LNG is Methane – In BC Methane is extracted with fracking
Methane is a fossil fuel and a potent global warming gas. The impact of Methane as a global warming gas is 25 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period, and 95 times great over a 20 year period.
Fracking is not safe: it comes with a host of environmental problems and no benefits to local communities:
- Depleted fracking wells continue to leak methane,
- The use of large amounts of freshwater,
- Fracking turns this freshwater into chemical-laden effluent that’s held in toxic ponds, contaminating wildlife food-chains, poisoning downstream water, and the risk of contamination of ground water,
- Fracking is associated with an increase in the number earthquakes. Contaminated fresh water is injected back into the fracking wells, pressuring and lubricating faults leading to earthquakes,
- The number of wells needed is very high, because the average depletion rate of fracking wells is high, which leads to:
- Fragmenting of forest lands,
- Disturbing wildlife habitat,
Fracking and ground water contamination
Listen to this podcast! Dr. John Cherry explains with utmost clarity what the issues are with (Hydro)fracking: the absence of science that fracking is safe, the methane leaking well heads and groundwater contamination.
Dr. John Cherry is one of Canada’s top experts on the impact of hydrofracking on the environment.
Fracking is banned around the world
Fracking in is banned or under moratorium in many countries around the world, see the full and up to date list from: Keep Tap Water Safe
Fracking in BC
Methane is increasingly extracted by use of hydraulic-fracking from gas-rich shale in northeast BC.
The BC Government is promoting the idea of LNG with the line that it would reduce CO2 emissions in Asia. This claim is coming more and more under fire. Recent studies results show that, although methane produces less CO2 than oil and coal when burned, methane leaks from well-heads, pipelines, processing and transfer operations. These leaks will offset any benefit of using natural gas (methane) to reduce CO2 emissions.
