I think the most alarming thing with exploitation of these new oil sources is general unawareness of what they mean. Myself I woke up only about one year ago, when reading Naomi Klein’s book This changes everything. I must confess that I had to pick up dictionary to find out what fracking was in Finnish. (For my Finnish speaking readers; it is called vesisärötys – which says almost nothing if you’re not an engineer of this particular branch.)
Americans in northern parts of U.S. and Canada might be more aware, because for them fracking is, if not everyday thing, thing that has settled down on their own backyards. Here in Europe we are still quite pristine, but how long?
It is good to remember that within energy issues everything is connected to everything. We might be more concerned about Russian efforts on arctic sea areas or our own ageing nuclear powerplants. But when we close an old coal burning powerplant, what comes instead? Fracking lies close behind the corner.
Another point is that energy has lately became very political issue, even geopolitical specially here in Europe. We are remarkably dependent of Russian energy sources. And like we have seen during last year or so, energy for Russian regime is not just strict business. Far from that. Sending tanks to eastern parts of Ukraine has been one tool in Putin’s arsenal, closing gas pipes has been another – and certainly not less significant.
The bottom line which should be remembered when considering fracking, drilling on arctic seas, nuclear or any other power production is that questions are about living conditions of future generations on this planet. Nothing less.
Valoisa Huone | Photographer Petteri Sopanen 