CUADRILLA has started drilling in Lancashire, hoping to frack in December if it obtains final permission from the Secretary of State for Energy.

Nobody doubts that, then, well proliferation will follow if Cuadrilla (as well as Third Energy and INEOS) decide that fracking is viable and will profit them. Similarly, very few can square a new UK fossil fuel industry with our commitment to a reduction in global warming.

On the contrary, other resource extractors will be incentivised, global warming will be boosted to an irreversible point while renewables are denied the level of support they would otherwise receive.

This might be our last chance to stop that first fatal frack. Those of us who care and who accept this argument should support, now, the Friends of the Earth petition asking Greg Clark to think again before granting final permission.

There is nothing shameful about a U-turn if you discover you have been mistaken.

David Cragg-James, Stonegrave, York