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Je vous ai parl\u00e9 il y a quelques semaines des gaz de schistes. Plut\u00f4t, j\u2019ai reproduit un article que j\u2019avais \u00e9crit pour Charlie-Hebdo. Si j\u2019ai mis un point d\u2019interrogation au titre du papier d\u2019aujourd\u2019hui, c\u2019est bien entendu par pr\u00e9caution. N\u2019\u00e9tant nullement devin, ni ne souhaitant faire semblant, je ne suis pas certain de ce que j\u2019\u00e9cris. Mais de tr\u00e8s nombreux \u00e9l\u00e9ments convergent vers un constat : la d\u00e9couverte de gisements – r\u00e9els ou potentiels – de gaz de schistes un peu partout para\u00eet devoir changer la donne \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique mondiale. <\/p>\n
D\u2019ores et d\u00e9j\u00e0, les \u00c9tats-Unis sont en train de se lib\u00e9rer \u00e0 grande vitesse des importations massives de gaz naturel en provenance de pays instables ou m\u00eame hostiles. Certains disent que ces \u00ab gaz non conventionnels \u00bb <\/em>pi\u00e9g\u00e9s dans des couches g\u00e9ologiques argileuses repr\u00e9sentent au moins quatre fois les r\u00e9serves de gaz jusqu\u2019ici connues. Et c\u2019est pourquoi des permis d\u2019exploration sont accord\u00e9s partout o\u00f9 ils sont demand\u00e9s. En France, comme je l\u2019ai \u00e9crit ici, Total, GDF Suez et des compagnies am\u00e9ricaines ont d\u00e9j\u00e0 re\u00e7u une autorisation sign\u00e9e Jean-Louis Borloo. La zone la plus prometteuse se situerait en Ard\u00e8che, mais il en est bien d\u2019autres.<\/p>\n Ce qui commence est assur\u00e9ment une bagarre mondiale d\u2019une ampleur in\u00e9dite, car elle touche et touchera au c\u0153ur de nos modes de vie. D\u00e9j\u00e0, les p\u00e9troliers affinent une propagande que l\u2019on nous servira ad nauseam<\/em>. Le gaz contribuerait nettement moins que le charbon \u00e0 l\u2019effet de serre. Ce qui est vrai, mais n\u2019a en r\u00e9alit\u00e9 aucun sens. Car les tenants de l\u2019\u00e9conomie r\u00e9elle n\u2019ont qu\u2019un seul but et l\u2019auront jusqu\u2019au bout : continuer. Continuer \u00e0 produire des merdes que l\u2019on entasse avant de les jeter. Et pour cela ajouter au p\u00e9trole, au charbon, au gaz conventionnel, au nucl\u00e9aire, tout ce qu\u2019ils trouveront \u00e0 mettre dans leurs foutues machines. Aucune r\u00e9duction des \u00e9missions de gaz \u00e0 effet de serre ne serait alors seulement tent\u00e9e. Avec les gaz de schistes, nous allons droit \u00e0 un emballement de la si vaste et si complexe machine climatique. Les ordres de grandeur font que plus rien n\u2019aura d\u2019importance. Si vous rel\u00e2chons les milliers de milliards de m\u00e8tres cubes de gaz de schistes contenus sous terre, la crise climatique deviendra probablement sans issue humaine. Il n\u2019y a aucun compromis possible avec les criminels qui pr\u00e9parent cette nouvelle \u00ab r\u00e9volution \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique \u00bb. Ou nous arr\u00eaterons le d\u00e9veloppement des gaz de schistes – et la t\u00e2che est hercul\u00e9enne-, ou nous subirons tous une d\u00e9faite historique aux cons\u00e9quences incalculables. Il faut d\u2019ores et d\u00e9j\u00e0 s\u2019y mettre. Pas demain. Maintenant. Car les p\u00e9troliers arpentent d\u00e9j\u00e0 notre terre. Nos terres. Notre terre.<\/p>\n Je vous mets ci-dessous, en anglais pardonnez-moi, un article \u00e9bouriffant du plus grand quotidien \u00e9conomique de la plan\u00e8te, The Financial Times<\/em> (FT). Je n\u2019ai pas le temps de le traduire, mais il n\u2019est gu\u00e8re difficile. Bien que n\u2019\u00e9voquant qu\u2019\u00e0 l\u2019extr\u00eame marge les probl\u00e8mes \u00e9cologiques pos\u00e9s par les gaz de schistes, il est passionnant de la premi\u00e8re \u00e0 la derni\u00e8re ligne. Voil\u00e0 ce que voient les ma\u00eetres du monde : la possibilit\u00e9 pour l\u2019Occident de reprendre la main face \u00e0 la Russie et aux pays du Sud producteurs de gaz et m\u00eame de p\u00e9trole. Le titre dit tout \u00ab Les gaz de schistes changeront le monde \u00bb<\/em>.<\/p>\n Tuesday, 08 June 2010 06:54 <\/strong> Gideon Rachman, Financial Times <\/strong><\/p>\n Everybody\u2019s favourite moment in The Graduate is when the film\u2019s hero is cornered by one of his parents\u2019 friends. The older man\u2019s advice to Benjamin Braddock consists of just one word – \u201cplastics\u201d. Something similar keeps happening to me at international conferences. I will be minding my own business, when a delegate will get up with a gleam in his eye and announce portentously – \u201cshale gas!\u201d<\/p>\n This conference chatter is a reflection of growing excitement in the US and Europe at the idea that we may have discovered a large part of the answer to one of the most vexatious problems in foreign and economic policy – energy security.<\/p>\n For decades, American politicians have vowed to pursue \u201cenergy independence\u201d and to free the US from reliance on foreign supplies. Yet the reality was that America was facing a future of growing dependence on oil and gas from a variety of unstable, unfriendly and autocratic countries. Meanwhile, the European Union has become increasingly paranoid about its reliance on natural gas supplies from Russia – particularly given the Russian propensity to exert pressure on its neighbour, Ukraine, by cutting off gas supplies. Just to add to the frustrations for the US and Europe, one of the very few alternative suppliers of natural gas is Iran.