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No shale gas in socialist Cuba

Published Jan 14, 2012 10:44 AM

While capitalism is expanding its environmentally destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing around the globe, at least one country — socialist Cuba — has stood firmly opposed. Speaking out against the practice, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro blamed the discovery and exploration of vast reserves of shale gas as part of the reason the world was on an “inexorable march toward the abyss.” (Reuters, Jan. 5)

Castro wrote that “numerous dangers threaten us, but two of them — nuclear war and climate change — are decisive and both are ever further from approaching a solution.”

Siding with international critics of fracking, Castro commented on research that has found that shale gas emits more greenhouse gases than gas produced from conventional wells. “It is sufficient to point out that among the numerous chemical substances injected with the water to extract this gas is found benzene and toluene, which are substances terribly carcinogenic.”

Fidel concluded that the problem of shale gas was something “no political cadre or sensible person could ignore.”