Jobs or environmental risks? That’s the either/or way in which Cuadrilla Resources’ shale gas discovery in Lancashire was being depicted by media in the UK, according to Benny Peiser, Director of the UK’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, who spoke at the European Unconventional Gas Summit in Krakow, Poland. “We have to put shale in the context of other energy sources in order to convey a comparative analysis of the environmental impact,” explained Peiser. “People forget the environmental costs of coal mining or oil exploration; nuclear also has its own risks.” Renewable forms of energy also had an impact, he pointed out, like the pollution by solar panel manufacturers in China or what windmills do to a landscape and to birds. “We must balance the pros and cons, the costs and benefits. Natural gas must undergo this to understand that it is a form of energy that falls in the low risk category,” he said. Full story here