<\/p>\n It has long been known that the US is sitting on potentially huge supplies of unconventional shale gas. But until recently, these reserves were very hard to exploit. Now, however, technological breakthroughs mean that many of the economic and technical concerns about exploiting shale gas reserves are being dealt with. Over the past three years, American production has soared. This year, the US overtook Russia to become the world\u2019s biggest gas producer for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n The result is that the shipping terminals that the US built to receive liquid natural gas from overseas are now lying virtually empty. The rise of shale gas, which can be used to produce electricity, reduces dependence on domestically produced, but dirty, coal. If cars powered by electricity or gas improve, shale gas would also reduce reliance on Middle Eastern oil.<\/p>\n Both the EU and China are excited by the idea that they too may soon enjoy a shale gas bonanza. Chinese foreign policy has increasingly been driven by the need to secure energy supplies. But China looks as if it may have its own shale gas reserves, and has signed an agreement with the US to look into exploiting them.<\/p>\n The excitement in Europe is even more pronounced. Just as North Sea oil and gas supplies are running down, the British are hoping that they may discover exploitable supplies of shale gas in Wales and north-west England. The Poles, who have their own special reasons to fear energy dependence on Russia, also think they have exploitable reserves. Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, recently visited Houston to talk to the big US energy companies about shale gas.<\/p>\n Even if European reserves are not as promising as some hope, the EU still stands to benefit indirectly from American shale gas. Supplies of liquid natural gas from Africa and the Gulf, which might have gone to the US, are now being redirected to Europe – reducing the Union\u2019s dependence on Russian gas.<\/p>\n The geopolitical effects of all this may be already being felt. In recent months, western officials have noticed a distinctly more friendly tone in their dealings with Russia. The Russians have signed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US, accepted the idea of tougher sanctions on Iran and responded to the air crash on Russian soil that killed the Polish president and his entourage with unexpected openness and sensitivity.<\/p>\n Some western officials attribute this change in tone in the Kremlin to the US altering its position on missile defence; others credit the growing influence of President Dmitry Medvedev. But some think that Russia is already adapting its foreign policy in response to the sharp fall in the price of gas and the shift on world energy markets.<\/p>\n Of course, there are shale gas sceptics. Some veterans of the energy industry point out that there have been false dawns before – miraculous new sources of energy that disappointed in the end. It is true enough that most miracle cures fail – in energy, as in most other walks of life. But it is also true that predictions in the 1970s that the world was \u201crunning out\u201d of fuel were disproved by a combination of technological advances and new discoveries – precisely the combination offered by shale gas.<\/p>\n Some environmentalists are also less than delighted by the shale gas revolution. There are concerns about environmental dangers posed to groundwater by the chemicals that are used to extract the shale gas – and such fears will only be heightened by the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.<\/p>\n In the short term, increased use of gas will make it much easier for the US and Europe to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, because gas is much less polluting than coal. On the other hand, shale gas is still a fossil fuel and produces greenhouse gases. For those environmentalists who dream of a future powered by windmills and solar panels, the dash for gas is a distinctly mixed blessing.<\/p>\n Of course, shale gas cannot be a complete answer to the west\u2019s energy security problems – far less to climate change. But in a world that is not short of bad tidings at the moment, shale gas is a welcome piece of genuinely good news.<\/p>\n Copyright 2010, Financial Times<\/p>\n Source: http:\/\/fabrice-nicolino.com<\/a><\/p>\n Image: Couverture pour Carbusters<\/a> par Calle Kaberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Je vous ai parl\u00e9 il y a quelques semaines des gaz de schistes. Plut\u00f4t, j\u2019ai reproduit un article que j\u2019avais \u00e9crit pour Charlie-Hebdo. Si j\u2019ai mis un point d\u2019interrogation au Lire la suite…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":10906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,6,124],"tags":[57,433,139,612,60,55,594,169,99,942,595,61,278,694,45,154,54,82,41,1051,362,155],"views":8205,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carfree.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Shale Gas Will Change The World<\/h2>\n