Where I live in the Hudson Valley, NY State area, my local community is facing a terrible environmental threat. This is the construction of a huge natural gas-fired power plant, the CPV Power Plant in Wawayanda NY, that will belch out massive pollution into the air and water, threatening health and well-being throughout our area, poisoning our water supply and running the risk of massive explosions.
See http://www.blog.protectorangecounty.org/ to learn more. If you live in the Orange County area, the web site will tell you action that you can take. Time is of the essence! The final permit needed for the project will be decided by early August, so the more people call and write to Governor Cuomo, who will make the final decision, the better our chances to stop this nightmare. Tell Andrew Cuomo to not approve the permit, because we need to stop the Power Plant. Call the governor at 1-518-474-8390. Call every day if you can. You can also leave comments at https://www.governor.ny.gov/contact-iframe. Cuomo gives every indication of wanting to run for president in 2020. Let him know that if he stops this project, you will consider supporting him in any future presidential campaign, and that if he does not, you will take your business elsewhere!
I have decided to reflect on the situation through the lens of Norse Mythology. Is the threat like the Frost Giants looking to snuff out the sun, or is it the Fire Demon Surt looking to burn up the earth? Well, both of those could be said to symbolize the current state of danger, but there is another mythological image that works even better: Thor fighting the Midgard Serpent. What made me think of this is something I heard today at a protest today in front of The Threat. A Native American man, a descendant of the local Lenape Native Americans who ancient burial ground is threatened by the CPV plant, spoke about the Indian myth of a "black snake" that poses a danger to the earth. He argued that the massive push by oil and gas companies to build pipelines and drill for gas and oil everywhere as much and as fast as possible was the modern version of the Black Snake. A second speaker noted that just as the snake can burrow into the ground and grow multiple heads that reach into all directions, so does the Millennium Pipeline, the local structure providing distribution of fracked gas in this area, represent a hydra-headed menace growing day by day as construction of this and related pipelines proceeds. Pondering the snake image, I thought of the Midgard Serpent, Thor's ancient enemy, who he must fight again and again, never quite vanquishing but hopefully keeping in check.
This pipeline and this power plant, and all the other power plants and pipelines that similarly threaten other communities, are our Midgard Serpent. We must, like Thor, raise our hammers to fight it back. Victory will not come all at once, or it may only be partial, or it may never come, but we must fight.
Protect the Earth. Protect Midgard, the only world we humans have. Remember Thor. Fight back the Serpent. This is our duty.
Showing posts with label natural gas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural gas. Show all posts
Friday, July 14, 2017
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Solstice Meditations on the Fragility of Nature
Today, the day of the summer solstice, is a time to celebrate the beauty and vitality of nature, to bask in the rays of light and warmth reaching out to us all around the earth. In the Lithuanian Pagan solstice observance known as Rasos or Jonines, paralleled in the Latvian holiday of Ligo, and other similar festivities across Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia, the peak of the nightlong celebration is the setting on fire of wagon wheels coated in pitch, which are rolled down hills to mimic the rolling or turning of the sun across the seasons. As there is only a brief time of darkness on the night of the summer solstice, owing to the phenomenon of the White Nights in the Northern European summer, the lighting of the wheel is meant to re-awaken the sun when it seems to have disappeared, however briefly, threatening darkness, chaos and death. Happily, the sun is soon again shining, and the cycle is complete.
The lighting of the wheel is a reminder that the ancients understood nature to be not only sacred and vital, but also fragile, in perpetual risk of destruction or disappearance. Whether you go out today or tonight to celebrate the solstice, or stay home due to the endless round of task and obligations that consume our lives like the darkness that swallows the sun each night, say a prayer or take a moment to contemplate how our modern way of life has threatened the continued vitality of nature like never before in human history. Let's take a note from the wisdom of the ancients, and remember that life is not just a quest for material consumption and social status. Life is also to be lived in, and with, nature, and that imposes a sacred obligation on us to not allow nature to be destroyed. Not by choking our air with automobile exhaust, not by blowing up mountains to burn more coal, not by ripping open the depths of the earth and ruining the water supply to scrape out more oil and gas, not by mining uranium to fuel unsafe nuclear power plants, not by islands of plastic garbage stifling the sea, and not by mountains of discarded electronics that poor children in Africa and elsewhere burn to separate the valuable bits to make more electronics to be discarded next year.
