Fracking

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth.  Essentially fracking allows for the injection of highly pressurized fracking fluids into the shale area. Creating new channels within the rock from which natural gas is extracted more quickly than it would be otherwise.

According to the report released by the EPA, officials said that the town of Pavillion, Wyo. had contaminations that were most likely from the gas wells.  The area was polluted with at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids.  Fracking is polluting the water systems, but because the proof that the EPA has is inconsistent and sparse, the fracking continues.  Doug Hock, the spokesman for Encana defends fracking to the end, "Inconsistency in detection and non-repeatability shouldn't be construed as fact." It is true that the evidence against fracking is weak, but there is no other explanation.  Hock is putting the blame on Mother Nature.  This debate is being to shape up how the country will regulates and develops natural gas in the eastern states. 

                Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, is suggesting that higher standards and more regulations should be put into place regarding fracking. The EPA has reported thirty-three abandoned wells that were once used for fracking and are now polluting the shallow ground water.  But they could not be responsible for the pollution found in the monitoring wells 1,000 feet underground. More regulations on fracking must be enforced   to ensure the safety of the citizens.  In some cases the water is reported as explosive and the citizens are provided with replacement drinking water because the contaminated water could be detrimental to their health.  Carcinogenic chemicals were even found in the water. The EPA also concluded that sporadic bonding occurred in the cement in areas which led to the barrier that kept the chemicals in their intended zone had been weakened.

"What Is Fracking." What Is Fracking. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012.

The Gap Between the Rich and the Poor

                One of the points brought to attention by Kahn is the increasing gap between rich and poor.  According to Kahn, in 2000 the ratio was 1:72, meaning that for every one rich person there are 72 people living on less than $2 per day.  The increasing gap between the poor and the rich is also directly related to the population. 

Just looking in the United States, it’s a well-known fact that when couples make more money, they tend to have fewer children and couples who fall below the poverty line tend to have multiple children.  Many different factors go into this such as the lower class unable to afford birth control or needing extra help around the house or farm.  Back when science wasn’t fully developed, it was normal for a woman to have around a dozen children. This was because she knew that not all of them would live past the age of 4 and she and her husband needed as much as possible on the farms.  In this day and age, it’s impractical to have so many children because farms are no longer as common and modern medicine has made the complications of child birth and caring for infants much safer. 

Because of the fact that the poverty stricken have many children who then grow up to have even more children – more children that rarely escape the poverty level, it’s inevitable that the gap between the upper and lower class will increase at a steady rate.  So how do we stop this?  First, we have to educate everyone, let the young girls know that just because they were born to a teenage mother they too don’t have to become a teenage mother.  Not only do we have to educate, but we also must encourage the use of contraceptives.  The population of the world is already exceeding the Earth’s limit as is, it’s about time we cut back on the reproduction rate. 

Turtle Island (3)

Gary Snyder knows a lot about nature and the wild and he makes it very obvious through his poems that he loves and wishes to protect the natural beauty of our land.  Although he wants to protect nature, he still understands that many aspects of nature are a resource.  In his poem "The Wild Mushroom" Snyder portrays a journey into the forest in search of mushrooms.  He is very appreciative of the resource that mushrooms are to man, "for food, for fun, for poison/ They are a help to a man." Snyder is able to understand bioregionalism and is very concerned with the fact that we, as people, have become too detached from out natural roots.  His writing serves as a reminder to us all, that we are animals and sometimes it is best to let our instincts take control and forget about technology and civilization.

Turtle Island (2)

In Gary Snyder's poem "Facts" many ugly truths are revealed about how the United States uses the natural resources of our planet much more than anyone else in the world.  According to Snyder, the US only holds 6% of the world's population, but consumes 1/3 of the world's energy and 1/3 of the world's meat. Turtle Island was written in 1969, so these numbers aren't quite exact - but they haven't budged too much since.  In Jules Pretty's Can Ecological Agriculture Feed Nine Billion People? similar issues are discussed.  Pretty makes a very eye opening point, "there is enough staple food produced worldwide to feed everyone adequately, but much is fed to animals and much is wasted in the upper levels of the social pyramid by the rich."  So if we ate less meat, then there wouldn't be such a need for livestock and more food would be able to go around to those who are malnourished.  We also can't waste food as much as we do; the Earth just can't handle the strain we are putting on it for much longer.

Gary Snyder: Turtle Island - Themes

Gary Snyder observes nature and portrays his observations through poetry in his Turtle Island.  Some of his observations can be beautiful, but others can be hideous, such as his "The Dead by the Side of the Road" which depicts exactly as the title implies.  Snyder wanted to capture all of the aspects of nature in the form of poetry.  Many of Snyder's work is titled in a very literal sense of what the poem is about.  Although his "No Matter, Never Mind" is a very thought-provoking concept.