Birmingham Salon

Risky business? Fracking and the future of energy

Thursday 13th November 2014, 7.30 pm at The Victoria, 48 John Bright Street, Birmingham, B1 1BN.


This Birmingham Salon debate is a satellite event of Battle of Ideas 2014.
In the UK, widespread disenchantment with the rising cost of fuel runs alongside fears that the dark days of power cuts are set to return.
How are we to generate the affordable and reliable sources of energy needed? As forecasters point to the doubling of global demand for fuel by 2050 – with the world’s population approaching nine billion – are politicians wrongly prioritising energy efficiency over availability?
In Europe, EU rules have led to the closure of many coal-fired power stations, and due to political prevarication, generating capacity has yet to recover. For the second half of this decade, the gap between peak demand and total power-station capacity will be close to zero. 
Meanwhile, alternative energy solutions are mired in controversy. The Fukushima crisis of 2011 continues to overshadow the nuclear power industry. Onshore wind farms, biofuels and hydroelectric dams fail to generate consensus in terms of social and environmental impact. 
So what about shale gas? Touted as a low-cost, low-carbon ‘bridge’ from coal to renewables, fracking nevertheless attracts noisy opposition, even at the test drilling stage. Are protesters’ fears valid, or have environmentalists simply united with NIMBY agendas? 
A more radical approach might be to look beyond quick fixes such as shale and wind, towards more innovative solutions. That would sidestep the need to ‘break the earth’ at least. But right now, developments such as nuclear fusion are dismissed as unrealistic, and meanwhile energy supplies remain worryingly tight. 
The real risk might be that a paralysing fear of the unknown prevents us from confronting a challenge that has huge implications for people’s lives.
How can the UK keep the lights on?

Speakers: 

Chris Crean, regional campaigns co-ordinator (West Midlands), Friends of the Earth

James Woudhuysen, co-author, Energise! A future for energy innovation

Chair: 

Helen Guldberg, director, spiked; author, Reclaiming Childhood and Just Another Ape

Recommended Readings


Woudhuysen agrees to differ with George Monbiot on the subject of fracking.  

Professor David MacKay discusses land usage to meet energy requirements via different renewable energy routes.

Will Boisvert says we should embrace our high energy planet and refutes claims made by Naomi Klein about the energy solutions in the face of climate change.

US study finds that solar panels produced in China have high production-related pollution levels and carbon footprint.

Series of articles in The Guardian on the precautionary principle, which predicates much discussion on the risks of different types of energy solution.




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