There are so many problems to be addressed in our unhealthy use of nature's resources, but the sun, who we Pagans salute on the solstice, contains one key to our planet's survival. The sun offers boundless energy that we can tap without destroying or desecrating our environment. Solar power is not a panacea to all that ails the earth and our relationship to it, but it is at least a partial solution to one piece of our environmental dilemma. Let's embrace that full-force and encourage our politicians to do the same!
May all hail the beauty, warmth and power of the sun.....!
May all remember our dependence on, and the fragility, of nature.....!
May all find the wisdom in their hearts to respect true and enduring values....!
Peace and plenty to you and yours on the solstice!
The lighting of the wheel is a reminder that the ancients understood nature to be not only sacred and vital, but also fragile, in perpetual risk of destruction or disappearance. Whether you go out today or tonight to celebrate the solstice, or stay home due to the endless round of task and obligations that consume our lives like the darkness that swallows the sun each night, say a prayer or take a moment to contemplate how our modern way of life has threatened the continued vitality of nature like never before in human history. Let's take a note from the wisdom of the ancients, and remember that life is not just a quest for material consumption and social status. Life is also to be lived in, and with, nature, and that imposes a sacred obligation on us to not allow nature to be destroyed. Not by choking our air with automobile exhaust, not by blowing up mountains to burn more coal, not by ripping open the depths of the earth and ruining the water supply to scrape out more oil and gas, not by mining uranium to fuel unsafe nuclear power plants, not by islands of plastic garbage stifling the sea, and not by mountains of discarded electronics that poor children in Africa and elsewhere burn to separate the valuable bits to make more electronics to be discarded next year.
There are so many problems to be addressed in our unhealthy use of nature's resources, but the sun, who we Pagans salute on the solstice, contains one key to our planet's survival. The sun offers boundless energy that we can tap without destroying or desecrating our environment. Solar power is not a panacea to all that ails the earth and our relationship to it, but it is at least a partial solution to one piece of our environmental dilemma. Let's embrace that full-force and encourage our politicians to do the same!
May all hail the beauty, warmth and power of the sun.....!
May all remember our dependence on, and the fragility, of nature.....!
May all find the wisdom in their hearts to respect true and enduring values....!
Peace and plenty to you and yours on the solstice!
Monday, October 29, 2012
The Election and the Environment
Another autumn, another horrible storm bearing down on the USA, and just a week away from our 2012 presidential election. We are experiencing these destructive mega-storms with ever-increasing frequency. Just last year on almost the same date, a hurricane that came after many weeks of heavy rain did massive damage, including turning a street near by me into a river when the underground sewer exploded from an excess of water pounding through the pipes. The weather event unfolding today and expected to continue to howl and rage all this week, is truly a monster, called "Frankenstorm" by some, as it combines a hurricane with a couple of other weather fronts to create a huge storm system nearly 1000 miles wide, which means it will move very slowly through the region before it finally dissipates, and subject most of the US East Coast as well as areas well inland to a sustained beating by rain and wind that is sure to cause many people to lose electricity, if not their lives, and many homes, buildings, road and other structures to be severely damaged or even destroyed. Low-lying parts of New York City are already being evacuated, and if the water surge around coastal areas is as expected, major damage could be done to the NYC train and subway system, which could soon be sitting underwater.
This kind of extreme weather is exactly what all the scientific research about global warming has been predicting: more killer storms, ever more frequent, ever more immense, and ever more destructive. The storm bearing down on us today is much larger than the horrendous Katrina storm of 2005, which shows, I suppose, some kind of progress on the climate change issue, but progress in the wrong direction, in that we have succeeded in paving the way for even more destructive weather.
If the storm is half as devastating as some are predicting, one would hope--and pray--that this would be the wake-up call that America has been needing to begin taking serious measures to change our patterns of energy usage and production, in order to at least slow down our descent into a future of hellishly calamitous weather, if not begin to reverse it, but I am not confident that my country has the wisdom, judgment, collective will or long-term vision to step up to the task.
