"Fracking Fury"

In Janna Palliser's article "Fracking Fury" published in the journal "Green Science", Palliser weighs the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", as a mechanism used to obtain natural gas from deep within the earth.

Some pros were that fracking created hundreds of domestic jobs for Americans, as well as the fact that using natural gas versus fossil fuels is a lot cleaner; less CO2 is produced as a byproduct.

However, the cons heavily outweighed the pros, categorized with water pollution, human health, animal health, and then the cause of earthquakes.  Water pollution is caused by fracking because once the fluids used to displace the natural gas are released into the ground, they seep through the earth until they reach reservoirs of ground water and all of the chemicals in the fracking fluid are then combined with the ground water.  This then affects human health because any contact with this polluted water causes irritation, and even serious infections.  Humans are not the only species affected by this pollution; cows, goats, and chickens have been found dead as a result of fracking in a close radius.  Most severely, earthquaked are a severe byproduct of hydraulic fracturing.  In Youngstown, Ohio, as soon as the fracking fluids were placed into the ground, several earthquakes erupted over the time span of one year within five kilometers of the fracking site, and the epicenter of these earthquakes was at the same depth as the fracking, three kilometers below the earth's surface.

Palliser makes it clearly evident that the cons of fracking severely outweigh the pros, and then discusses the EPA study that the class read about in the week prior.  The link between fracking and pollution is irrefutable, and government regulatory action needs to happen before the earthquakes or health effects become more severe.

"Fracking Fury" by Janna Palliser, published in "Green Science"
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=aca0bfc0-005d-4df8-8d84-dd1ad8bb6eb6%40sessionmgr110&vid=2&hid=102

EPA Fracking Water Pollution

           Fracking is a process of extracting natural gas from the ground by means of inserting liquids into the ground that displace the gas and allow it to be collected and used for energy.  This process has been used for several decades and there have been regulations as to where and how deep the fracking occurs, but ever what chemicals are placed within the water that displaces the gas.  Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a study in Pavillion, Wyoming, which is home to several fracking locations, and has also experienced water contamination.

            In order to accurately monitor these sights, the EPA first did their research of the area.  Before the fracking first occurred in the 1950’s, a preliminary water quality study was conducted and several contaminants were found without any fracking fluids in the area.  Several decades later, the EPA returned after several residents complained that their well water turned brown and there were other peculiar qualities.  The EPA then monitored several wells and collected data as deep as 1000 feet below the surface.  The data was irrefutable: several of the fluids found were identical to those contained in fracking fluids – many of these even carcinogens, meaning they cause cancer.  EPA quickly advised the residents to not drink their well water and also recommended that they ventilate their houses while showering, since the high concentrations of methane in the water might ignite an explosion.

            When presented with the findings of their research, the fracking companies denied any correlation between the fracking and the pollution, saying that there were other reasons and fracking should not be pin-pointed as the sole contributor.  The EPA then did an extensive historic study of Pavillion, Wyoming and found that there were thirty-three abandoned oil and gas wells dotted across the city, and that those are also possible contributors of the pollution.  However, they could not have contributed to pollution 1000 feet deep; the technology to extract that deep was only used with the fracking companies.

            Although no conclusive data has yet to be presented to the fracking companies or government regulating the laws, the EPA’s findings is scheduled to be peer reviewed and released the following spring.

Richard Kahn: Toward Ecopedagogy

Richard Kahn's "Toward Ecopedagogy" is a very heavy article addressing his concerns toward environmental education and how society has developed around pressing environmental issues.  One example he provides regarding the human population and wealth distribution is "So, as approximately 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day and nearly 3 billion live on less than $2 per day, the roaring heights of global technocapitalism have been unfortunate indeed for nearly half of the human population."

This quote provides the staggering statistic that half of the people living on this planet live on, at best, only $2 per day.  Although some might deem this unfortunate or that the people living in poor conditions can and should be helped by donating to certain foundations or raising awareness, due to the discussion in Tuesday's class, it could also be argued that there is a system set up so that the poor exist in copious amounts for a reason.  In order to make unequal living conditions in other countries, such as the United States, look better, the Devil's Advocate of the situation would say that the "system" or the government, or whichever "Big Brother" figure is present, is having that significant poor class exist so that those living with less than the higher class in their society can think "well, at least I'm not as poor as those populations having to live off of $1 a day."

In this advertisement, the Carnegie Melon Design Students are urging students to ride bikes not just for beneficial health, but also for environmental sustainability.  This reduces "one pound of CO2 for every mile you don't drive", according to the poster.  Visual rhetoric is the use of graphic design to appeal to cultural beliefs, but also as an act of persuasion to an audience.  Graphic design is useful because it helps manipulate an image to make it more striking to the audience, and that causes it to be more memorable so the message is more effective.

Snyder Turtle Island Take 3

For this third assignment, I read "Night Herons" (pg 59 in my pocket edition), Affluence (87), and Two Fawns That Didn't See the Light This Spring (102).  All three poems had a strong sense of bioregionalism tied in and also called for action from the humans responsible for destruction of the natural order that the bioregion used to posses.

In "Night Herons", San Francisco Bay is described as noisy and rampant with air pollution, sewers, and water treatment plants.  The speaker states how while walking through the city at night, he longs for the night herons to return, but the noise and pollution drove them away.  This shows how the humans presence has caused the removal of key species to the natural food web that the bioregion possessed, and without that string in the web, the whole natural order of life might be thrown off. At the conclusion of the poem, the speaker describes the sunrise, leaving the audience with a sense of hope and a new beginning; that the natural order might soon be restored.

