Fracking Means We're Fucked

         It's well past midnight. But I can't sleep. I heard about Josh Fox's documentary on hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, from Bill Maher. (Say what one will about the ever vigilant pornography loving, womanizing, pot smoking, religion hating, ultra-liberal, potty-mouthed late night talk show host, but the man is smart, funny and one of only a handful of people in the American entertainment industry intelligent enough to not sell out for the money and at the same time stay committed to somehow making important issues topical in our modern highly degraded and degenerate society. (Moyers and Charlie Rose notwithstanding obviously, but one doesn't often consider them late night talk show hosts.) Leno, Fallon, Kimmel, even Letterman unfortunately, only add to the collective garbage that spews forth into America's polluted consciousness with their hyper focus on meaningless celebrity, inane pranks, and the usual irrelevant non-news bites of the day.) 

        I've been watching the documentary entitled GASLAND based on Maher's recommendation for the last hour and a half. It is late; the day was long and I am tired. 

        [Editor's Note: Over the last few weeks I have started to get numerous substantial intuitive hits that it is no longer enough to simply post or share on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter that we all know and love and depend on for the latest and greatest. It came first as an intuitive hit, sometimes I call them voices (though nothing measurably audible is heard), or visions (though it's nothing akin to hallucinogenic visions); no words that can be translated except very basic generalities... something to the effect of "I wonder if posting to social media rather than the more traditional blog is actually hurting the cause more than helping.... then more as thought-clouds... frequent thought bubbles would appear in my brain about the subject. How many people actually see a post? What if it's an important post? Something that everyone should be aware of? How many other posts and status updates is that one post competing with? And worst of all, hashtags and all, it's still damn hard to FIND information on social media without a lot of work, and impossible to bookmark or save it. 
        So sure putting something up on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr gets it out there "fast" and it sure is easy for us... but how many people does it actually reach? Even when you have a fanbase in the tens of thousands or millions even...? Furthermore, once a post is a few days old, it tends to hit the proverbial bottom of the barrel, seems no longer relevant; hell, it's no longer even visible to most people except for the real deep diggers or bottom dwellers. But how many of us are like that these days in this age of too much information...? No, posting to social media may have temporarily seemed like the quick fix we all wanted so we wouldn't have to keep posting to our blogs with all the upkeep cost and maintenance necessary to keep them, but it just isn't going to work in the long run for committed lifetime information providers or artists or content creators. 
        So we're back to blogging now, pretty much everything minus only the most mundane items, with auto-feeds going into Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to alert non-subscribers. Hell, this should be a blog post on its own. But fuck it, if you're reading this, now you know. Heed it. It's only getting worse. If your message is important, get it back into a more permanent blog or web-based presence outside of social media which is just too damned overloaded at this late point in the game.] End of Editor's Note

        In 2005 Bush/Cheney passed their Energy Act, a law that allows oil and natural gas companies (using Haliburton technology, Cheney being the former CEO) drilling for oil and natural gas in the US to be exempt from all the previous laws that protected our air, water, environment and even our drinking water. This was illegal for thirty years prior to their passing of this ludicrous and criminal law. It made anyone drilling for oil or natural gas in America to NOT have to be bound by or abide by the Clean Drinking Water Act, the Natural Water act and the Clean Air act. In other words, they can do whatever they want to the air or water in the US when fracking or drilling and not be regulated, or fined, or even scientifically researched. "WTF???" you might ask. Yeah, me too. When I first heard it I thought maybe I was having a flashback and kept rubbing my eyes... surely I misheard that. So I rewound and watched and listened again. Nope. Got it right the first time. Feeling irritated. But it only gets worse. 

       There are at least 596 chemicals -- the majority of which are poisonous to air, water, humans, and the environment -- that are used in #fracking fluid that is pumped underground in over 450,000 wells in 30 states across the United States currently. This is happening NOW. #Mindblowing. Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, on and on. And it's only getting worse. This documentary was made in 2010. God only knows how much worse it's gotten since this was made. One of the most devastating aspects of the whole situation is that one of Dick Cheney's many milestone achievements while he was in the White House, along with spying on Americans, torture, targeted assassinations, and mass killings in the Middle East, was convincing the powers that be to allow oil and natural gas drilling on PUBLIC LANDS. All those millions of acres that Teddy Roosevelt preserved in the United States to save for generations to come -- land that belongs to every legal U.S. citizen including you and -- are now being devastated by fracking. 

         I don't want to go into a lot of the details here. That's one of the benefits of this new age. There's no need. Anyone can just run a search on it and learn as much as they want to right in the moment. Suffice it to say though: GO FIND A WAY TO WATCH THE FILM CALLED GASLAND. Do it today. Make your whole family watch it. That spouse of yours, the one who's all "I'm not into that kind of stuff" -- male or female, make them watch it too. Force them if you have to. It's that important.  This guy who made it Josh Fox does an excellent job of explaining the whole paradigm and process in a relatively easy to understand manner. Better than most online reference sources.

        The truth is that this isn't even a debatable issue anymore. It's not something that needs more science or research or exploration as some natural gas proponents suggest. It's more like a freaking disaster that's already happened. Even in large cities like Dallas / Ft. Worth -- one of the worst places hit by it, some parts now deserted, people all sick and dying with no more healthy ground water left. It's beyond discussing or debating. It's already a public health and environmental disaster. I'm more than irritated. I'm sad but more than sad. I'm angry but more than angry. Can't really describe what I'm feeling yet. Overwhelmed maybe. Over it. Like "it's time to seriously consider where we are going to move now and start planning on when" over it. America is fucked if this continues. 
        For the record Vermont has already passed a law banning fracking entirely in their state. Having used to live in Vermont part time for a number of years during the Cleopatra Ecstasy years, the people of this state never cease to amaze and impress me; for a variety of admirable reasons, this being just one of them.

