Lesley Riddoch

Chilling threat to efforts to bring Russia in from the cold

2010-02-08T10:15:01+00:00

Shale Gas. Two small words that could transform the world.

According to Tony Hayward, BP’s Chief Executive at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a “gamechanging technology” has arrived which “transforms the US energy outlook for the next 100 years."

American companies have discovered how to exploit new reserves of gas and coal by breaking up rock formations with a mixture of water, sand and chemicals in a process called hydraulic fracturing.

The USA has become self sufficient in gas almost overnight, causing Russia to dump surplus gas on the European market, prices to collapse and politicians of the shale-rich Ukraine to defy Putin over election interference.

And Shale Gas has the power to end or shrink the prospect of a northern Saudi Arabia in the frozen Barents where the Russians have announced a two year delay on exploration of the Shtokman Field off Murmansk. With the extra costs of working 500 kms offshore, in Arctic conditions and six months of semi-darkness, extracting the Barents estimated 20% of world “conventional” gas supplies was never going to be easy.

Now, it may be uneconomical for months, years or forever.

China, India, Australia, America and central Europe all have shale deposits, and if they can deploy the American technology, they’ll have as little need for LNG as the USA.

But though Shale Gas is less polluting than coal it’s nowhere near as green as the renewable revolution it might also undermine and environmentalists fear that forcing water underground at high pressure could pollute drinking water supplies.

Nonetheless, shale gas could change the power map – especially in the world’s most remote communities.

Here in Arctic Kirkenes, just 14 kms from the Russian border, a vibrant community has existed for centuries based on fishing, Sami reindeer herding and mining iron ore. The strongly unionised workforce was sympathetic to communism long before the Red Army liberated the tiny town from German occupation in 1944. Every home, building and farm in Finnmark was razed to the ground as the Germans retreated. To read more - click here.

A date for your diary

2010-02-03T10:15:48+00:00

If you bought the Scotsman over the last few days, you will have seen an advert like this one with Joyce McMillan. On 17 February, the Scotsman will launch a weekly podcast which will be produced by Feisty Productions. Lesley Riddoch will be joined by a posse of Scotsman journalists to discuss, dissect and debate the big issues. The podcast will be available on the Scotsman website. And here.

Put the date in your diary now.

Coming up on February 17th !

2010-02-02T10:38:13+00:00

Chris Smith

The ultimate outcasts are coming in from the cold

2010-02-01T10:08:59+00:00

He’s a blood sucking parasite whose power over ordinary mortals is eternal. He has yet to be exposed for murderous acts committed years ago. And yet in the hit BBC series Being Human the vampire is the vulnerable, courageous and moral hero in a petty, vindictive world of human spite.

Best Foreign Language Film award winner, Let the Right One portrays the struggle of a lonely, bullied, isolated boy befriended by the little girl next door, who happens to be a vampire. Where the Wild Things Are tells the story of a lonely boy who runs away to find acceptance on an island full of other “wild things” -- and the strength to re-enter “conventional” society.

Twilight and its sequel New Moon are the billion pound earning films of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling books which centre on a lonely, fashion-resistant, serious young woman who falls in love with a moody, distracted boy at her school. He belongs to a stylish but rootless family of vampires and the film explores their struggle to control the destructive side of a biology predisposed to destroy.

This weekend saw the UK release of the Hollywood blockbuster Daybreakers which portrays a world where a mysterious plague has transformed the vast bulk of humanity into vampires. Humans are an endangered species and the hero is trying to find a way to sustain his fellow vampires and spare the few remaining human beings in a world controlled by fat-cat financiers, big pharmaceutical firms and oil multinationals. Corporate bloodsuckers, figuratively and literally.

I’m sorry to have ruined your breakfast, but something strange is happening. Click here to read more.

Inequality harms us all

2010-01-28T09:56:17+00:00

The richest 10% of the British population are more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10% of society. Whichever way you look at it, the National Equality Panel report makes shocking reading. But some will try to spot a crumb of comfort in the relative narrowing of the gender income gap.

To read the rest of Lesley's 'Comment is free' article - click here.