Looking at our ongoing presidential election campaign, I see little cause for confidence. Both candidates are refusing to raise the difficult questions that need to be raised about carbon-based fuels and our need to make a rapid transition to other forms of energy. How fast can we make a transition to cleaner energy sources? How much will it cost? What new structures will have to be created? Instead of speaking to any such concerns, both President Obama and his challenger, Governor Romney, are peddling the same moronic pablum about the need to pursue an "all of the above" energy strategy, meaning continuing to drill for oil and gas, including expanding the controversial, environmentally dubious practice of hydrofracture gas drilling which has been previously addressed on this blog; continuing to extract coal by all means possible, including blowing up mountaintops for coal, ruining the surrounding rivers and streams and kissing goodbye to some of our most cherished landscapes; continuing to press for new nuclear power plants, even after the hard lessons of the Fukushima meltdown of a year and a half ago, not to mention Chernobyl 1996; and also, last and perhaps least in the two candidates' schemes of things, continuing to develop newer, more sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal.
The main area of contention between the two has been over who is more supportive of the coal industry. That's right, COAL: the dirtiest, most polluting carbon-based fuel of all. To listen to Obama and Romney go at each other on this issue, each pointing out how the other has in the past taken measures to limit or turn away from coal production, you might think that the two men were running for King of Coal, not President of the United States. Both keep going on about "clean coal," which does not exist outside of coal industry propaganda. Coal is a dirty, polluting fuel, period, and its extraction wreaks havoc on the environment wherever it is done. The sooner we are done with coal, the better.
Obama is better than Romney on the environmental front, but not by much. Obama's administration did provide funding for weatherization, solar power and other "Green Energy" type businesses, as part of the 2009-10 "Stimulus" program, but has not done much in this area since, caving in to vociferous opposition by conservative Republicans who mock the very concepts of climate change and green energy. He has however advanced higher fuel economy standards for cars and put in place other environmental regulations. Rommey has followed his party in attacking Obama for supporting some green energy businesses that went under, such as the Solyndra, solar power panel company, but continues to claim that he is pro-green, arguing that what was wrong with Solyndra was putting public, taxpayer money at risk when all such new investment should be left to private investment companies.
A major problem with the Romney private investment approach is that it leaves our long-term energy and environmental future to the whims of short-term oriented capitalists and investment brokers, who are not concerned with the fate of the planet in 2100 and 3100, but only the profits to be made in the next few months or years. Romney also talks of rolling back environmental legislation that he characterizes, in official Republican party-line jargon, as "job-killing," painting the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, as a kind of demonic, cannibalistic force that must be stopped. Ironically, it was President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, who created the EPA in the first place. That was back when Republicans were still capable of caring about the environment and did not yet view environmentalism as an anti-American conspiracy that they could profit from denouncing.
Sadly, both candidates were in the past far more environmentally aware and far more supportive of government action to combat climate change and global warming than they are today. While governor of Massachusetts, Romney made an appearance in front of a coal-burning power plant and stated the forthright position that he was in favor of shutting down the plant because "it kills" by virtue of the negative health effects of burning coal. Romney now completely rejects this stance. In a similarly breathtaking display of political expediency and environmental hypocrisy, the same Barack Obama who once spoke eloquently about the need to combat climate change and turn toward cleaner forms of energy now hardly ever mentions the word climate change, but has a lot of kind words for coal and hydrofracking.
Obama's betrayal is especially grievous because he was in a position, coming into office after the carbon-fuel based Bush-Cheney administration, to really chart a different energy and environmental course. He has, as noted, put in place regulations that will help create a cleaner environment over time, but Obama has displayed his characteristic timidity and political cowardice in failing to make a strong, loud, public case in favor of clean energy and a greener future. He has been too worried about reelection and so failed to use the presidency as a teaching-tool to educate the population and shape public opinion for the long-term struggles ahead. He took the coward's way out, and now fewer Americans believe that global warming is a real and pressing issue than did when Obama took office. By pursuing a kind of "stealth strategy" on environmental issues, quietly pushing regulations behind closed doors while for the most part keeping silent on the public stage, Obama has ceded ground to the anti-environmental, pro-carbon fuel forces that have swamped the media universe with pro-coal, pro-fracking propaganda, and cast doubt on the need for rapid and decisive action on energy and environmental issues.
