Beano won't cure this gas

Hello, Good evening, Hola, Hi.
I was curious to observe if the movie Gasland would win the Academy Award this evening for Best Documentary. It did not, though I feel positive that it's name was even mentioned in front of so many viewers. The issue of hydraulic fracturing as a means to get natural gas out of the ground is rapidly shaping up to be an issue of the gravest environmental and public health concern.

If you don't know about the controversial issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing, I recommend that you borrow the movie Gasland and investigate some of the info on it's website.
I also recommend doing your own research. Keep in mind, there's a LOT of propaganda being put on the internet and on television commercials by the oil and gas industries to lead you to believe that hydraulic fracturing is safe. I encourage you to investigate the sources of any info you find that details fracking, so that you might better understand the biases of whomever might be sharing the information.

Over the past nine months, The New York Times reviewed more than 30,000 pages of documents obtained through open records requests of state and federal agencies and by visiting various regional offices that oversee drilling in Pennsylvania. Some of the documents were leaked by state or federal officials. Here, the most significant documents are made available with annotations from The Times.

As far as I'm concerned it comes down to this: humans have survived and thrived as a species without natural gas until the last century. If natural gas went away, we could continue to survive. But, if our water supply is tainted by toxic chemicals used to extract natural gas, we are screwed.

I was somewhat horrified to learn that one of my uncles believes that there's enough fresh water on the planet that we can afford to ruin the water shed of 15 million people which is the Delaware River Basin. He obviously does not understand the concept of a closed system, which our planet is. Those who have studied hydrology and the state of fresh water on our planet postulate that the wars of the future will be fought over water because it is an increasingly limited resource. We can not afford to render it unusable. Your grandchildren can not afford it.

There are so many reasons to be extremely concerned (read: frightened) about hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking.) I'm not going to go into them all here. But I do believe it's worthwhile to understand why many people believe it's not worth the risk to our water, and some other people believe the corporations should make the money from it despite environmental and public health ramifications.

I suppose that some people understand science better than others. Yet the people who don't understand science seem to think that they have enough information to make decisions that are scientifically based. I feel utterly exorcisted (head spinning 360 degrees repeatedly) when I hear people say the most absurd things relating to science. They speak sincerely as if scientifically established data were mere opinion! Within the last year I began to sincerely contemplate why anyone who knows nothing about science would begin speaking of it as if they had a PhD. Two words: Corporate interests.

I can't prove it (yet) but I am fairly certain that corporations have instigated the enmity between the political parties of modern America. As soon as I can prove it, I may need to go into hiding. The corporations want Republicans to mock TeaBaggers, the corporations want TeaBaggers to demonize Democrats, the corporations want Democrats to fight the Republicans tooth and nail. Because as long as we are fighting each other, we won't notice how they are raping our land, disregarding the wellbeing of our families, and taking all of our money.

I repeat: As long as we are blaming each other for the state of our country, as long as we are blaming "the government" for our problems [um... we are the government!], as long as we are engaged in vitriol and trying to take each other's political party down, we are distracted from noticing the utter rape and robbery which the corporations are perpetrating on American citizens.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't blame ALL corporations. I see that the fault for our country's unrest lies only with particular industries, the names of which I can not know for certain; it seems logical that a large burden of that responsibility would lie with the oil and gas industry. I also believe that certain public figures (who will remain unmentioned, though I suspect you have an idea who I might be referring to) have off shore bank accounts which regularly fill up with cash deposited by various corporate entities in exchange for the hate rhetoric that said public figures spew to us good folks, distracting us from the real demons (corporate interests that would just as soon see us dead and our children crippled before they compromise on making a profit.)

This is currently my opinion, I can not prove any of it. If I can prove it, I will. But let's face it, if I could prove it then I would probably end up assassinated.

I leave you with a few thoughts and opportunities to take action to protect us from the toxic effects of hydraulic fracturing.
First, if you find yourself hating on Democrats, Tea Partiers, Socialists, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, etc., please take a pause from your hate and sincerely direct your attention to the corporations and the amount of money they are making because we are not paying attention to the way they are taking advantage of us - ALL of us- they even are fiscally pummeling those of you who love free market economics. Your love of the free market is not saving you from being financially and environmentally screwed.
Second, here's a joke to help keep things in perspective. After all, laughter is the best medicine. All I can tell you about the author is that I don't know who it is, but the joke was on a Facebook post, and the person who made the post did not know the author either.

"A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.'" 

Haha, funny right? Yeah, if it weren't the truth it would be damn funny, wouldn't it?

If you are as concerned about the potential health effects, and the potential environmental destruction which hydraulic fracturing might render, here are some opportunities to tell your elected representatives that you want them to do something NOW:

 

1) Tell your representatives to support the FRAC Act. The FRAC Act consists of twin bills in the Senate (S 1215) and House (HR 2766) that remove the exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act for fracking and call for the disclosure and monitoring of the chemicals used in the process. Contacting your elected officials is critical to its passage. This link will allow you to enter your zip code and quickly and easily send a message to your House and Senate representatives.

2) Send a letter to President Obama. This link will provide you with text to include in the letter, if you choose to print, sign and mail it (which is usually the preferred method to ensure your voice is heard.) But this letter also provides a link to send the letter's content to the White House via email.

3) That's it for now. Thank you. Fracking is happening all around the country, and as I learned earlier today, it's being exported to South America, Australia, Europe, Africa, and is likely to come to a town near you or someone you love if it is not curtailed immediately.
Breathe. Unless you're near a Fracking well. Then, put on a hazmat suit including gasmask, and then breathe shallowly.