LETTER: Shell ruling will end up boosting coal

The court judgment against Royal Dutch Shell’s quest to find gas and possibly oil off the Wild Coast may be detrimental to the goal of reducing SA’s present reliance on coal for its energy supply (“Court scuppers Shell’s Wild Coast seismic blasting bid”, September 1).

Closing the door to gas exploration off the country’s east coast cancels a source of hydrocarbons that could be used in the transition from coal to power sources that are less harmful to the environment, such as the wind and sun. The longer the delay in developing such sources, the longer our dependence on coal will be.

The court considered that the livelihood of people who have for generations fished along the Wild Coast could be threatened by the effect of seismic blasting on marine life. Though many studies have been conducted, proof of such harmful effects has not been conclusive. Seismic blasting has happened in many parts of the world for decades without major reports of fisher people going out of business. 

In addition, such exploration has for many years been conducted in SA waters without apparently harmful effects. Yet the court judged that the Wild Coast was “steeped in customary rituals”, that “the ocean is a sacred site where ancestors live”, and that gas exploration would disturb them.

There is a case of different standards here. Any attempt to develop a site for commercial purposes — a shopping mall, a marina, a factory — will now require the developer to produce a huge and detailed body of evidence that scientifically proves it will in no way be detrimental to the present nature of the location and those proximate to it. 

Yet the use of the word “sacred” or “ritual” and the acceptance that the ancestors or cattle are contentedly living an afterlife in that location is immediately accepted, proof of which is, by definition, impossible. To a person who needs to survive and possibly assist others to do the same, a job may be sacred, a chance for life and a future here on earth.  And jobs are scarce, and may become more so if, as we know too well, Eskom keeps failing in supplying sufficient energy to keep existing industry going and allow potential development.

Holding on to the old ways means holding on to the coal ways.  Unless SA moves towards using the potential gas reserves off its coast coal will remain king, its solar and wind minions failing to deliver enough power to keep more than the lights on.

Roger Graham 
Meadowridge

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