Snyder's "Affluence" describes a forested area rather than a city, but it still focuses on how humans have destroyed the natural world.  The forested area has been harvested for logging by a slash and burn method, which leaves only the tree stump behind.  This removes shelter and food for the natural life and animals residing in that forest, causing them to have to leave.  The final line in the final stanza says the forest is "paying the price someone didn't pay", meaning that because humans have evolved so they cannot survive without the uses of logging and destroying trees and natural areas, it is nature that must pay.

Lastly, in "Two Fawns ... Spring", Snyder tells two stories: one of a hunter, the other of a driver.  The first story about the hunter describes how he shot what he thought was a buck to harvest, but it turned out to be a doe - and not just a doe, but a pregnant doe.  In the story with the driver, a deer slowly walked out in front of the car, which effortlessly ran the deer over, instantly murdering both her and the fawn she was carrying.  The deaths of both unborn fawns are the two fawns that the title refers to.

All three poems weave together to form a story about how humans are destroying the natural bioregion.  First, we slash and burn all natural areas to construct our own polluted society, and this causes all animals to have to flee.  Once the animals leave the area, they have no home to go to since they are surrounded by urban civilization, so when they go to seek food or shelter, they encounter either a misinformed hunter, or a car speeding around a curvy road.  Either way, humans are responsible for the destruction of both the land and species: the bioregion.  All humans can wait for now is the "dawn" referred to in "Night Herons" that will bring a new beginning of environmental sustainability.

Turtle Island Themes Part 2

This time around, I read "It Pleases", "Pine Tree Tops", and "The Uses of Light" from Gary Snyder's "Turtle Island" and compared the three poems.  From my last post, a common theme in Snyder's poetry is how humans are destroying nature and the world around them.  However, with this second set of three poems, a more common theme is that humans have no connection with nature.

In "It Pleases", for example, Snyder argues that the earth is the center of all power in the world and drives all actions.  As much as humans may try to control nature, the earth is the supreme ruler and humans attempts are solely in vain.  Another example would be from the poem "Pine Tree Tops".  Snyder describes a night scene where the narrator views the tree tops fading into the night time sky.  In an appeal to the audience's senses, he compares the creak of boots to the animal tracks.  The boots creaking represents how unnatural the human presence is compared to the animal tracks that are naturally embedded onto the ground.  Snyder closes the poem with the question "what do we know?", which challenges the reader to contemplate their knowledge of the world compared to how naturally all other life coexists.  

The most powerful example of how humans have no connection with nature came to me in Snyder's poem "The Uses of Light".  This poem has the narrator listening to the stones, trees, moths, and deer in nature as they teach him the lessons their way of life and how they survive in accordance with nature.  In the final stanza, nature calls the narrator to climb the towering building that humans built on the ground, but instead of going about the daily business routines, to just gaze out the windows, and with each floor, he can see a thousand miles more.  By calling the human to ignore his daily routine as to just take time to look out and appreciate nature, the animals say that he can see "a thousand miles more".  With one floor's elevation, one thousand miles cannot be viewed, but the thousand miles could be in relation to not only sight, but also general knowledge and appreciation for nature and the way the world works without human influence.

In all three poems, Snyder makes it evident that humans have no connection with nature or the way that the world works.  By combining this theme with the theme found in the last three poems, a more general theme or statement summarizing Snyder's message can be found: humans are drastically reducing their understanding of how to live with nature, and with less of a connection, nature is slowly being destroyed.

Gary Snyder Themes

For this assignment, I read "The Dead by the Side of the Road", "Front Lines", and "By Frazier Creek Falls".  All three shared a very strong environmental sustainability theme, as is common with Snyder's poetry found in "Turtle Island".

The main theme presented in "The Dead by the Side of the Road" is shown through several examples and parallel structure of the stanzas within the poem.  Each stanza tells the story of a different type of road kill found at the side of a highway that was built.  It is made clear through the accusatory tone of the poem that the roads are anthropogenic and each death resulting from cars is on the shoulders of the humans.  Although Snyder introduces that humans use the bodies as food or tools, this is contradicted with a stanza dedicated to how humans then beg these animals for forgiveness and for them to "bless us" for causing their deaths.  It is in this hypocritical plea for forgiveness that Snyder makes evident his theme of humans causing more death than they can make use of.

In the poem "Front Lines", Snyder exposes human expansion as a "cancer[ous]" expansion into nature.  He even goes to a further extent to compare the expansion to rape.  The reality company in the poem tells the forest to "spread your legs" making the comparison to rape severely evident.  Snyder's theme of  environmental sustainability is carried into "Front Lines" by showing how many people do not see the negative effects of destroying forests for expansion.  He personifies the forest as a human and portraying the expansion as rape so that humans can connect more with that comparison rather than just a forest being torn down for some condos.  Snyder ends his poem with a challenge for the audience: where should the line be drawn for how much nature can be destroyed.  This leaves the reader thinking more about the repercussions of their actions on nature and creates a very effective message.

Lastly, "By Frazier Creek Falls" brings a more peaceful look to environmental sustainability by describing the breathtaking beauty of nature to a viewer.  Like in "Front Lines", Snyder calls his reader to "listen" and establishes a connection with the audience, causing the reader to feel closer to the author and take away a stronger message from the poem.  Snyder then states how humans are a part of nature themselves and should take the responsibility that comes in hand with that.  He also states that "we can live without clothing or tools", suggesting that he believes a viable solution to environmental sustainability would be to live as a part of nature with no modern technology, even as simple as clothing or tools.

In each of these three poems, Snyder keeps his universal message of environmental sustainability.  Whether is it how humans are causing nature's death, causing irreparable damage to nature, or introducing a solution to how humans can live with nature, Snyder challenges his audience with each poem.  A connection between the reader and the author is established through a question or a radical solution which causes the reader to debate how they feel about the suggested solution or answer and take a stance on environmental sustainability, themselves.