So who's a liberal, environmentalist American Pagan to vote for, given this choice between two candidates who have each proven so craven and hypocritical on environmental issues? Well, taking into account other issues like women's health care, abortion rights, ending tax policy that favors the rich, reducing the size of our obese and bloated military, the future composition of the Supreme Court, and preservation of social programs that help the underprivileged, Obama is definitely the better choice, and is still marginally better than Romney on the environmental front, as he has, as stated, supported regulations that will be helpful in the long run. But either way, we will not yet have a President who clearly, boldly, publicly and forthrightly supports a new direction in energy policy for the USA, who is capable of turning away decisively from carbon-based fuels to aggressively promote less polluting energy forms like solar, wind and geothermal in order to preserve the health and well-being of the natural world for the sake of future generations. Voting day this year will be a sad day for environmentalists, regardless of who wins.
There is however another choice: the Green Party candidate Jill Stein for President. She has no chance of actually winning the election, but if the Greens make a stronger showing this year than in years past, it will put pressure on the other political parties to be more pro-environmental, and will also help the Green Party obtain government funding for future election campaigns. I therefore advise liberal, environmentalist Pagans to consider voting for Jill Stein as an alternative to President Obama. However, as the worst result by far would be for Romney to become President, as he is clearly beholden to the extreme right wing of his party, I would advise voters who share my concerns to look at the situation in the following manner.
If you are in a state where Obama is sure to win, such as New York, Massachusetts or California, then consider voting for Jill Stein. Obama will still win the state, but your vote will help promote the only political party currently offering a boldly pro-environmental direction. However, if you are in a state where the election is very close, such as Ohio, Florida or Nevada, I would suggest supporting Obama, not with great enthusiasm, but simply as the necessary expedient to prevent a total right-wing takeover of our system of government. Romney's foreign policy statements and advisers suggest he might well drag us into another Middle Eastern War, and this must absolutely be avoided.
So, if you are a liberal, a Pagan and concerned about the environment, I urge you to consider, depending on where you are, either voting Green or Democrat.
Beyond the election, I hope to see Pagans getting more involved in political causes, especially as regards the environment. As far as I know, reverence for the environment and the sacredness of nature is one of the unifying themes of ALL Paganism from Asatru to Romuva to Wicca. Hopefully we can all make more effort to protect this earth that we all love and value.
This kind of extreme weather is exactly what all the scientific research about global warming has been predicting: more killer storms, ever more frequent, ever more immense, and ever more destructive. The storm bearing down on us today is much larger than the horrendous Katrina storm of 2005, which shows, I suppose, some kind of progress on the climate change issue, but progress in the wrong direction, in that we have succeeded in paving the way for even more destructive weather.
If the storm is half as devastating as some are predicting, one would hope--and pray--that this would be the wake-up call that America has been needing to begin taking serious measures to change our patterns of energy usage and production, in order to at least slow down our descent into a future of hellishly calamitous weather, if not begin to reverse it, but I am not confident that my country has the wisdom, judgment, collective will or long-term vision to step up to the task.
Looking at our ongoing presidential election campaign, I see little cause for confidence. Both candidates are refusing to raise the difficult questions that need to be raised about carbon-based fuels and our need to make a rapid transition to other forms of energy. How fast can we make a transition to cleaner energy sources? How much will it cost? What new structures will have to be created? Instead of speaking to any such concerns, both President Obama and his challenger, Governor Romney, are peddling the same moronic pablum about the need to pursue an "all of the above" energy strategy, meaning continuing to drill for oil and gas, including expanding the controversial, environmentally dubious practice of hydrofracture gas drilling which has been previously addressed on this blog; continuing to extract coal by all means possible, including blowing up mountaintops for coal, ruining the surrounding rivers and streams and kissing goodbye to some of our most cherished landscapes; continuing to press for new nuclear power plants, even after the hard lessons of the Fukushima meltdown of a year and a half ago, not to mention Chernobyl 1996; and also, last and perhaps least in the two candidates' schemes of things, continuing to develop newer, more sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal.
