Fracking ... it’s enough to send tremors down your spine

It’s time to get fracking, business leaders have said, sending a tremor through Scotland. First, the explainer. Fracking, properly termed hydraulic fracturing, is a process in which water, sand and chemicals are injected into the ground at high speed, in locations where there are deposits of shale gas. This process, already in use in the United States, causes gas to leave the ground at high speed. It is then collected for use as fuel, and everybody happily marches forward into the future with arms linked, singing a jaunty song.

Well, no. In the US, environmentalists and communities are concerned about pollution, the impact of using so much water and the somewhat perturbing effect of small tremors in the earth.

That’s right, fellow nervous nellies: fracking causes earthquakes. It’s the first act of a disaster movie. The human race has caused damage to the planet in many ways, but actually breaking the planet’s crust is a step too far.

The Scottish Government, rightly, has imposed a moratorium until research into fracking is complete.

A spokeswoman called it an “evidence-led” approach, which is fair enough. I tell myself there’s no need for scaremongering, even if I am a bit scared.

Last week, David Watt, leader of business group the Institute of Directors in Scotland, called for the moratorium to end, warning Scotland risks running low on energy in a decade because renewables won’t fill the gap.

We must keep the lights on, he insisted, which is also fair enough.

But I’m less afraid of economic damage, or even sitting in the dark, than I am of sitting trembling while the earth shakes around me and the water table fills with poison.

Is this really the best we can do? Is Scotland, so proud of its history of producing inventors, engineers and visionary thinkers, so intimidated by the future that our best energy-producing idea has all the finesse of a plumber rodding a drain? Nonsense.

Yes, let’s wait for the evidence. But let’s keep looking at green sources of energy – water, winds, solar and more – as a first choice, for a cleaner, safer future.