By Jeremy Gordon
Cape Town - According to a video I watched by Rob Hersov on YouTube, South Africa has the seventh largest natural gas reserves in the world.
These are spread between the Wild Coast and Mossel Bay and in the Karoo around Beaufort West.
Exploiting these reserves would not only totally solve our power crisis, but could leave extra gas for export. It could create up to one million jobs and turn backwaters into boom towns.
The reason we are not exposing these reserves according to Hersov is largely because of climate activists sponsored by overseas money.
I actually met a lady who works for an NGO funded from overseas in South Africa, whose job it is to campaign against the exploitation of these reserves.
The reason given for not exploring off the Wild Coast is that it would disturb the marine life and disrupt the income of traditional local fishermen.
The reason we should not exploit the gas reserves in the Karoo is because fracking can be environmentally unfriendly.
We need to balance these environmental concerns against the economic prosperity and whole future of the country.
Do the environmental concerns have enough justification to prevent Total and Shell developing these resources?
Cape Times
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