The main area of contention between the two has been over who is more supportive of the coal industry. That's right, COAL: the dirtiest, most polluting carbon-based fuel of all. To listen to Obama and Romney go at each other on this issue, each pointing out how the other has in the past taken measures to limit or turn away from coal production, you might think that the two men were running for King of Coal, not President of the United States. Both keep going on about "clean coal," which does not exist outside of coal industry propaganda. Coal is a dirty, polluting fuel, period, and its extraction wreaks havoc on the environment wherever it is done. The sooner we are done with coal, the better.
Obama is better than Romney on the environmental front, but not by much. Obama's administration did provide funding for weatherization, solar power and other "Green Energy" type businesses, as part of the 2009-10 "Stimulus" program, but has not done much in this area since, caving in to vociferous opposition by conservative Republicans who mock the very concepts of climate change and green energy. He has however advanced higher fuel economy standards for cars and put in place other environmental regulations. Rommey has followed his party in attacking Obama for supporting some green energy businesses that went under, such as the Solyndra, solar power panel company, but continues to claim that he is pro-green, arguing that what was wrong with Solyndra was putting public, taxpayer money at risk when all such new investment should be left to private investment companies.
A major problem with the Romney private investment approach is that it leaves our long-term energy and environmental future to the whims of short-term oriented capitalists and investment brokers, who are not concerned with the fate of the planet in 2100 and 3100, but only the profits to be made in the next few months or years. Romney also talks of rolling back environmental legislation that he characterizes, in official Republican party-line jargon, as "job-killing," painting the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, as a kind of demonic, cannibalistic force that must be stopped. Ironically, it was President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, who created the EPA in the first place. That was back when Republicans were still capable of caring about the environment and did not yet view environmentalism as an anti-American conspiracy that they could profit from denouncing.
Sadly, both candidates were in the past far more environmentally aware and far more supportive of government action to combat climate change and global warming than they are today. While governor of Massachusetts, Romney made an appearance in front of a coal-burning power plant and stated the forthright position that he was in favor of shutting down the plant because "it kills" by virtue of the negative health effects of burning coal. Romney now completely rejects this stance. In a similarly breathtaking display of political expediency and environmental hypocrisy, the same Barack Obama who once spoke eloquently about the need to combat climate change and turn toward cleaner forms of energy now hardly ever mentions the word climate change, but has a lot of kind words for coal and hydrofracking.
Obama's betrayal is especially grievous because he was in a position, coming into office after the carbon-fuel based Bush-Cheney administration, to really chart a different energy and environmental course. He has, as noted, put in place regulations that will help create a cleaner environment over time, but Obama has displayed his characteristic timidity and political cowardice in failing to make a strong, loud, public case in favor of clean energy and a greener future. He has been too worried about reelection and so failed to use the presidency as a teaching-tool to educate the population and shape public opinion for the long-term struggles ahead. He took the coward's way out, and now fewer Americans believe that global warming is a real and pressing issue than did when Obama took office. By pursuing a kind of "stealth strategy" on environmental issues, quietly pushing regulations behind closed doors while for the most part keeping silent on the public stage, Obama has ceded ground to the anti-environmental, pro-carbon fuel forces that have swamped the media universe with pro-coal, pro-fracking propaganda, and cast doubt on the need for rapid and decisive action on energy and environmental issues.
So who's a liberal, environmentalist American Pagan to vote for, given this choice between two candidates who have each proven so craven and hypocritical on environmental issues? Well, taking into account other issues like women's health care, abortion rights, ending tax policy that favors the rich, reducing the size of our obese and bloated military, the future composition of the Supreme Court, and preservation of social programs that help the underprivileged, Obama is definitely the better choice, and is still marginally better than Romney on the environmental front, as he has, as stated, supported regulations that will be helpful in the long run. But either way, we will not yet have a President who clearly, boldly, publicly and forthrightly supports a new direction in energy policy for the USA, who is capable of turning away decisively from carbon-based fuels to aggressively promote less polluting energy forms like solar, wind and geothermal in order to preserve the health and well-being of the natural world for the sake of future generations. Voting day this year will be a sad day for environmentalists, regardless of who wins.
There is however another choice: the Green Party candidate Jill Stein for President. She has no chance of actually winning the election, but if the Greens make a stronger showing this year than in years past, it will put pressure on the other political parties to be more pro-environmental, and will also help the Green Party obtain government funding for future election campaigns. I therefore advise liberal, environmentalist Pagans to consider voting for Jill Stein as an alternative to President Obama. However, as the worst result by far would be for Romney to become President, as he is clearly beholden to the extreme right wing of his party, I would advise voters who share my concerns to look at the situation in the following manner.
