IN HIS letter advocating that Wales should get cracking with fracking, (PT November 20), Tim Hodgson displays a creditable desire to get the ‘youths of Wales employed.’ I also have sympathy with his desire for Wales to be enjoying full employment and ‘high standards of living.’

I disagree profoundly with him as to how these admirable objectives can be achieved and sustained.

Fracking is probably feasible – if communities are willing to tolerate the disruption, the risk of water pollution, the despoliation of the countryside that fracking would bring with it. But, of crucial importance, fracking, like all non-renewable energy resources, provides only a temporary source of gas and fuel. Sooner or later the gas runs out. In the meantime the use of that gas will have added more carbon dioxide into an already over-burdened atmosphere.

The recent UN Synthesis Report stated in stark terms the urgency with which fossil fuels emissions must be reduced: if a global catastrophe is to be prevented, CO2 emissions, world-wide, need to be reduced to zero by 2070. Sir Mark Walport, the Government’s chief scientific advisor has said “We need to transform the way we power our lives.” This transformation needs to be accomplished in the life-time of my grandchildren.

This issue is truly the burning issue of the day. If we do not radically rethink our energy policies there will be no future. Instead of focussing on the short-term ‘solution’ of fracking, our energy, money, and talent should be employed in the research and development of renewable energy resources, in the manufacture of renewable energy equipment, and energy saving solutions – enough in all that to keep the youth of Wales fully occupied for generations.

Rather than backing fracking, the Welsh Government would be better advised to direct all its energy into transforming Wales into a sustainable, energy-efficient country, an example to the rest of the world.

Alan Armstrong

Penarth