On October 18, the former head honcho at Greenpeace UK, Stephen Tindale, released an editorial in The Sun in which he called hydraulic fracturing a central part of the solution when it comes to fighting climate change. As the UK begins to explore the benefits of hydraulic fracturing, Tindale’s endorsement has big implications not only for his country, but for the world as a whole.
Tindale spoke particularly about the need for Britain to supplant its coal-fired power stations with cleaner burning natural gas alternatives. Recently, Britain has pledged to end the use of coal power within the next decade. As Tindale writes, “That’s excellent news from a green perspective. But we need other things to fill the energy gap that’s left, otherwise Britain is going to run out of power. Renewable energy is the best long-term answer. But there’s no chance it will be ready to fill the gap by 2025. And the nuclear sector is also moving too slowly.”
In other words, the best option that’s currently available is natural gas extraction. With Britain having just approved fracking in their country, Tindale’s voice could not have come at a more opportune time for the industry.
Though Tindale kept his concerns close to home, the sheer fact that a former leader of Greenpeace has publicly supported fracking is a pretty big deal. And Tindale is far from the first.
In July, John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, spoke at an annual conference. In his speech he stated, “The notion that we’re going to keep it all in the ground is unrealistic … I subscribe to the view that natural gas is a very helpful bridge fuel to a much lower emissions future.”
In the middle of a period in which fracking is demonized on an almost daily basis, these unlikely people are stepping forward to announce that fracking is not only more efficient than coal, it could help save the planet. Though environmentalist groups across the country would have you believe that fracking is a threat to our very way of life, here are two people who have absolutely zero to gain by supporting fracking who have stepped forward and proclaimed that the facts point to fracking as a means to help severely reduce the amount of damage done to the planet Earth.