The ignorance of the MSM comes to the fore in their latest excitement over a small earth tremor in Blackpool, which has been linked (tenuously) with local gas drilling. Leader of the pack of ignoramuses is Steve Connor, supposed science editor in The Independent.
The idle fool reports of "controversial new drilling operation for natural shale gas" in Lancashire having been suspended following a second earthquake in the area that may have been triggered by the process, completely oblivious to the fact that there is no shale gas drilling in the area – for the very simple reason that there are no gas-bearing shale deposits.
Here, of course, the drillers are exploiting coal bed methane, a very different proposition, not least because the coal seams into which they are drilling are very much shallower and more easily accessible.
Thus, the slight tremors may have some implications for exploiting coal seams in urban areas, such as in West Lancashire, but have no impact whatsoever on shale gas exploitation. Gas-bearing shale is very much deeper, 10,000 ft or more, and runs in a band from Dorset eastwards then and then through East Anglia and East Yorkshire, across the North Sea into Poland – where there is considerable exploitation.
Such is the enthusiasm of the media wuzzies and their greenie allies for putting the boot in to shale gas, however, that they can't stop to get their facts right. Any old propaganda will do. But all they do is parade their ignorance ... and there is now the blogosphere to put the wuzzies right. And, in any event, we have already recorded that shale gas is not significant in the UK.
As to these terrible earthquakes, according to the BBC (which is also throbbing with excitement), Dr Brian Baptie, head of seismology at the British Geological Survey, says (of the latest tremor): "The earthquake was felt by at least one person in Poulton-Le-Fylde". We await the tsunami.
For archive only ... see: this correction (item above).
