PRESS RELEASE

Fracking Gets ‘Green’ Light from IPCC

April 14, 2014 (EIRNS)—Over the weekend, the IPCC released, with great fanfare, a 33-page summary of its 1,500-page report, "Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change," at the end of its 12th Session, this one held in Berlin, Germany. While the majority of the report is devoted to proving that we all breathe too much (exhaling CO₂), Britain's Daily Telegraph showed just how devoted these hacks are to "preserving" the environment, quoting a report author endorsing the "shale gas" revolution, i.e., fracking.

In carefully worded coverage, they write, "Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the working group that drew up the report, told the Telegraph that it was `quite clear' that shale gas—extracted through the controversial process of fracking—`can be very consistent with low carbon development and decarbonization.'" Edenhofer further added that the products of the scorched-earth drilling method called "fracking," will be "very helpful" in the Brave New World, but only if the world's coal-fired electric power plants are replaced "with modern, highly efficient natural gas combined-cycle plants," (in the words of the report) and not "added to" existing ones.

This is one other example of how the IPCC, protestations to the contrary, is bad for the environment, as even many environmentalists know. Not only is fracking using up scarce water in areas already suffering dramatic drought conditions that are threatening food supplies, but it uses chemicals which have been found in the drinking water in affected areas.

Even more important, it is a retrogression in terms of energy flux density, the increase of which is essential for human progress and survival.