        You'll have to see the film for yourself and then start studying it. Study the numbers up above. Consider that all this natural shale that is under half the United States that they are drilling into or want to drill into is surrounded by and sits underneath millions of miles of natural lakes and rivers and streams. We are talking about doing something here that cannot be undone. A catastrophe so mammoth that we may destroy half or more of one of the most beautiful countries on planet earth. And worse than that we may potentially destroy the nation's natural water supply. 
        Basically the best way to look at it is this: for those who live in any of these states where fracking is already taking place, they're screwed. They'll get sick and the survivors will soon realize that they have to move. Big cities will get bigger. Smaller cities will turn into big cities. And that's really just the beginning. There is no governmental oversight on any of this because of how the White House at that time made it all exempt from any kind of oversight; so as one of the higher-ups at the EPA said "We need to be investigating this and we know it. But we need to be directed to investigate it first. And so far we have not been directed to investigate it. No matter how many nightmare stories we hear of people getting sick or being able to light their tap water on fire etc... We are presently being told that it is out of our jurisdiction." 

         Funny. So if protecting the public health, clean air, drinking water, and the environment that is being poisoned all over the United States is out of the jurisdiction of the EPA, then who's jurisdiction is it in exactly? Right? Well that's the catch. No one's. Like I said, we're fucked. Belize anyone? Italy? See ya there soon. Ciao.  
        ADDENDUM: One note to be fair: this incredibly large amount of natural gas that we've discovered beneath the earth's surface IS a financial goldmine, not much different than digging for oil and finding a gusher. We human beings are running out of oil faster than we can develop inexpensive more environmentally safer alternatives. [Unless one believes the ongoing underground conspiracy-talk about free-energy machines that allegedly already exist but are being strangled out of the mainstream knowledge bank by Big Oil companies. This could very well be the truth. But I personally have not seen enough to feel one way or the other. So running out of oil or other fossil fuels before we are able to create sustainable alternatives is a potent reality-based concern.
        This new found treasure trove of natural gas could also very well decrease America's dependence on foreign oil. Certainly one of the most heinous aspects of the United States government now and over the last sixty years is it's foreign policy, which seems largely dictated by this greedy blood-lust for oil. Especially disturbing is the dubious relationship the U.S. has with one of the wickedest fascist nations on earth, Arabia (referring to this poor country of enslaved non-citizens as "'Saudi' Arabia" only further buys into and promotes the humanitarian hot mess the United States and the Saudi family have set up there). Not to mention Iran, Iraq, Africa, etc. etc. Anything that can be done to ween the United States off of foreign oil and thus these kind of destructive activities is a good thing. So discovering and drilling for natural gas on American soil does appear tempting on several fronts. 
        But two deeper points need to be addressed or at least mentioned. One is that regardless of how much natural gas or even oil that the United States discovers in its own backyard, one is still left with a sneaking suspicion that this will still not preclude nor prevent them from sucking every last bit of oil out of every other country on earth simultaneously. This is common knowledge to anyone who works in Big Oil or government. Energy is king on planet earth and for better or worse the United States is its kingdom and Revolutionary Guard. Truth be told we have only begun to scratch the surface of how much worse it's going to be over the next fifty years in regards to war and humanitarian crises because of our collective need for oil. God curse anyone unlucky enough to discover oil in their country. Best to just commit mass suicide before the United States or China find out about it. Point being that all this natural gas drilling in the U.S. is not necessarily going to make the United States suddenly draw down on its greedy quest to dominate the oil of the world.
        Now with this said, (like many) I do recognize humanity's bigger picture evolution toward enlightenment. So regardless of how bad and evil the world seems today, it is a much safer, kinder, more humane and just place than it was one-hundred years ago for example. There does seem to be more focus on human rights and justice for all now than there's ever been. I do not believe that the people of the world will ever be able to stop the United States from continuing it's gross misconduct or murderous ways any time soon, but we can perhaps slow it down if enough people wake up and join the cause.  
        [Traditionally the only way a major world empire has ever stepped down from it's position of power is through an invasion by another country who has grown more powerful. The hope is that this does not occur in our lifetime of course. Practically and selfishly speaking, because oil is THE primary driving force of all nations at this moment in history, it is imperative for all American citizens that the United States government continue to maintain its global dominance around the world, especially in regards to the control of the world's oil supply and military might. There isn't a thing in the world that would stop China or Russia for example from invading and taking control of the United States if they believed they had the military might or the money to do so. Controlling the majority of the world's oil supply is that defining deciding factor. So even if "green energy" became readily available to the U.S. tomorrow, there is still our safety and welfare and the preservation of our beloved American life to consider in regards to how other nations might behave if given the opportunity.]
        Finding a way to decrease dependence on foreign oil by tapping into domestic natural gas preserves will certainly help this cause. People of all shapes and sizes need to recognize that banning natural gas exploration and harvesting entirely is not the best solution. What we need do instead is to stop it temporarily and conduct more research on the process itself until we can hone and refine it to be a cleaner safer process that does not kill people or destroy the environment. This may seem too capitalist a viewpoint for most, especially members of a figurative Transcendence Army, but it's a much more realistic and practical strategy based on the current facts of life and the reality of today's world than to run around shouting and petitioning that fracking should be stopped forever and made illegal. This simply isn't going to happen. Who knows what kind of progress we can make collectively if we just slow things down a little and pump some good old fashioned American ingenuity and scientific research into all these natural gas wells.