Pagans Fight Fracking
What the frack is this shit? For those of you still in the dark, “fracking” is an unconventional method of releasing “natural” gas from the ground. However, there is nothing natural about it. It is a procedure by which rock is fractured by pressurized liquid to release hard to reach oil and gas. Many of the politicians in both Britain and U.S. have been telling us that fracking will be good for us. It will stimulate the economy for 100 years! It’s natural and safe! And they’ll give you a pony if you accept it…okay, maybe they didn’t say that part, but the other promises are so dubious anyways they may as well have.
PROMISES OF SHINY NEW JOBS ARE A BUNCH OF HOT AIR:
Much of the promises about new jobs are highly over exaggerated. Most realistic estimates show that fracking will add very little jobs to the market.
Let’s take the state of Ohio for example. Ohio has become a Petri-dish for the Fracking Industry. The governor embraced the industry wholeheartedly, hoping it would bring more jobs to natives of Ohio. What he found instead, is that the industry brought many workers from out of state and few of the locals in the fracked territories actually acquired jobs themselves. Fracking is more of a “boom and bust” industry where outsiders increase a town’s tourism industry for a few years before moving on somewhere else when the job is done.
STATEMENTS FROM THE GOVERNOR OF OHIO:
“You could have a situation where we are not getting the jobs, they’re taking the resources, and all their profits and they’re heading home,” Kasich said. “That is not acceptable to me. Now, we don’t have the conclusive evidence that this is happening yet, but I want you all to know, and I want the companies to know that this is an extremely serious matter, and we expect them to be responsive to the people of this state (Midwestern Energy News).”
PIPE DREAMS ABOUT THE TAR-SANDS:
A report from Cornell University bringing the over-hyped estimates of job gains to reality:
Pipe Dreams: Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost
ENVIRONMENTAL DANGERS:
The fact that many politicians see fracking as the “natural” alternative to common place oil production makes me realize that I don’t have enough barf bags laying around when I read the news. Fracking is a process that releases Methane Gas, a Green House Gas 20 times more powerful than Carbon Dioxide (EPA). Yeah about that Global Warming thing that’s currently happening…releasing methane all over the place might not be a good idea.
Not only is Fracking bad for the atmosphere, but it is highly destructive to local communities in terms of contaminating nearby well water, causing earthquakes, and is a ridiculous waste of water. It apparently takes 2-4 million gallons of water per well, according to the following EPA REPORT (PDF). (I recently corrected this figure, because a reader stated their concern over the accuracy of the source).
Read more facts on this creatively done website: The Dangers of Fracking
PAGANS PROTEST
Apparently the Pagan Community in Britain has been a buzz with organized activity against Fracking. Some of the most prominent voices are Phillip Carr-Gomm, a leader in the Druid Community, and Starhawk a prolific author on books about Goddess and Earth Based spirituality. You can see Phillip speak out in the video below.
PAGAN VOICES SPEAK OUT
OUR MEN AGAINST FRACKING
WOMEN SPEAK FOR THE EARTH
RITUAL AGAINST FRACKING
On September 28th there will be a large anti-fracking ritual called “The Warrior’s Call” to protect a location called Albion from fracking. Apparently 1300 people will be attending! People around the world who can’t show up will also host their own rituals to give support.
MORE LINKS ON PAGANS AGAINST FRACKING BELOW
The Pagan Anti-Fracking Movement.
The Pagan Anti-Fracking Movement in Historical Context
Albion Anti-Fracking Movement (OBOD)
Sign up for a Frack Free U.K. Greenpeace
PAGAN LEADERS AGAINST FRACKING
RITUAL AGAINST FRACKING SEPT 28:
Metal Gaia 
Yea fracking is like putting a grenade on the end of your condom and then lets see what happens. It is not an exact science. In my state of Pennsylvania it is big business up north, and it Has kept the price of propane the same for the last few years, but who knows the consequences to the watersheds, which have already been and are still being challenged by previous coal mining in the past. The big temptation is for those older farmers who have lots of land and these companies come waving huge checks at them with lots of fine print in the contract, and those farmers knowing the money will be helpful at the end of their lives but not knowing the consequences to the land later.
September 13, 2013 at 8:05 am
That’s really sad. We need to focus more on Renewable Energy. :- (
September 13, 2013 at 9:29 am
If you want to actually stop fracking, people need to stop writing poorly-researched articles like this. “It apparently takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracking job”. Apparent to whom? There are very few facts in the source from which that quote comes. The rest is vague nonsense, and is used to come up with ridiculous math. Notice that it is “apparently” 1-8 million gallons of water needed to frac a well. Why does the math at the end make no mention of the 1 million, only 8 million? It’s purposefully misleading.
It’s good to be interested in things and to not take things at face value. But stop doing this. These sources are garbage. Treat them as such. Approach things that seem to support your beliefs with the same tenacity as those that don’t.
How many people would even recognize a picture of a frac job, if they were shown one? It might nit be a bad idea at some point to find out what it actually looks like. Then consider whether it’s possible to have 8 million gallons of water (or 1 million for that matter) and 40,000 gallons of chemicals on location. Or whether or not there’s actually 400 trucks that haul everything in and out.
I’m not saying fracking is good or bad. I’m saying there needs to be an understanding of what you’re actually discussing before you can be taken seriously.
September 14, 2013 at 10:19 am
I got the number about the 1-8 million gallons of water from dangersoffracking.com. Other sources I read seemed to confirm that millions of gallons of water were used in the process regardless.
However, that’s probably not as good a source as the link below:
Click to access Draft+Plan+to+Study+the+Potential+Impacts+of+Hydraulic+Fracturing+on+Drinking+Water+Resources-February+2011.pdf
I’ll probably fix my article to include this source more than the other. I simply thought the other source, albeit less official, would be easier for people browsing the web to understand. The above link I just posted is a report from the Environmental Protection Agency that states the following: “2 to 4 million gallons of water
are typically needed per well. “
September 15, 2013 at 4:53 pm
Thank you for pointing out your concerns. I admit this is probably not the most thorough article on the issue of fracking. However, I’m trying to comment more on a basic nature of the situation and the Pagan Community’s involvement in trying to stop it.
A large part of the problem is that we have governments, politicians and other people in power who are trying to tell the people that Fracking is harmless when this is simply not true. People need to alert themselves to the dangers of such action, and maybe do more research themselves (beyond the scope of this blog) before they allow such an operation in their communities.
September 15, 2013 at 5:00 pm
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