If you are in a state where Obama is sure to win, such as New York, Massachusetts or California, then consider voting for Jill Stein. Obama will still win the state, but your vote will help promote the only political party currently offering a boldly pro-environmental direction. However, if you are in a state where the election is very close, such as Ohio, Florida or Nevada, I would suggest supporting Obama, not with great enthusiasm, but simply as the necessary expedient to prevent a total right-wing takeover of our system of government. Romney's foreign policy statements and advisers suggest he might well drag us into another Middle Eastern War, and this must absolutely be avoided.
So, if you are a liberal, a Pagan and concerned about the environment, I urge you to consider, depending on where you are, either voting Green or Democrat.
Beyond the election, I hope to see Pagans getting more involved in political causes, especially as regards the environment. As far as I know, reverence for the environment and the sacredness of nature is one of the unifying themes of ALL Paganism from Asatru to Romuva to Wicca. Hopefully we can all make more effort to protect this earth that we all love and value.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Happy Independence Day: Welcome to the United States of Mordor
This weekend, many American are celebrating the holiday of Independence Day, recalling our great victory against British imperialism more than two centuries ago. I see this as a rather hollow celebration because today we are firmly in the grip of a different kind of tyranny: corporate capitalism, particularly the iron grip of the oil, gas and coal companies, the carbon-based energy industry, over our lives, our land, our future. Are we a free and independent people, or just the puppets and slaves of corporate powers that do as they like and then tell us what to think? I am afraid to answer the question. Instead, let me tell you my worries about a particular situation.
In my part of the United States, there is a massive effort underway by large energy companies to take control of many areas of land in order to drill for natural gas. This has come about because of the discovery of huge quantities of natural gas locked in shale rock formations underground and the development of new technologies for drilling that inject industrial chemicals into the earth to soften up the underground rock along with pumping highly pressurized water to crack open the rock--this is known as "hydraulic fracturing" or "hydro-fracturing," "fracking" for short--and push the gas out of the crevices where it sits. America is looking at a potential new "gold rush" based on natural gas. In New York State and adjoining states like Pennsylvania, there is an underground reservoir of gas called the "Marcellus Shale" formation, and this is what the energy companies are pushing to sink their claws--I mean drills--into. Many Americans are eager to join in and get rich or at least obtain employment through this new sector of the energy industry. I do not share this enthusiasm, and will here explain my opposition as a resident of New York, a citizen of the United States of America,a dweller on the earth, and a Pagan who values the sacredness of nature.
A documentary film called "Gasland" directed by the filmmaker Josh Fox exposes the potential for great environmental harm that can happen through fracking. In other parts of the country where hydro-fracturing has been in operation for some years, the resulting problems include poisoning of drinking water supplies, endless noise pollution due to the industrial-scale machinery, destruction of once-beautiful rural landscape by the aforesaid machinery, and earthquakes. The last item may sound quite incredible, but after the institution of hydrofracture gas extraction, there have been strange new occurrences of earth tremors in areas that have never before witnessed such phenomena. Most famously, the "Gasland" film shows people turning on their water faucets, lighting matches, and the water from their faucets igniting into jets of flame, as if they were turning on a burner on a gas stove.
The gas companies are embarked on a vigorous public relations campaign to convince the general population as well as politicians and legislatures that the risks portrayed in the "Gasland" film as well as those described by growing ranks of protesters, some of whom are disgruntled homeowners who agreed to lease their land to the energy companies and now find themselves living in an ugly, polluted industrial zone, are exaggerated and not worthy of concern. The situation now is very much a race against time. The energy companies are eager to get their drill rigs in place and start extracting across a wide swath of the United States. Government authorities at the local, state and federal level must make decisions and design policies about whether to allow fracking, to prohibit,or--in the most likely scenario, in New York and elsewhere--to allow it on a limited basis. I see that last option as an awful Trojan Horse victory for the energy companies. Opposition groups exist but they do not have anything near the money and influence of the energy giants. It is a David vs. Goliath situation, and there is no guarantee that any anti-fracking David will find a way to slay the corporate giant, or even to slow it down.
