So it seems that yet another form of unconventional fossil fuels looms on the horizon, with the potential to be promoted by governments as the latest solution to our energy crisis, while at the same time destroying fragile environments through its extraction. The culprit this time is a form of gas known as ‘fire ice’, which is locked into the form of ice crystals under the Atlantic ocean, at the point where the seabed changes from shallow to deep. By lowering the pressure on these crystals, or upping the temperature, one cubic metre of fire ice can break down into 160 cubic metres of gas.
The amount of energy contained within fire ice deposits is thus huge – there is potentially more energy available from fire ice than from the rest of the world’s oil, coal, and natural gas supplies combined. And yet, with that energy comes a problem we have been trying to escape for decades now – carbon. There may also be as much carbon in the fire ice deposits as there is in every other organic carbon store in the entire world. Releasing this carbon into the atmosphere by using fire ice for energy would be an unmitigated disaster, completely destroying any attempts at sustainability and making an era of massive climate change a certainty.
The fire ice is also very difficult to extract due to its location far offshore. This means more money will be required to exploit it, and it also increases the dangers – both to those humans doing the extraction, and to the ecosystems of plants and animals that live in the Atlantic and would suffer from this extreme industrial process taking place in their homes. But none of this will likely stop governments and corporations from doing their best to exploit these large reserves of fossil fuel energy.
And that fact shows the madness of our current energy system. Even when fossil fuels are difficult, dangerous, and expensive to extract, we will prioritize them over cheaper, safer, and easier options – like renewable energy based on the bountiful systems the planet has dropped in our laps, wind, tides, the sun, and more. If we insist on digging things out of the ground in order to keep our economy running, then we are getting to the stage where even nuclear power is beginning to look like a better option than fossil fuels (although obviously it would still be a distant second to true renewables) – it is at least carbon free, and while we might complain that it is highly polluting and dangerous to human health, so are fossil fuels, with over 4,000 people a year estimated to be dying from air pollution in London alone.
Rather than creating a new dependence on fire ice or other forms of unconventional fossil fuels like fracked gas or tar sands oil, we need to be exploring how to put into place the radical change to our energy system that is necessary if we are going to live sustainable lives free from the worst impacts of climate change. It seems that a big shock to the system may be necessary before we really start to see any change, unfortunately. In the meantime, NRGLab will continue its own research into new technologies that make our energy use more efficient, more environmental, and – most importantly – cheaper for ordinary people. When people finally have access to cheap and clean electricity, we hope that it will prove to be the shock that is needed to kickstart a new era.
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