entry and an exit from its major pit, which had extensive underground operations. Then there are sets of brown crosses on the maps shown for adits (digging into hill sides for coal) - over 50 of these in Dronfield and just the one at Shirebrook. Much of Shirebrook will itself, of course, be built above its worked out major coal seam.   

An area with massive numbers of red and brown crosses is Chesterfield. They crop up all over the place in its wide Borough Council area, except for the old town centre. This does not mean that the old town centre has no coal seams near its surface. It is just that this area had already been built upon before such early forms of shafts were put into operation.  Digging close under the surface of town's famous Crooked Spire would never have be on, but this does not mean that its Parish Church does not still rest upon shallow unworked coal seams. Nor that INEOS will not find that it is a good underground place for its shale gas extraction.

The North East Derbyshire District Council area laps around the Chesterfield Borough Council in a C shape.  The combined area of the two authorities is covered in masses of red and brown crosses. On a crude count, there are probably more than a thousand of these in each authorities areas. Chesterfield being a more compact area. Where these crosses actually appear (and their quantities) will surprise many people.

Some might like to search for the red and brown crosses which are the closest to their homes, their work places, childrens' schools and the like - which seismic fracking (low-level earthquakes) could endanger. There was, for instance, an earthquake at Market Rasen at 00.55am on 27 February 2008 which led to 83 reports on its impacts being submitted from people in Chesterfield alone. See this link. The question also arises as to whether INEOS's (hopefully low-level) seismic activities could trigger anything similar ?


The Coal Authority also supplies a series of maps showing (a) coal mining risk areas, (b) the legacy of coal mining and (c) surface coal resources plans. The areas you may wish to examine can be found by clicking here.


There are many problems which arise from fracking operations which go beyond coal concerns. But coal related matters should be at the top of our list. They form the basis for the interests of firms such as INEOS.

Dronfield Against The Fracking Threat

FRACKING IS PLAIN D.A.F.T! (dronfield against the fracking threat).

If you have concerns or questions & want to know what this means for you, your family and your community & what you can do, then please come to this vitally important meeting at: Dronfield Civic Hall S18 1PD
 

On: December 8^th 7.30pm Thank you Don’t miss out! See you there!

From "Dronfield Against Fracking" 

Fracking : Why Dronfield ?

(Apologies to the Simpsons)



FRACKING

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth then moving lengthy distances horizontally in order to allow a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to be directed at underground layers of rock in order to release shale gas and/or oil. It involves what are forms of seismic activity, which are "hoped" to be only very small tremors.

But first of all, those undertaking the process need to find out if it will be worth their while. So, initially firms obtain permission from the Government to undertake investigations. Their searches require them to seek out appropriate sites to start their underground examinations. They will then push pipes into the ground, which can eventually be spread out horizontally in a number of differing directions to test whether they have found appropriate and commercially viable gas or oil supplies.

INEOS have been given authority to do this in my own town of Dronfield in the very north of Derbyshire. They are the largest chemical company in the UK, operating six plants, the largest being a crude oil refinery at Grangemouth in Scotland. They are not currently fracking in the UK, but are importing shale gas and oil from overseas.

Jim Ratcliffe owns 60% of their shares and is the 30^th richest person in the UK at £3.2 billion – well ahead of Bernie Ecclestone and of the Queen's personal wealth. A UK fracking programme would place him even higher up this list.

To set the ball rolling for stage one of the process (searching for shale gas) a very badly advertised drop-in meeting was run by the Government's Environment Agency for the citizens of Dronfield recently. This is so they can claim (a) that we have been consulted and (b) that we know and are happy about what is going on.

Once INEOS finds what it is after and decides it wishes to obtain the shale gas, it will then apply for a license to the Derbyshire County Council. The Council have been adopting a “Minerals Local Plan” which will hopefully be tough enough for them to be able to reject such an application. Our Constituency Labour Party (based on a Dronfield proposal) have also sent the County a detailed resolution seeking to block such applications.