Most politicians in America right now, including Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State, are scared to stand up to the oil, gas and coal companies, let alone take the fight to the next level and advocate for developing clean, green energy sources such as wind and solar power. The energy industry offers easy, short-term gratification in the form of quickly available jobs and revenues, whereas the development of alternative energy is a long-term proposition that will require considerable public investment, at least in the early stages, and a period of trial and error. In a time of mass unemployment and despair, the easy answers of the existing, carbon-based energy companies are very appealing. What is also appealing to politicians are the large amounts of money that the energy companies can offer to contribute to compliant politicians' future campaigns, OR that can be turned against them by donations to opponents or to publicity campaigns that attack the politicians. Sadly, many politicians, opportunistic by nature and by what they perceive as electoral necessity, seem likely to cave in to the energy companies to enjoy the short-term benefits of a quick burst of new jobs and economic development without worrying about the nightmarishly worrisome long-term consequences. These include...
:: water than you cannot drink, but can set alight to use for cooking;(make sure to tell your children!)
:: a constant roar of massive machinery that can last for months and years;(this may be attractive to people who enjoy the sound of motorcycles and NASCAR races, and who would like to be continually engulfed in such a joyous sonic environment)
:: land that is no longer attractive for living in or traveling to; (good-bye property values, agriculture and tourism)
:: less likelihood of other kinds of economic development or industry being attracted to a frackified area due to the unpleasant and unhealthy conditions and the sheer UGLINESS created by large-scale fracking operations (great if you work for an oil, gas or coal company, possibly less appealing to others)
:: increased global warming effects due to increased availability of carbon-based fuels, allowing us to continue our wasteful American lifestyle for a few decades more (wonderful if you believe that "American exceptionalism" requires all Americans to be as selfish, ignorant and wasteful as possible, with no worry about environmental problems)
:: potential for earthquakes (great for drumming up new business if you run a Doomsday cult or a Survivalist shop)
This is just so wrong on so many levels, I hardly know what to say. It is so depressing to know that fracking is probably going to become part of the fabric of American life in many, if not all of the fifty American states. This country may well become the United States of Mordor: a bleak landscape of smoke and sadness ruled over by a cruel power that demands backbreaking labor and crushes any attempt at dissent. In this application of Tolkien, I see American capitalism, and its favored sons the energy companies and Wall Street financial companies, as the different faces of Sauron. I would consider fleeing to Canada except that the same situation exists there as well. This shows the bankruptcy of our system of so-called democracy. Politicians running for election are rarely rewarded for taking a long-term view, for being good stewards of the earth and the future. Powerful corporations have enormous influence and are able to brainwash the public to follow their will. Most voters do not take the trouble to educate themselves on the issues. I do feel great despair.
As a Pagan, I am reminded of the many myths that speak of the devastation of the earth, that cry out against this and protest it. The obvious example is the Ragnarok myth in Norse mythology. Readers, can you suggest other Pagan traditions that warn us against destroying nature?
In my part of the United States, there is a massive effort underway by large energy companies to take control of many areas of land in order to drill for natural gas. This has come about because of the discovery of huge quantities of natural gas locked in shale rock formations underground and the development of new technologies for drilling that inject industrial chemicals into the earth to soften up the underground rock along with pumping highly pressurized water to crack open the rock--this is known as "hydraulic fracturing" or "hydro-fracturing," "fracking" for short--and push the gas out of the crevices where it sits. America is looking at a potential new "gold rush" based on natural gas. In New York State and adjoining states like Pennsylvania, there is an underground reservoir of gas called the "Marcellus Shale" formation, and this is what the energy companies are pushing to sink their claws--I mean drills--into. Many Americans are eager to join in and get rich or at least obtain employment through this new sector of the energy industry. I do not share this enthusiasm, and will here explain my opposition as a resident of New York, a citizen of the United States of America,a dweller on the earth, and a Pagan who values the sacredness of nature.
