Important note: This article originally had the words Oil Shale reversed as "Shale Oil". However, the common use of the term Shale Oil is in reference to fracking to recover oil near or trapped by shale rock; much like the gas released by fracking in Northeastern BC in Canada or the Northeast of the United States (New York, Pennsylvania, etc). Oil Shale extraction is in many ways worse; we do not yet know what the impact on water would be if this were to go into larger scale production, however, we do know that the energy input alone is likely to be astronomical-- in the case of Israel/Palestine, they are talking about a process of heating the rock in the ground for MANY months before a single drop of kerogen (a pre-oil substance, like the more commonly known bitumen) is literally bled out of the rock.
Just in terms of climate change this project is a disaster, never mind the impact on geopolitics, the immediate environment, Palestinian human rights, Israeli human health, etc. this could be a crime on a scale hard to imagine. It is sad to say there may be something worse than tar sands in Canada. And harder to say that it may, in fact, be in the Holy Land-- and the holiest of places within it.
--M
