Fracking in the Karoo became an emotive quip which soon gained enough support to temporarily stop Shell from extracting shale gas in the Karoo. The lobby group TKAG (Treasure the Karoo Action Group) who fronted the anti campaign now prepare for a second round once the government completes it’s “in-depth review”. The fracking debate is not over yet!
Quietly, almost behind the scenes another, almost greater development is gaining momentum. This time, with an almost squeaky clean media profile and high level support both nationally and internationally. Almost everyone is applauding the possibilities of South Africa winning the bid against Australia for the SKA (Square Kilometer Array) telescope. At face value, and from what we’ve been told, the SKA promises to transform many facets of South African life, and so it will. Many jobs will be created. Supersonic broadband will at last be at our disposal and South Africa will be at the cutting edge of astrological science. All this and much much more can only be good news for everyone…. or is it ?
Until now most people envisage a rather large telescope being built near Carnarvon and that
this telescope will utilize roughly one Square Kilometer of land space, hence the name Square
Kilometer Array (SKA). To clear up the exact extent of the telescope, Ivo Vegter, a columnist
for The Daily Maverick contacted Adrian Tiplady, who selects sites for the Square Kilometre
Array radio telescope project. The topic of discussion was the likely negative impact of gas
drilling, using hydraulic fracturing (fracking), on the billion-dollar SKA project South
Africa is bidding to host in the Karoo . The following is an extract of an article by Ivo
Vegter posted in the Daily Maverick.
In an email from Adrian Tiplady, he confirmed that the SKA will consist of not one but about
1,500 big dishes in the core area north-west of Carnarvon, with another 1,500 radiating from
there in a great big five-armed spiral. Each clump of receivers occupies a site of between two
and four hectares.
(It should be noted, since Peter Rose, a professor of microbiology who spoke at the debate
seemed to believe otherwise, that the “square kilometre” in the name refers to the total
collecting area of the telescopes, not to the geographical extent of the site.)
The core area of the SKA will look like this:
This covers about the same area as the Jonah Gas Field in Wyoming. Still, it merits no more than a dot in the middle of nowhere, on a map:
By “the middle of nowhere”, I (Ivo Vegter) don’t mean to denigrate what surely is splendid
scenery under that red dot in the middle of, well, nowhere. I mean that the entire region
marked out on the map above is protected by law.
You may not enter or reside in this region without permission from the management authority.
You may not do most things compatible with civilised life – such as erect lights, fly an
aeroplane, drive a truck, construct a road, build a house, or broadcast a radio signal – in
this region without permission. Even such farm-like activities as combine harvesting and
arc-welding will be severely restricted or prohibited.
But we’re getting side-tracked. In this core area – like in the five-armed spiral that will
extend throughout the Karoo and even beyond – there will be a variety of radio telescopes,
listening to radio frequencies from as low as 70 MHz (VHF) upwards.
The following images are artist impressions of the equipment that will be built in the Karoo.
These images are not from an extreme environmental group trying to drum up opposition to the
project, but from the SKA website, where they are posted as promotional material.
This is what they call the sparse aperture array:
Those little things look positively harmless compared to the massively imposing structures of
the dense aperture array:
These are the radio telescope dishes we’re mostly familiar with:
Here is where we notice a slight problem. Didn’t the artist forget something? Where are the
site buildings? The access roads? Where is the impact on the Karoo?
Each of these telescopes has to be built. Like gas well drilling, this operation will take a
few weeks per site, and involve heavy machinery.
Each telescope is a substantial engineering project in its own right.
Once finished, the telescopes are connected by access roads and various pipes and cables to
the control and data network.
Here’s what a completed cluster of telescopes looks like. This is not an artist’s impression,
but an actual photograph of the KAT7 precursor array, located outside Carnarvon. Notice the
bakkie, the site offices and the truck, to get an idea of the size of these things.
So, with this new information about what the SKA will really look like, I took the liberty of
creating my own artist’s impression.
Recognise it?
Now I like to be consistent. I don’t oppose either project. I don’t believe either will
“destroy the timeless Karoo”.
However, what I would like to know is why the Treasure the Karoo Action Group, and all the
other people so vehemently opposed to shale gas drilling, are not leading a loud campaign
against the Square Kilometre Array.
Honest activists should just say that the government should ban fossil fuels, “because the age
of fossil fuels is over”.
Smart activists would put their money where their mouths are, start alternative energy
companies, and clean the floor with the short-sighted idiots at Big Oil.
Another reason for the inconsistency on the SKA’s environmental impact is that astronomy is
not an easy target for whipping up public anger.
Deal admitted that the Treasure the Karoo Action Group campaign was characterised by overly
emotive rhetoric, excusing it by saying this was necessary to raise the issue to public
prominence. While this view is common, it is not only false, but dangerous.
Whipping up anger leads to death threats, and threats to have farms burnt down
if the owners do not join their neighbours in their opposition to gas drilling. Given the
record of deception, fear-mongering, and conflicts of interest on the part of the organised
opposition to fracking, is it any wonder that they’re not consistent enough to call for a ban
on the Square Kilometre Array? Ivo Vegter, a columnist for The Daily Maverick”
Karoo Places.com invites alternative views on the SKA bid and will publish these without
predjudice in order to ensure the ongoing conservation of the Karoo. In a nutshell, if fracking
poses a serious threat to the Karoo, should the SKA bid not be seen as an equal or even greater
threat given the extent of the scenario sketched above.
We welcome your views.
Further reading: Thought Leader; Engineering News; Shout-Africa