The problem is that even if the County Council reject INEOS's application, then Jim Radcliffe's company merely has to go over the County Council's head to the Government (under a fast track system) to get the blockage to their application removed.

So we are likely to be into a sustained political fight against INEOS's plans. At least, the Labour Party nationally came out against fracking at its recent Conference – so we can hope for some parliamentary opposition to the plans.

Why Dronfield ?

Today Dronfield is something of a middle-class, private-car user commuter town, mainly serving Sheffield; with its own Conservative dominated Town Council. So the depth of its working class mining history may come as a surprise to many. It is its mining past which makes it attractive for fracking purposes.

Figures for 1921 showed that 114 mining operations had taken place over time in Dronfield. Yet many more bits and pieces have since emerged. A late mine called Hurst Hollow at the far end of Dronfield Woodhouse, being closed in 1947. Nearly 70 years ago.

Coal getting operations started around the 16^th Century – initially these were just surface pickings and shallow ditches at places such as Stubley Hollow and Hill Top .

Then up to the 18^th Century came outcrops, adit mines (i.e tunnels into hillsides), bell pits where people dug a shaft into the ground and took out coal without supports in a circular fashion and then moved further down the coal seam to dig a fresh bell shaped pit. For instance, a map of Firth Wood indicates a row of 24 bell pits along a coal seam. Evidence of former bell pits were also revealed during the building of the Unstone-Dronfield By-pass. Holmley Lane and many other areas are also likely to have had bell pits.

There were also some 40 pits as either drift mines or with shafts in the Dronfield and Unstone areas by the second half of the 19^th century. Their development being aided by (a) the establishment of the Lucas Iron Malleable Foundry in 1811, (b) railway development in 1870 when Dronfield Railway Station was opened and (c) the shortly lived Wilson Cammell Steel Plant on Callywhite Lane from 1873 to around 1883. It is claimed that by 1879 the neighbouring Dronfield Silkstone Pit was then the town's largest employer.

In the late 19^th Century pits were also entitled Dronfield Woodhouse, Gomersal, Green Lane, Hill Top, Longcroft, Gosforth, Stubley Hollow. The Coal Aston area of Dronfield also takes its name from coal mining. Then there were also many pits in neighbouring areas such as Apperknowle, Mickley and a wide range in Unstone.

In other words, the Dronfield area has over time been pocked marked with pits and mining operations and is today covered with existing and worked out coal seams. Any building, garden, road, railway line or street is likely to be close to former coal mining operations. 

Shale gas and oil are likely to be found significantly in these types of area, leading to the clear danger of us being subject to major, dangerous, and long term fracking operations in our community.

In North Derbyshire, Dronfield is by no means alone in facing fracking dangers. It is united in this situation with many former mining communities whose pits were still functioning in the final decades of the 20th Century. We are by no means isolated in our struggle against fracking proposals. We need to appreciate that there is strength in unity. 

(Details of Dronfield's mining history can be found in articles in "Dronfield Miscellany" by writers including Kathy Kearn and James Cartwright).

Fracking Dangers in Chesterfield and Dronfield - Reject the Government's Bribes

 

Click here for details of the bribe.    


Fracking can damage buildings, including homes and could even bring down Chesterfield's Crooked Spire (seen above) underneath which INEOS have the authority to search for shale gas and oil. Then in Dronfield in North Derbyshire, pillars holding up a section of the Unstone-Dronfield By-Pass (seen here at the time when I observed it under construction in the 1970's) and placed on the northern side of Gosforth Drive are almost built above the former entrances of shafts for the 19th century Gosforth Pit. So Fracking at this point (again a possibility by INEOS) could even help topple the viaduct itself. 

That these dangers exist is shown by the fact that INEOS have not been given permission to operate beneath Bolsover Castle, nor around a section of the M1 which includes the Heath Junction. Unfortunately, no similar caution has been taken concerning the Crooked Spire nor for my local By-Pass. The Government having ignored these points when I raised them during their consultative procedure.

