Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is one of Africa’s largest wildlife reserves which straddles the border of Botswana and South Africa. Over ¾ of the conservation area lies in Botswana and it was announced this week that in September 2014 half of this land was very quietly sold to a UK based fracking company called Karoo Energy for natural gas exploration. Conservationists and park officials were not informed on this decision and were
unaware of any licenses being issued.
The extent of the natural gas basin is still unknown (Corriganand Murtazashvili, 2015) but the energy company is core drilling (not fracking) two boreholes in the
area which are due to be completed at the end of 2015. It is reported that the
company has applied to renew licenses but no decision has been made and no mining licenses have yet been given.
It is unclear what impact this will have on the environment but
it cannot be good for the protected wildlife that live in the reserve, it is
upsetting to see one of the only remaining natural and unharmed environments on
the planet is about to be subject to an incredibly invasive process just for a
short-term economic benefit. The lions are not going to be happy when it scares
away all their food. I definitely would not want to be working on a drilling
site surrounded by angry, hungry lions.
But wait, believe it or not there is yet another controversy in relation to fracking in Africa. Hilary Clinton is one of the major forces behind bringing the activity to Africa despite her being strongly opposed to fracking in the USA. She helped advise African and other world leaders on the benefits of fracking and even organised visits to drilling sites to show off how it works, her aim is apparently to use the US as a 'role model' for hydraulic fracturing around the world. The support provided by Clinton during her tenure in office has lead to many changes in policy in African nations and pushed them towards using natural gas as an energy source.
But wait, believe it or not there is yet another controversy in relation to fracking in Africa. Hilary Clinton is one of the major forces behind bringing the activity to Africa despite her being strongly opposed to fracking in the USA. She helped advise African and other world leaders on the benefits of fracking and even organised visits to drilling sites to show off how it works, her aim is apparently to use the US as a 'role model' for hydraulic fracturing around the world. The support provided by Clinton during her tenure in office has lead to many changes in policy in African nations and pushed them towards using natural gas as an energy source.
Thank you for bring up such an important story. I did not realize both Clinton and Kerry are pushing for foriegn fracking. This seems like a rather condescending in that it's not good enough for the US but it's good enough for Africa.
ReplyDeleteI agree, although in their defence it may be a way of pushing economic development in Africa while avoiding the overuse of coal or oil which cause much worse CO2 emissions than natural gas.
DeleteThat's a fair point. I'm sure there are very few 'good' options. And I'm sure that Botswana need the income and energy from fracking. It's such a shame that it has to be at the expense of their other natural resources.
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