A documentary film called "Gasland" directed by the filmmaker Josh Fox exposes the potential for great environmental harm that can happen through fracking. In other parts of the country where hydro-fracturing has been in operation for some years, the resulting problems include poisoning of drinking water supplies, endless noise pollution due to the industrial-scale machinery, destruction of once-beautiful rural landscape by the aforesaid machinery, and earthquakes. The last item may sound quite incredible, but after the institution of hydrofracture gas extraction, there have been strange new occurrences of earth tremors in areas that have never before witnessed such phenomena. Most famously, the "Gasland" film shows people turning on their water faucets, lighting matches, and the water from their faucets igniting into jets of flame, as if they were turning on a burner on a gas stove.
The gas companies are embarked on a vigorous public relations campaign to convince the general population as well as politicians and legislatures that the risks portrayed in the "Gasland" film as well as those described by growing ranks of protesters, some of whom are disgruntled homeowners who agreed to lease their land to the energy companies and now find themselves living in an ugly, polluted industrial zone, are exaggerated and not worthy of concern. The situation now is very much a race against time. The energy companies are eager to get their drill rigs in place and start extracting across a wide swath of the United States. Government authorities at the local, state and federal level must make decisions and design policies about whether to allow fracking, to prohibit,or--in the most likely scenario, in New York and elsewhere--to allow it on a limited basis. I see that last option as an awful Trojan Horse victory for the energy companies. Opposition groups exist but they do not have anything near the money and influence of the energy giants. It is a David vs. Goliath situation, and there is no guarantee that any anti-fracking David will find a way to slay the corporate giant, or even to slow it down.
Most politicians in America right now, including Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State, are scared to stand up to the oil, gas and coal companies, let alone take the fight to the next level and advocate for developing clean, green energy sources such as wind and solar power. The energy industry offers easy, short-term gratification in the form of quickly available jobs and revenues, whereas the development of alternative energy is a long-term proposition that will require considerable public investment, at least in the early stages, and a period of trial and error. In a time of mass unemployment and despair, the easy answers of the existing, carbon-based energy companies are very appealing. What is also appealing to politicians are the large amounts of money that the energy companies can offer to contribute to compliant politicians' future campaigns, OR that can be turned against them by donations to opponents or to publicity campaigns that attack the politicians. Sadly, many politicians, opportunistic by nature and by what they perceive as electoral necessity, seem likely to cave in to the energy companies to enjoy the short-term benefits of a quick burst of new jobs and economic development without worrying about the nightmarishly worrisome long-term consequences. These include...
:: water than you cannot drink, but can set alight to use for cooking;(make sure to tell your children!)
:: a constant roar of massive machinery that can last for months and years;(this may be attractive to people who enjoy the sound of motorcycles and NASCAR races, and who would like to be continually engulfed in such a joyous sonic environment)
:: land that is no longer attractive for living in or traveling to; (good-bye property values, agriculture and tourism)
:: less likelihood of other kinds of economic development or industry being attracted to a frackified area due to the unpleasant and unhealthy conditions and the sheer UGLINESS created by large-scale fracking operations (great if you work for an oil, gas or coal company, possibly less appealing to others)
:: increased global warming effects due to increased availability of carbon-based fuels, allowing us to continue our wasteful American lifestyle for a few decades more (wonderful if you believe that "American exceptionalism" requires all Americans to be as selfish, ignorant and wasteful as possible, with no worry about environmental problems)
:: potential for earthquakes (great for drumming up new business if you run a Doomsday cult or a Survivalist shop)
This is just so wrong on so many levels, I hardly know what to say. It is so depressing to know that fracking is probably going to become part of the fabric of American life in many, if not all of the fifty American states. This country may well become the United States of Mordor: a bleak landscape of smoke and sadness ruled over by a cruel power that demands backbreaking labor and crushes any attempt at dissent. In this application of Tolkien, I see American capitalism, and its favored sons the energy companies and Wall Street financial companies, as the different faces of Sauron. I would consider fleeing to Canada except that the same situation exists there as well. This shows the bankruptcy of our system of so-called democracy. Politicians running for election are rarely rewarded for taking a long-term view, for being good stewards of the earth and the future. Powerful corporations have enormous influence and are able to brainwash the public to follow their will. Most voters do not take the trouble to educate themselves on the issues. I do feel great despair.
As a Pagan, I am reminded of the many myths that speak of the devastation of the earth, that cry out against this and protest it. The obvious example is the Ragnarok myth in Norse mythology. Readers, can you suggest other Pagan traditions that warn us against destroying nature?
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