In Climate Spectator last week, Barbara Sharp offered some thoughts about the polarisation of the coal seam gas debate (A fracking PR nightmare, February 29).
It’s worth reading her entire piece, but I take the gist of it to be a call for 'Australia… to negotiate a mutually acceptable way out of the CSG mess.'
In our research on the Western Downs last week we found some stakeholders who would agree with that call. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the views of Mayor Ray Brown and Ian Hayllor of the Basin Sustainability Alliance.
Sharp argues that communication and data are flashpoints for the debate. She is right about that.
More than one of our interviewees suggested that the science was hotly contested, and it’s been a recurrent theme of our research articles that baseline data for assessment of risk and impacts is missing or inadequate. As Kim Jameson said, collecting such data after wells are already in place is worthy, but obviously insufficient. Moves to fund adequately such scientific research are now proceeding with the establishment of the Federal Government’s Independent Expert Scientific Committee. But, again, the horse has already bolted.
Climate Spectator
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