Anyone catch “CountryFile” this evening. John Craven was doing his best to demonise the Fracking process for making the most of Shale Gas. It says something of the note struck that when that swivel eyed eco-loon Chris Huhne is interviewed he comes across as a bit of a hardliner on the topic! Craven talked of flames coming out of taps, of earthquakes, all that was missing was the 4th horseman of the apocalypse! I used to like CountryFile before it became a political programme.
FRACK ME
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Thankfully, I missed this nonsense, but thanks for posting David!!
The BBC seems to have done its best to show footage of gas emanating from someone’s tap, which is of course undoubtedly alarming. What however has never (I didn’t see Craven’s report though) been stated is how large the fracking operation is in the US, how often these bizarre problems have occurred and whether or not they are a statistically significant problem.
With respect to its reporting of the ‘earth tremors’ in Lancashire early last month, what it failed to spell out to the generally scientifically illiterate public was that tremors of 1.4 and 2.3 on the Richter scale are very small indeed, for the scale is measured on a logarithmic scale. Below 2.0 and a quake is said to be imperceptible, whereas between 2.0 and 2.9 it is ‘Generally not felt, but recorded’. Of the latter, according to Wikipedia some 1.3 million are measured every year. So, with respect to earth tremors, fracking is not a matter for concern. As for gas coming out of taps, I don’t know what its frequency is, so am not in a position to judge. The fact however that the BBC has not quantified the frequency of such occurrences suggests that it is probably vanishingly small. Bring on the fracking!
Flaming gas taps debunked by the splendid Phelim McAleer.
Opponents of fracking claim that before fracking began, people in these areas were unable to set fire to their tap water.
Who in their right minds would be trying to do this anyway?
“I’m bored, dear….there’s nothing on the moron box tonight so I think I’ll try setting fire to the water in the kitchen….”
“Don’t Be Swayed By Faucets On Fire And Other Anti-Fracking Propaganda”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/03/07/dont-be-swayed-by-faucets-on-fire-and-other-anti-fracking-propaganda/
This by Brian Dunning of Skeptoid.com does a pretty good job of debunking the anti-Fracking hyteria too.
Once again DV, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
The “swamp gas light” phenomena that sells newspapers and fronts the big corporate green industry is an old and discredited newsbite that has no relation to fracking and any other standard fossil fuel extraction process.
Oil and gas are situated within porous rock and not in a vast cave that will collapse when it is extracted.
Extracting this uses formation fluids including salt, oil, gas, fresh and salt water.
The secret to a prosperous economy is cheap energy. China has 400 year’s worth of coal, so watch a growing economy at our demise of accepting faux liberal and false ideologues.
We may murder pensioners because of the tax hike in our energy bills, but we are kidding ourselves that windmills will save mankind.
It’s a lie, speaking as a former engineer in the energy sector, and we are allowing the lie to propagate.
Yes, when the BBC was a REAL broadcaster, Countryfile WAS good, before it became politicised and a vehicle for their AGW non-message. I think it started of as “Farming” many years ago, and was always interesting, but not now. I’ve heard this view from so many sources now, I’ve lost count. What are they doing to us, and why?
Frackin’ BBC – they’ll be instrumental in the eventual destruction of the Former UK before very much longer, which is probably their intention in the long run. Well, they’re doing pretty well in that capacity thus far, but have incurred the wrath of their more stolid (and older) captive customer-base. Shame is that nobody can do anything about it, as they are forced to pay for this marxist, greenie common purpose output, like it or not. the BBC are laughing at us, and at the government, too, although the meme obviously suits government to a tee. Perhaps UKIP are able to bring an end to this nonsense – it would be good to at least give them the chance.
Craven is nothing but a BBC toady, like the other useful idiot, Attenborough. I’ve no doubt that THEY’LL do all right out of it, though, having feathered their own nests whilst the rest of us go down the toilet.
It’s why the BBC moved Countryfile to a peak viewing slot, so they can pump more climate change bollocks down the thorats of viewers.
I used to watch Countryfile years ago as my wife liked it and I thought it was a useful way to have a bit of together time without having to say much.
I was amused by the way John Craven used to introduce every item while leaning against his 4×4 trendy jeep style car, even though the AGW mania had already being going a few years and the BBC had already latched onto it.
Sorry…it`s the whole notion of John Craven and credibility that`s my problem.
He was hardly big enough for Newsround way back…he stayed way too long there, like the last thick kid in the school year group.
He will say whatever he is paid to say, and the very notion of listening to this wet lettuce about anything serious and scientific is just not on!
Haven`t CBBC got some teletubbies to dress up nans jumpers to keep him employed and out of harms way-controversy and Craven is a poor mix!
EDF makes wind farms
EDF advisor = Chris Patten, BBC chairman
EDF is owned by French govt
French & German govts run EU
BBC funded by EU
Huhne = ex-MEP
Result = bugger gas
I described Countryfile ages ago as Blue Peter for slightly grown-ups, it alternates between the crass blandness that characterises The One Show (see the connection between the 3 programmes?) and the BBC AGW agenda, as seen tonight. If Mrs F. didn’t like it for the fluffy animals I would give it a very wide berth.
