Dr. Betty Holley, Contributing Writer
As members of the priesthood of all believers, we should be caretakers of what God has given us—Mother Earth. Being a caretaker means that everyone is responsible for keeping a watchful eye over themselves, personally, in how we interact with every living thing on earth. Earth is our only home! Therefore, we should view our responsibility to earth as a lifestyle choice. Our entire focus of living on earth should be centered around just taking only what is needed to survive so that others will have what they need. Someone once said, “Be good to the earth, and the earth will take care of you.” So, what about fracking?
Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high quantity of water, sand, and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure—high enough to crack the rock—which allows the once-trapped oil & gas to flow to the surface out to the head of the drilling well. Fracking is detrimental to our survival here on earth. Yet, a Cornucopian believer would welcome fracking. Why? Fracking is advancing technologically, and the belief that the earth will rebound–take care of itself. It does not matter about the risk factors of fracking affecting people’s health, wildlife habitats eradication, land erosion, and, more importantly, climate change. Who cares if fracking will cause accidents, leaks, fires, and spills every year? Who cares if there is a disruption of communities across the country? Who cares if people are killed at various fracking work sites? Who cares if toxic and radioactive waste is being produced in massive quantities? Who cares if derailing explosive, mile-long oil trains near cities along great rivers occur? These are the thoughts of a Cornucopian believer.
A Malthusian believer would view fracking as the culprit of climate change due to the activities of fracking to acquire more resources, and the increasing population would be viewed as a threat to our human health. A Malthusian believer would have predicted the disruption of wildlife migration routes and habitats from noise pollution due to fracking. They would have predicted people of color would withstand the worst of additional fossil fuel pollution coming from public lands. They would have predicted 19 million acres of untouched wilderness in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge for oil and gas drilling. They would have predicted that the impacts of fracking are often irreversible. Malthusian believers would have predicted in six western states in the US, 74,000 people are threatened by pollution emitted from wells, tanks, and pipelines due to activities of fracking. They would have predicted that there are 96,000 active oil and gas wells on public lands, which give off pollutions that contribute to climate change and which are linked to asthma attacks in children, especially. Here are nine reasons to ban fracking globally.
-Fracking accelerates climate change.
-Fracking pollutes drinking water.
-Fracking produces toxic — even radioactive — wastewater.
-Fracking makes people sick and causes a host of public health problems.
-Fracking is exempt from federal environmental laws allowing corporations such as Exxon Mobil or Chevron to conceal the contents of chemical cocktails.
- Fracking and the disposal of fracking wastewater cause earthquakes.
- Fracking is driving a huge petrochemical and plastics boom.
- Fracking is expanding pipeline infrastructure across the country.
- Fracking imposes heavy social costs and quality of life burdens.
The only way toward a clean, renewable energy future is to ban fracking and stop all new fossil fuel development. We need to ban fracking everywhere, but the first step is saving our public lands from the free-for-all fracking permits the former president ushered through.
