Slight problem

>>The composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids has become a key point of tension between the oil and gas industry, which has been reluctant to disclose the specific contents of drilling fluids, and those who say such disclosure is necessary to determine whether hydraulic fracturing poses a threat to drinking water.>>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704487904576267690277252796.html

>>Inflammable tap water, cancer threats and earthquakes: probably coming soon, near you. Sebastian Doggart reports from New York on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking'.>>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/8488166/Frack-and-ruin-the-rise-of-hydraulic-fracturing.html

Neither the Wall Street Journal nor the Daily Telegraph are the natural habitat of "sandal wearing muesli chewing bike riders" to paraphrase Paul Keating.

Well said Ludwig.
Your message will now be drowned out by a chorus from the “astro turfers”.
Not to worry change is inevitable and they will be protesting that there is nothing to worry abour, as they jump on their bikes and rub two boy scouts together to make a fire.

Looks like the profligate "Head in the sand " brigade are all out in force this morning.
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" seems to be the current mantra.
I'm not sure what they are going to do when God ceases to provide.

David

Matt Ridley ignores that the transport sector is increasingly dependent on crude oil and is the fastest growing source of carbon pollution. There are 16 million registered vehicles in Australian ; increasing car ownership owes its growth to energy derived from oil and is almost entirely dependent on it. There is no tax silver bullet to reduce our addiction to imported crude oil . The failure to predict future oil prices over the last five years by the world’s major energy and transport agencies is ignored.

Nearly all the big oil, energy and transport consultants ignored the geophysical realities underlying the growth in the price of oil in the last three years. Whether or not this would prevent the wheels falling off the world economy is still in doubt. Until 2005, in the developed countries, asset values, national GDPs and world oil production had been assumed to keep on growing steadily for the next 30 years without any risk of a major economic depression. Australian forecasts of the growth of oil demand were merely copycat projections of the International Energy Agency (IEA).Australia may have half the proportion of toxic debt as the U.S. but it is just as vulnerable to future oil shortages.

The price of crude increased to US$147 in July 2008, more than five times the price of crude oil in 2003.Commonwealth and state governments have failed to recognise the possible need to ration oil for essential purposes within the next decade. Such as increased the demand for rail passenger transport in Melbourne and Sydney.

The train and bus network need to be extended into outer suburbia and investing in ecologically sustainable transport infrastructure that increases walking, cycling, high occupancy public transport, Adopting new EU regulations for electric bicycles , investment in high speed inter capital city trains and last but no least car sharing . The only rational way to adapt to the inevitable decline in world oil production is to risk manage the threats of oil depletion, toxic debts and climate change together, with a new tax system ? Which party is proposing that?

yes sarnian, "change is inevitable" and we will change from one fuel type to another .. so what's the problem?

Or would you prefer the change from fuel to no fuel .. is that the issue for you?

To cease the over-consumption you and the "sandal wearing muesli chewing bike riders" are obsessed with?

Finally someone who actually knows something about the energy industry, at least to the point where they know that its been revolutionised in the past few years. Gas reserves have gone through the roof. I note that a few posters have tried to claim that really this new promise is just a mirage.. But the fact that the energy industry is in revolution is so well known, its up to them to prove that there is a problem.

As for claims that the extra energy will add to greenhouse, its important to first acknowledge that the revolution has occured and work from that..