ON May 17, the Government issued a Written Ministerial Statement proposing that exploratory drilling for shale gas should be considered permitted development, and therefore not require planning permission from the local council.

On May 22, the Independent reported Professor Peter Styles, ex-Number 10 adviser and seismologist, as having warned that the extracting of gas from former coal mine areas “dramatically enhances” the risk of seismic activity.

On June 6, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal announced: “The evidence clearly demonstrates that the processes of fracking contribute substantially to anthropogenic harm, including climate change and global warming, and involve massive violations of a range of substantive and procedural human rights and the rights of nature.”

On June 9, Pope Francis proclaimed that “There is no time to lose”, and urged oil companies to lead the transition to renewal energy and away from fossil fuels, “tak(ing) into account all the peoples of the earth, as well as future generations and all species and ecosystems”.

On the same day, a British Medical Journal editorial stated: “Although we can’t be certain about the scale of harm that shale gas production will bring to local communities and the immediate environment, it will exacerbate climate change. And on these grounds alone, the risks clearly and considerably outweigh any possible benefits.”

The news on June 21 that the 2012 Report by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineers on Shale Gas Extraction, which the Government has relied upon for its defence of fracking, is to be updated, is welcome news. The 2012 study did not consider either the use made of shale gas or its risks to health or the climate.

David Cragg-James, Stonegrave, Ryedale