Monday 27th Aug 2018
INTERVIEWS:
Tim Forcey- Author of "What the Frack is going on?"
Shar Malloy- Manager of the NT Environment Centre
David Smith- Farmer and film maker " Pipedreams and Fractured Lives"
Lifting the NT moratorium on fracking will unleash a carbon bomb that makes the Galilee Coal Emissions look pathetic.
Paying farmers a percentage of royalties to extract gas on their land is a recipe for horror.
If we want to get the "Bentley Effect" and mobilise against new gas, oil and coal, we need to be grounded in facts. The Australia Institute published a paper by Dr Elizabeth Hanna and Mark Ogge called "Cooked with gas". They also presented a petition to the NT inquiry, signed by health professionals warning against a new fossil fuel province being opened up. WITHOUT CLIMATE ACTION, the number of extreme heat days would go up from 22 per year now to 132 in 2030. Darwin would be cooked by the gas it exported.
Tim Forcey made an expert submission to the NT Scientific Inquiry into unconventional gas. They published only SIX lines about climate consequences in a report of hundreds of pages and had no climate scientists on the panel.
He talks to Vivien Langford about his paper "What the frack's going on?". The inquiry found that fugitive emissions were hard to quantify, but Tim tells us about infrared imaging which clearly shows the huge quantities of methane that escape. Tim said the greatest wealth would come from NT oil, co -located with the gas and they should have a new inquiry into that to be honest about the impacts. As well as the local emissions, we can now quantify the exported emissions.
MEANWHILE certain extreme events like Super Storm Sandy are being attributed to Exxon, Santos, Shell et al who are being sued by New York city for billions in damages. Despite the NT Scientific Panel giving the green light, should the gas and oil industry STOP and THINK AGAIN?
Shar Malloy and the NT Environment Centre have called on the NT Government for a Comprehensive Climate Policy and BZE has backed them up.
She puts the Beetaloo Basin on the map for us, 500km south of Darwin between Katherine and Elliott. Although she could not speak for the Traditional Owners she tell us how worried they are about fracking for gas. There will be a gas pipeline from Tennant Creek to Mt Isa and despite some local advantages they are more worried about contaminated water and the impact of an industrial boom near them. Shar says that tourists will no longer be able to enjoy the dry heat of the north for much of the year as the increased rainfall and combination of humidity and heatwaves are likely to cause irritability, sleep deprivation, extreme discomfort or death. If workers have to disappear into a cool room throughout the day, livestock die and tourists stop coming the loss of productivity will be irreversible.
To endorse their call for a Comprehensive Climate policy go to the NT Environment Centre Website.
David Smith is a farmer turned film maker because of fracked gas. He produces beef and prime lamb north of Mt Gambier and wants to protect the small part of SA suitable for farming. Travelling to the USA and QLD where the dire results can be seen, he made a film called "Pipedreams Fractured Lives". He was accompanied by politicians, a vet and a doctor. The fractured lives of people who feel they have been sacrificed, whose water is undrinkable and whose land is worthless is harrowing.
But the warning of the film is for all those, especially governments and we who elect them, seduced by pipe dreams. David gave his phone number on air and urges listeners to contact him or look up his film on line to arrange a small screening. If you show it on a double bill with The Bentley Effect you will show what can be done by people power.
