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| Click here to see The New York Times' great visual breakdown of the fracking process. Please pass this link around to help other residents understand the inevitable impact of tens of thousands of these well along the Delaware! |
Great. According to David Castelvetcchi's article for Scientific American, France has done what we should be doing: banning hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" for natural gas, so that we don't destroy our drinking water with carcinogens, neurotoxins, endocrine disruptors and radioactive material before it's too late. Pennsylvania has stubbornly rushed forward with plans for drilling tens of thousands of new wells in the Delaware Watershed, which provides drinking water to 15 million people in four states, in complete denial of all evidence that residents are getting seriously ill from the process. Anti-fracking activists' only solid ally in terms of power has been the State of New York, who, under Governor Patterson, declared a moratorium on fracking last year until a cumulative impact study could be completed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is now said to be due for completion in 2013. New York also threatened to sue the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) should they insist on moving forward with approving their own guidelines for new drilling before the study is complete.
But Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore of The New York Times report that New York's new Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced
that he intends to lift the moratorium this year, only banning drilling on public land, and within 500 feet of drinking water source.
This gold rush continues, full force, despite the recent revelation of industry insider emails that reveal that those in the industry have been deliberately inflating their projections as to potential production to manipulate the market, in addition to the recent revelation that wells out West that were projected to produce for up to 65 years are already drying up after only five years, and are currently down to 10-20% of projected production. In other words: very few new promised jobs, no long term economic development, thousands of acres of destroyed land, and air, ground and drinking water contamination for residents. These drillers and speculators are laughing all the way to the bank in the same way that Wall Street investors continue to laugh all the way to the bank after manipulating the real estate market and causing the crash of our economy. Get ready to tighten your belts even more, and ration your bottled water.
It is a dark day for Pennsylvania. Please keep using the links on the right side of the home page of this blog to contact local, state and federal officials on a regular basis to fight this, and continue to spread the word!
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Since no one has commented on this post yet, it seems a great time to introduce Dr. Kathy McMahon's Panglossian Theory--Dr. McMahon is a psychiatrist who has identified different psychological categories of denial. It is long, so I will post it in parts, for discussion:
Panglossian Disorder: “The neurotic tendency toward extreme optimism in the face of likely cultural and planetary collapse.”
Panglossian Disorders and Their Subtypes
Temporal Subtypes:
Scarlet O’Hara-ism- “I’ll just have to think about that tomorrow.” A strategy of denial that allows the person to temporally compartmentalize the feared event(s).
Futurism: “Sure, that will happen, but it will occur after all of us are long dead.” A belief that something that might happen in the distant future is no concern in the present.
Y2K features: “They said everything would collapse with 2000, and it didn’t.” A belief that any prior concern about societal problems that didn’t occur demonstrates the impossibility of any others happening in the future.
(cont.)
Angry Subtypes:
Rhett-Butlerist Features- “Peak Oil? Planetary Collapse? Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Aggressive denial of information not in keeping with one’s world view.
Kill the Messenger Redirection: “Why are you telling me this? What kind of sicko focuses on these kinds of facts? You need help!” The belief that those who bring bad news are doing it for malevolent reasons.
Narcissistic Subtypes:
Rigid Cheney-ism: “The American Way of Life is non-negotiable.” The belief that any undesirable change can be avoided by a sheer act of will.
Survivalistic features: “Hey, if the rest of the world is doomed, I don’t worry about it, because I’ve got mine.” A belief that personal preparation is adequate.
Religious Subtypes:
“Religiosity: “God/The Planet/Mother Nature loves humans. He/She/It would never permit massive die-off.” Or “If that happens, I just put my faith in my Savior.”
Neoliberal Econo-manic Tendencies: “The market will sort it out.” A belief that market forces control all— including geological realities.
Nascarian Features: “People love their automobiles. A solution will have to be found to keep us driving.”
(cont.)
Subtypes with Denial or Minimization as the Central Feature:
Pure Denial: “That can’t be right. It’s just impossible.”
Minimalization as a primary defense: “There may be some shortages, but I doubt it will be as bad as you say.”
Subtypes with Histrionic, Helplessness, Acquiescence or Submissive Features:
Submissive Features: You’re probably right. [Shrug]” Too hard/scary to think about… A response that acknowledges the reality of the threat, but is emotionally frozen or unwilling to devote emotional time and energy to the matter.
Histrionic Features: “I just don’t know anything about that. Oh, Golly, I hope you’re wrong. That’s all I can say. Oh Golly, I just can’t think about it.”
Subtypes with Delusional or Magical Thinking:
Meglomanic Features:“This simply won’t happen to me.” A belief in one’s specialness, which will save them from the consequences affecting those around them.
Paternalistic Features: “The government/corporations will sort it out.” A belief in the infallibility of organizational structures to resolve problems they aren’t willing to even acknowledge.
Doubting Thomas Features: “Peak Oil is a scam by the Oil Companies to raise prices!” Minimizing the possibility of the crisis by the belief that some one or some group has ultimate control over its happening.
Pure Cornucopian Features: “The more we need, the more they’ll be.” A belief that continued progress and provision of material items for mankind can be met by advances in technology.
The Flintstonian: “The stone-age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.” A belief that modern innovation is eternal.
Frank Zappa-ism: “As soon as things get really bad, they’ll come up with something.” A belief that necessity is the mother of invention.
Magical Thinking: “Don’t worry, we can build a car that can run on air!” Proposes solutions that are clearly outside the realm of physics.
MacGyver-ism Features – A belief that massive planetary problems can be solved with ordinary/common items found readily at hand. Eg.: “Pig dung will be the next fossil fuel.” Or “Coke Cans can be turned into solar panels.”
I should have mentioned that she is also a Peak Oil blogger...
Thoughts?
Cheap energy consumerism has placated the public for several generations now. The mantra of public education has been "to get a good job, get a good education" whatever the word "good" implies in either case. When has there ever been an emphasis on teaching people to think critically or systemically about anything?
The various economic cartels that control the Matrix that enslaves the vast majority of Americans are not ready to give up this profitable game as long as there are millions of suckers out there so willing to prostrate themselves before that alter. Swallow the red pill and tumble down the rabbit hole? Not a chance- far too frightening for most of the sheeple to contemplate.
We are now in the age of permanent
resource decline and the effects are there to be seen for anyone who cares to look. As far as fracking is concerned, yea it's bad for all the reasons already covered but will fail ultimately since the economics of the thing has been wildly overstated. Declining net energy will overtake at one point or another something the industry insiders are well aware of.
I like you, Birdman--agreed--the industry will fail eventually--i just don't want them to destroy my drinking water in the process.
So to keep that from happening, we need to wake everyone up and convince them to carve out 5 minutes a week to either email or call an elected official to let them know that we REALLY mean it and we're NOT going away.
Or, if someone's feeling more created, letters to the editor are great! The links on the right side of the home page of this blog will allow readers to go directly into the letter to the editor form to type a letter--please do it! And convince others to do it too!
It would be a crying shame for people to wait until our drinking water has actually been contaminated past drinkability to begin making their voices heard.
It's the difference between writing letters and making calls now that say "Don't mess with my water!" instead of letters and calls when it's too late saying, "You messed up my water, made my family sick and destroyed my property value!
Wouldn't we RATHER fight NOW?
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