SpaceX’s biggest rocket flies for the first time: but do we understand what this actually means?
We’ve just launched a rocket into orbit so why is the way we think about technology so fundamentally wrong? A historic launch Starship at...
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Goodbye fracking! A letter to 2021.
Dear 2021, The end of the year is a time for reflection and taking stock of the year almost past. You’ve been an interesting year for me,...
Why is everyone talking about climate change… again?
I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary-General, that the...
Mistrust and earthquakes: why Lancashire communities are so shaken by fracking tremors
Anna Szolucha, Northumbria University, Newcastle After a month of tranquillity, fracking has resumed at the Preston New Road site near...
Fracking and the price of democracy
How much will fracking cost the people of Britain? The promises of jobs and economic wealth seem increasingly illusory in the face of the...
Local knowledge and environmental risk assessment
One of the most frequent and persistent questions that come up with regard to environmental risk assessments and community responses to...
Debunking the “bridge:” Can gas really act as a bridging fuel to a low-carbon UK energy?
A recent report from the UK Energy Research Centre analyses the future role of natural gas in the UK. It shows that the substitution of...
Researcher shows that field and well productivities of shale gas in the US are overestimated
Geoscientist and a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, J. David Hughes, in a Nature article: “Wells decline rapidly within a few years....
Exxon’s u-turn on climate change research and its consequences
Throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, Exxon’s own research confirmed mainstream scientific consensus about the impact of carbon...
Anti-fracking in Romania
I have come across this interesting article about anti-fracking in Romania. Many in the US or the UK may not realise this but despite...
Impacts of frac sand mining
An often overlooked consequence of the process of hydraulic fracturing is the growing demand for frac sand and an unprecedented expansion...
Alienation as a social impact of resource extraction developments
In his articles about coal seam gas extraction in Queensland, Australia, Kim de Rijke dissects some of the most salient social impacts...
“Why have the democracies done so little to tackle climate change?”
I opened “The Confidence Trap” by David Runciman, a political scientist from Cambridge, in search for fresh insights into the history of...
Questions abound about royalty payments in the United States
A recent article about shale gas developments in the Bradford County (Pennsylvania) reports on popular uncertainty about the royalty...
Extractive industry: Impact of non-resident workforces on rural communities
Based on their survey in Queensland, Australia, researchers have concluded that “the social license to develop new mining projects is...
What happens when local residents come to realise the technological limits of fracking?
“A Field Philosopher’s Guide to Fracking” by Adam Briggle is a light and engaging story about one philosophy professor’s role in making...
Are monetary penalties for offending corporations effective in preventing further toxic releases?
As part of its enforcement mandate, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the United States may administer economic penalties for...
What do state agencies do in response to citizens’ concerns about resource extraction?
Two researchers from the Center for the Study of Crime and Justice at Colorado State University have investigated the state regulatory...
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Communicate plainly what you are trying to do in science, and who knows, you might even end up understanding it yourself. Stephen Hawking
Shale gas extraction and collective trauma
Roseacre Wood Simona L. Perry analyses some of the short-term changes in the lives of rural communities as a result of Marcellus shale...
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