Do we want to "COPE" with an industrialised landscape?

The UK's push for shale gas will result in unavoidable changes to the countryside, the US energy secretary has warned.

He said the exploitation of shale gas and oil on a vast scale in the US had been "transformative", vastly reducing energy prices, boosting industry and lowering carbon emissions as more electricity production shifted from coal to gas. But he warned that any boost to the economy would come at a serious cost, as "you can't avoid" the fact that extracting gas on such a scale involves a massive industrial effort.

"The one thing it's very hard to change is that this is a big industrial enterprise. That's one thing you can't avoid. That is something communities and governments have to cope with."

- Ernest Moniz.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/17/shale-gas-transform-uk?commentpage=1#start-of-comments