Fracking just hastens our appointment with oblivionFracking just hastens our appointment with oblivion

Photo Caption: William Beale

I have an unhappy tendency to invent trouble dreams. Instead of letting me sleep pleasantly like a good brain should, mine grabs the opportunity to get down to serious work and crank out a big bother. Here's an example:

I am driving a bus full of kids. The kids are horsing around like kids, paying no attention to me. All is hotsy-totsy.

The radio, tuned to the bus advisory, suddenly blinks my code and says, "There's a big blockage across the road half a mile ahead, better slow down"

I speed up. The radio says, "That boulder is really big, and you had better SLOW DOWN or you're gonna hit it."

I speed up a lot more. Radio yells, "Hit those brakes HARD, NOW!"

I slam the pedal to the metal. I mean the accelerator pedal, not the brake pedal.

A couple of the kids immediately behind me glance out the window, see what is about to happen, and let out a big scream. I drop dead of a heart attack. The kids rush forward to try to stop the bus. Way too late. The bus slams into the boulder with throttle wide open. Everybody dies.

Dead silence, and I mean DEAD.

I wake up all sweaty and breathing hard. Why do I do this kind of thing to myself? Anyhow, like most of my dreams, this one is simple to decipher.

the bus is the planet

I am the people in charge

the kids are the kids

the boulder is global warming

the radio is the scientists

the gas pedal is CO₂ production

dead is dead.

I get up, try to put my wits back together again, and go down to breakfast. My wife takes one glance at my frazzled features and exclaims, "Goodness, what's the matter this time!"

At that moment the phone rings. I pick it up.

Cheery voice – "We have some really good news for you! Looks like your land might have a lot of oil and natural gas on it, and we are able to offer you –"

I cut him off, "No."

The voice gets agitated and says, "Hey, do you understand what we are saying –"

I cut him again. "Yes I do," and slam down the phone.

Wife: "My Goodness! What in the world was THAT about?"

Good question. Now you tell me what it's all about, folks. And remember, the kids are listening.

You can say no to fracking, which slows down the bus, or you can say yes and speed it up. In the first case some of your kids might survive that certain crash; in the second, they are all dead, along with most of God's creatures great and small.

You think that is an extreme statement? It sure is. And the truth, according to atmospheric scientists, by a vote of 97 to three, is even more extreme. The three agree to the warming part but can't explain it. The 97 say warming is real, possibly catastrophic, and we are causing it, and we quit right now or we are dead. And even if we do quit right now, we are on track to be mighty badly hurt by what we have already put into the air.

So there we are. People, this one is no mere money quibble. It's really truly important. And tell your kids what you decide — they have the bigger interest. After all, it's gonna be their world, dead or alive.

Editor's note: William Beale is an engineer who likes to write stories with a little fun in them. He says this one is not funny at all.

REPLY TO THIS COMMENT

matdailey89

This is one of the best articles yet by this Liberal Left Wing paper. I grew up in near Athens but unlike a lot of other people in the area, I lived in various parts of the country.

I love how all you people who are writing letters to the editor about how fracking is at this point, killing our children. 99% of you have never even seen a gas well, let alone seen one fracked. Why don't you take a trip down South where tens of thousands of wells have fracked without any complications?

The facts are what they are and most liberals that are against business and change are not going to look at them. The wells that are drilled for natural gas are around 5,000-6,000 feet deep. The casings usually extend down to 2,000 feet. The average ground water depth is around 200-300 feet. People around Athens need to wake up. You equating fracking to killing our kids is a joke. If you don't like petroleum products, ride a bike to work, convert your house to solar/wind energy, don't buy anything that uses plastic as most are petroleum based. Oh, wait, you can’t convert your house to wind/solar because it is not economical.

At least you are right about one thing, your article is not funny...... or factual.

matdailey89,

Strangely, more traveled people are against the fracking, as opposed to locals that are signing up like crazy.You mention all the "fracked without complications" wells, but what answer do you have for the homes, water, lives that were, and are, harmed by screw-ups? There is no joke about equating it to "killing our kids". At the meeting at Redbird, an rep. was asked about potential damage. He replied that the audience would likey be long gone by then. When asked, What about our children?" he had no response.

Oh, then there's the earthquakes, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/01/blackpool-earthquake-tremors-gas-drilling ,

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/fracking-has-formerly-stable-ohio-city-aquiver-over-earthquakes.html

Strangely, it is not traveled people that are throwing a fit, it is the liberals, I mean left-leaning people.

First, my entire point in my first letter is the screw ups people keep talking about are not there. Natural gas is the safest energy source there is. The amount of problem wells drilled is less than 1%. How the hell is it going to get better than that?

Once again, B, have you ever seen a gas well, or seen one drilled, or seen one fracked. Have you ever lived in an area where the fracking was taking place on a daily basis? Yes, there's the earthquakes, which I could give you multiple websites and scientists that say they are absolutely not related because the tectonic plates are miles below the surface.

NO IT IS NOT THE EQUIVELANT OF KILLING YOUR CHILDREN. How the hell was he supposed to answer the question "what about the children?"

“There’s people that are simply opposed to oil and gas development, and they’ll seize on any issue, no matter what the issue is, and no matter what the facts, and try to use that to create hysteria,”

What are we going to do? Continue paying the Middle East for oil? What about the economic boom the area will see IF there is actually anything here? This is a VERY poor area. The job market is terrible, and yet, something that would bring in jobs and stability is not wanted.

You missed the point. What about the future? It is the traveled people that are raising the fuss, contrary to your claim.

First, we reduce usage, we further work on renewable and safe energy sources, and we think before act.

What was he supposed to say, you ask. Maybe something truthful, instead of the flippant answer about us being dead before problems would be realized. Answers for today's questions should not harm our children's future(s).

The problem with ANY problem wells, is that the problems may cost lives. Another issue is that no matter how many websites you find to support your perspective, we can counter them, and vice versa. The difference is that we're not asking you to bet your, or your children's health/lives on it.

What stability will it bring? Temporary jobs for outsiders, and some service industry jobs locally. Roads, and quite possibly environmental damage, will be the legacy of fracking. In an agricultural region, risking the water and soil seem especially short-sighted.

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Fracking just hastens our appointment with oblivion

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