Dave Cockcroft, for the Stroud District Green party said: "Burning all that oil in one place at one time has the appearance of a terrible disaster but it's just a drop in the ocean. The 60 million gallon capacity of Buncefield oil depot is, based on DTI figures, less than one days average UK consumption. If carbon dioxide emissions formed a big  black cloud perhaps we would all be trying to tackle them with a little more vigour. Climate Change is the big burning issue and, despite a better than expected outcome from the talks in in Montreal, we're not even beginning to fight that fire."

Keith Taylor Green Party Principal Speaker also expressed concerns saying: "Perhaps the most important lesson we should learn from this event is that even in the best regulated industries accidents on this scale can and do happen.  Had this happened at a nuclear plant, that huge black cloud could well have been radioactive. The Chernobyl accident legacy has left 3 million children in several countries still receiving medical treatment. Surely, when less damaging energy solutions are available, we should be developing them?"

Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson said: "It is still too early to tell what the long term impacts of this event will be, but it seems certain that the risk to the surrounding environment is immense. The clearly visible airborne pollution may have catastrophic effects on crops - carbon and kerosene residue could make much agricultural produce unusable. There will also be significant contamination of both ground and surface water and it could be devestating for surrounding rivers and consequently wild life."

Keith Taylor added: "The thick black plumes of acrid smoke enveloping the area surrounding Buncefield should act as a visual reminder of what we are doing to the world's atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels. This is another cautionary tale against the use of dangerous sources of energy we have yet to truly master. We desperately need to examine our reliance on oil - not simply because of the explosion, but because it is a finite and volatile supply. Incidents such as this highlight the fragile nature of this exorbitantly expensive fuel, and prices are only going to up as supplies decline."

Letter in The Guardian 14th December 2005:

The 60m gallon capacity of Buncefield is, based on DTI figures, less than a day's average UK oil consumption. If carbon dioxide emissions formed a big black cloud perhaps we would all be trying to tackle them with a little more vigour.

Dave Cockcroft
Stroud, Glos