The Greens assualt from all directions. Don’t forget another “farming” show which has been become political – R4’s soap “The Archers”. How many farmers recognize the happenings in Ambridge?
Would have thought most of our water came from reservoirs via settling tanks and pumped to smaller reserviors by the towns, some water is pumped from boreholes but into the small reservoirs but not directly from bore holes as the beeb is showing but then showing water on fire is a much better idea than just showing an electric pump, it may happen in the USA where water is taken directly from the borehole say on a farm, but then I would have thought they would pump it into tanks from the borehole before use.
Stop making sensible points, the BBC want sensationalism in the interests of eco-nuttery.
Doesn`t the BBC think that you can do whatever you like with land that you`ve aquired , or is that privilege only for Irish “travellers” ?
And Occupiers, of course. Oh, wait, strike that: they can do whatever they like with other people’s land.
Chris Huhne’s wilful reluctance to engage with the promise of shale gas as a cheap, clean viable energy source in the UK is utterly contemptuous. The man is a public liability and an absolute menace to honest, cash-strapped households up and down the UK. When one considers how the shale gas industry has completely revolutionised gas prices and energy security in the States (not to mention provided huge numbers of new jobs in a young industry), one is left in no doubt about it’s exciting potential to change everything here in the UK.
Overnight, thieving energy cartels here in the UK would be rumbled by a new energy source so plentiful, so carbon-friendly and cheap they would see their gilt-edged bonuses and phoney renewables grants evaporate right before their eyes (which is why you won’t be hearing any of them advocating shale gas exploration in the UK any time soon – they have their profit margins arranged just the way they want them, thank you very much).
You also won’t hear much about shale gas on the BBC – the last thing these AGW propogandists want to do is to be seen to be advocating a (whisper it) ‘fossil fuel’, no matter how much potential it might have to change everything for the better. Shale gas (and oil, for that matter) is a dirty word to every pro-AGW footsoldier – even more ‘awkward’ than the carbon-free promises offered by going nuclear (and watching greenies wrestle with that conumdrum is just such good fun), because it presents every one of their p*sspoor (and punative) arguments against fossil fuel with so many positives of it’s own:
SHALE GAS:
1. Is a relatively clean energy compared to traditional coal burning
2. Is thought to be hugely abundant all over the UK, with reserves for the entire country (and its industries) large enough to last decades ahead
3. Will create thousands of very badly needed jobs and a new industry across the UK, as well a providing the Treasury with much-needed revenue
4. Will dramatrically lower household energy bills at a time of increasing UK fuel poverty (as we are forced to pay for useless, inefficient, expensive ‘renewables’ though our existing fueld bills)
5. Will give the UK it’s own reliable, domestic energy supply at a time of increasiing worries over national energy security
Until Huhne is removed, the UK will struggle to realise the potential of its shale gas future. The man is so wedded to tllting at (grossly over-expensive and hugely inefficient) windmills, to wasting £100’s of millions of taxpayer money chasing ‘renewables’, that he just cannot – and indeed will not – acknowledge the reality of the situation regarding shale gas and the potantial therein to change everything,
And the BBC? Shame on them all. History will not be kind to their propagandist insincerity and wilful denial. Their selective and carefully stage-managed AGW advocacy will come back to haunt them and forever tarnish their claims to ‘impartiality’. The BBC imagine, as they always do, that by simply not talking about shale gas and keeping the greater public in the darkness about it’s unimaginable potential to change everything, the problem (as inconvenient to a pro-AGW agenda as it is) will simply disappear.
Thankfully, hard economic facts speak many times louder than the self-regarding morons running the Biased BBC and in the end I suspect, very strongly, shale gas and it’s attractive benefits will sweep away the BBC’s politically-motivated indifference and in the process will not only reward us all with depenable, cheaper fuel, but also expose again the wickedness at the heart of a pro-AGW broadcaster that claims to represent the views and interests of everyone, but in reality does no such thing.
Is it too hard to believe that the BBC’s attitude to fracking would be different if the Arabs didn’t have the oil?
I used to believe that countryfile went largely untouched by the Pro-AGW propaganda machine but last night it plumbed previously unexplored depths with its article on fracking, even dragging in the idiot Huhne for his “expert” opinion (why on earth is that man not admiring Dartmoor vistas through a barred window as you or I would, in similar circumstances ?)
At no point was anyone asked what the consequences for energy costs and the economic outlook might be if we chose to pass up on this timely discovery.
The thing abour the BBC way of propaganda is that it is not loud and in your face, but subtle, and unrelenting.
And paid for by the TV tax.
last week the local BBC outlet Points West (BBC Bristol) aired a fracking segement that had me shouting at the telly – a rare occurence.
It was utterly toxic, showed “Gasland” clips, alluded gushingly to the anti fracking movement and had a slot from the idiot LibDem mayor of Bath and proable Huhne acolyte (that’s an insult) saying that fracking was about to destroy the World Heritage site’s hot springs – evidence free scaremongering.
It was appalling and coupled to toxic (magic re-edited) web content too. The local news programs go off iPlayer after 3 days too – or at least this P-O-S did.
Ghastly.