Such problems are also massive across the whole of North Derbyshire (and in many other regions), which is pock-marked with a variety of different forms of historical coal extraction, from old fashioned "bell pits" to fully fledged deep-mines. The records for what has so far been discovered are open to the Government to investigate from the details held by the Coal Authority at Mansfield. But if they have even investigated these, they have learnt nothing. For the rest of us an investigation of the 993 pages of "The Derbyshire Miners" by J.E. Williams (George Allen and Unwin, 1962), will reveal the extent of some of the former coal operations in the area - and he doesn't by any means touch everything.

Then even if damage is miraculously avoided during both the initial search for shale gas/oil and then at its final extraction, there will be a regular long-term stream of tankers (day and night) which are larger than bin lorries which will service the sites used by INEOS  and others. It is to be hoped that people don't already suffer from traffic congestion, for the sites used for investigations and extractions don't need to be tucked away in distant rural areas, but could operate from part of say an industrial estate nearby or even a few kilometres away from people's homes. For extraction purposes, operations could go under homes, conservation areas, public buildings, shops, farms and local roads.

INEOS hold contracts to search for shale gas/oil across most of North Derbyshire granted by the Government, with the exception of the small bits I mentioned above and also the Peak District and the Chatsworth estate. The searching rights for the latter having gone to the Duke of Devonshire - who can at least (unlike the rest of us) thereby protect his own property at Chatsworth House. (Correction dated 6th April 2017 - I now understand that the Duke of Devonshire has historically owned the underground rights over his large section of land, well prior to the legislation which issued the above contracts to INEOS and others. Unfortunately, the rest of us in Derbyshire enjoy no such rights over the land and property we occupy. If the law was changed to place the Duke in the same position as the rest of us, we might then recruit him to the cause of anti-fracking. It would be better still if the law could be changed to put us all in the same position as the Duke - especially for those who rent their accommodation. HB)  

Even  if the Derbyshire County Council were to reject any final applications from INEOS for full fracking activities, INEOS can just apply over their heads to the Government who can accept the application under a fast track system.

In the end, what we need is a change in Government policy to protect our well-being. Not financial bribes to accept the fracking process. In any case, during the process of fracking itself (which can be lengthy) all forms of property will see a fall in their values. The Government bribes are not likely to cover such losses, which will include the need for individuals to pay more in insurance to cover the consequences of possible underground collapses.

On top of all this there are dangers from (1) contaminated groundwater, (2) the disposal of waste oil, water and gases - such as carbon dioxide, (3) strains on the use our water supplies (in an era subject to climate change), (4) the danger of shale gas, methane and nitrogen oxide being released into the atmosphere, (5) the impact on habitats, fauna and vegetation from noise, truck movements, vibrations, air and water movements, (6) possible earthquakes as with Caudrilla when drilling near Blackpool and (7) 24 hour workings with land loss, noise and disruption and (8) the serious lack of a professional, independent body to regulate operations.  All of these arises from North Derbyshire (and other targeted areas) being former heavy coal mining territory.  

Also click here
And here. (Its item 2 at the moment)

Note : I prepared this article a few week's ago, but thought that I had should first check out the exact details of the terms under which the Government had issued authority for INEOS to search for shale gas and oil in the area I was covering - in case I could be accused of scare mongering. So I emailed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under Freedom of Information Legislation to obtain the exact details. Eventually, they informed me that they did not hold the information and that instead I should approach the Oil and Gas Authority. I have now made three attempts to gain the information from the Authority, but have not yet received even an acknowledgment to my requests.  So it is a matter of publish and be damned. (PS. 2 Sept. I now have an acknowledgment - my reply could take some 20 working days; say the end of this month)

Now see what Defra, the Oil and Gas Authority and other avenues of Government officialdom are up to in Dronfield. I will be pressing them for full details.

 
Note : it is the Derbyshire County Council (and not the North East Derbyshire District Council) who hold the planning and mineral rights mentioned above.