“And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.”

Don't Spin the Spinner

The health benefits of fracking

"Scientists are once again reporting alarmingly high methane emissions from an oil and gas field, underscoring questions about the environmental benefits of the boom in natural-gas production that is transforming the US energy system.
 The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, first sparked concern in February 2012 with a study1 suggesting that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane — a potent greenhouse gas — is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal- to gas-fired plants for electricity generation."
" Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California, last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that support the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage — an eye-popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data — which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado."
 http://www.nature.com/news/methane-leaks-erode-green-credentials-of-natural-gas-1.12123

Solastalgia-got it

sō-lä-stál-jə n.: A pain or discomfort caused by the present state of one’s home environment.

 Solastalgia ia a kind of distress: a homesickness felt at home. Glenn Albrecht coined the term “solastalgia” — a mash-up of “solace,” “desolation,” and “nostalgia” — to describe the inability to derive comfort from one’s home environment due to negative environmental change. Originally coined to describe what Australians were experiencing due to the intensive coal mining in their region. I can very much relate, many are experiencing this today due to the threat to our homes and environment from the toxic extraction process known as fracking.

 from:http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/01/30/solastalgia-and-the-ecopsychology-of-our-changing-environment/...
  "The debilitating effects of Nostalgia can occur when you are physically displaced from somewhere you call home. Solastalgia occurs when the environment you call home changes unrecognizably for reasons beyond your immediate control. Solastalgia can lead to distress, but I believe that this distress is felt by people who care... to my mind, a psychological defense to the debilitating emotion of ‘care’ in a world that has taken away even the most fundamental security of ‘home’ and removed all sense of place. In subtle yet alarming ways, I can see a similar culture of indifference creeping into societies who are beginning to understand that “In a world that’s quickly heating up and drying up, you can’t go home again — even if you never leave.”

The Klines can’t afford hundreds of dollars in EPA tests. They are relying on volunteers , who test the water’s temperature, total dissolved solids, conductivity and salinity before passing the samples along for subsequent chloride tests." http://www.ohio.com/news/local-news/portage-county-residents-test-water-amid-concerns-of-oil-field-contamination-1.363107

Frack no living thing

Hurt No Living Thing

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.

Christina Georgina Rossetti


Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health:

http://baywood.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.2190/NS.22.1.e

Fracku

Dogs bark, pace and growl,
Men in white restless pickups-
Texas invasion
***

The heart's uneasy,
flares illuminate the sky
Where can one find peace
***

ILLuminated
tall and smelly, noisy, strange
drilling rigs disgust
***

Diesel, benzene fumes
unnatural air to breathe,
shale drilling begins
***

Why have you done it-
leased the neighboring hay field
to destroy my dreams
***

Water ran clear here
before the Marcellus wells,
now no peace of mind
***

I wanted to sleep,
Mosquito song is better
Than frack trucks and drills
***

Fractivist cat

This is Kit Carson, activist cat. She is named after Rachel Carson renowned environmental activist. Like Rachel, she grew up on a small Pennsylvania farm, where she spends hours exploring the outdoors. She is special, she carries a message that she carries with no fear. She doesn’t want to worry about the water she drinks direct from the spring.

protection from fracking pysanky

This is a protection against slick water horizontal hydraulic fracturing pysanky egg. This special egg has all the following symbols. Pysanky spiders are considered to be lucky omens. Curls symbolize defense or protection. Wolves Teeth offer protection from harm, the harm of contaminated water and air. Wheat symbolizes wishes for good health and a good harvest, a harvest uncontaminated with chemicals used in drilling operations. Bees were a symbol of hard work and pleasantness, and represented all the good insects which should not be killed.

Birds represent spring and the pushing away of Evil, in this case hydraulic fracturing. Birds at rest, mean their powers remain and are not temporary. Meanders are running designs that have no end, they mean the hero’s quest and long life. On pysanky they represent eternity and long life, a long life without risks of cancers brought about from the emissions of drilling operations.

Prjama, a straight line encircling the egg, symbolizes eternity or the continuous thread of life. Diamonds help the recipient of the egg to gain knowledge, knowledge to keep the drilling company from shattering their life’s dreams.A dot within a circle represents the axis of the universe - eternity within the Orphic egg. Ladders mean good husbandry and prosperity.

Green As seen in the spring renewals, green symbolizes the breaking of shackles, freedom from bondage. That would be the shackles of fear and corporate takeover of rural PA It is the color of fertility, freshness, health and hopefulness, it represents bountifulness, hope and the victory of life over death.

Purple speaks of faith, patience and trust. White- symbolizes purity, virginity, innocence, and birth. The wish is for the water and air to remain pure. Red- The magical color of folklore, red is considered a positive color signifying action, fire, charity, spiritual awakening. It also glorifies the sun and the joy of life and love. Consequently, pysanky with red fields or motifs are typically designated for children or youth. Hopefully the children will have a safe and bright future one that glorifies the sun, source of clean and renewable energy.

http://rwma.com/Marcellus%20Shale%20Report%205-18-2010.pdf
Brine water can be contained in the rock formations for centuries and can contain extremely high levels of water-soluble radionuclides that are present in the underground formations. In addition to mixing with brine, the drilling fluid may also become contaminated when it comes in contact with radioactive rock. Radium-226 is a highly water-soluble radionuclide and will preferentially dissolve in the drilling fluid under the pressure and temperature conditions below ground. Drilling fluid can be reused many times and radium will progressively concentrate in it after each reuse. Since no sources specify the radioactivity of produced water, we assume that it is the same asbrine, which is measured at 15,000 pCi/L.

Soil Contamination
Radium-226 has a half-life of 1600 years and, if deposited in the
landfill, will remain there essentially forever. Landfill workers that come in contact with the contaminated materials may be exposed. Further, if the landfill is ever inhabited in the future, crops grown in the soil will concentrate radium and be ingested. Ra-226 is a carcinogen and, when ingested or inhaled, concentrates in the bone and can cause leukemia. Those who eat fruits or vegetables grown more than 1,000 years in the future over the closed landfill or buried impoundments would exceed current health-based dose limits.

harmless

http://www.formatebrines.com/Drillingfluids/Stories/BrineSafety/tabid/258/Default.aspx
"Mention the word ‘brine’ to the ordinary man or woman in the street and they will probably think of a benign salty solution used to preserve some of their favorite pickled foods. Mention the same word to someone working in the oil and gas industry and they will probably think first of the ever-present risk of chemical burns and the need for full-body protection suits." warning...very unpleasant photo on this site.

http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2011/02/radioactive-radon-in-home-natural-gas.html

A meeting of the courageous... Hillary, Gloria, Carol, Annie, Mary Ellen, Nadia, Audrey, Tara, Judy, Christine, Denise, Dory, Barbara, Maria, Cindy, Kristen, Sharon, LT, Debbie, Sylvia, Tracy, Jane, Elizabeth, and Donna.