Human Wrongs Watch
1 August 2014 – The world faces a looming energy problem. There’s not enough of it. It also faces a looming climate change problem. Too much of it. Could natural gas and fracking technology be part of the solution to both challenges?*
South Africa’s reliance on coal is clear to see. The coal-mining process can leave water supplies unusable for irrigation, for industry and for consumption. The water is not just dirty, but toxic. UN Photo/Gill Fickling
The answer to this question is especially relevant for developing countries. Nearly half the world’s population lacks reliable access to modern energy services and more than 20 per cent of the global population – 1.4 billion people – remains without access to electricity, according to a recent UN Development Programme (UNDP) report.
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Household air pollution from the use of biomass fuel is expected to cause more than 1.5 million deaths a year by 2030. Could natural gas, whose production is boosted by hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” – the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside – be a bridge to greener economies and to new, more-efficient energy technologies? “Is fracking, by providing natural gas, giving us a cleaner energy source?
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 