I had a conversation with a woman last week who told me that she was an advocate for fracking. She said that if anyone offered her good money for her land she would sell in a minute. I asked her if she knew the process by which fracking occurs and what it actual is. Her answer was not uncommon – she said no! I then asked if she was interested in knowing what it was and to her credit she said yes. I thought I would post this in case many of you out there don’t have an understanding of it and, want to know more about it and just see it as a way to make fast money. That is exactly how gas companies market it to you.

Fracking is a method of extracting natural gas from 5000 feet below the surface of the earth by injecting gas wells with between 2 and 9 million gallons of water. That water is infused with about 500 cancerous endocrine disrupting chemicals. The water goes in at such intense pressure that it cracks bedrock so the gas can come to the surface. When it makes its way back to the surface it is radioactive and is ladened with heavy metals. These chemicals are then put in a pit and covered up but the problem is that is they are seeping through the plastic/ material that is supposed to prevent them from reaching the surface. When people live in these areas and have wells their water becomes contaminated. So contaminated they can light their water with a match – would you want your child drinking that!? There have also been reports of earthquakes occurring due to the force by which the water goes into the earth. The chemicals that get into the soil also thereby contaminate our food supply. Common sense tells us this cannot be good for us. The food we put in to our bodies is to nourish us and keep us healthy – not destroy our healthy cells.

How can we say we are for or against something until we educate ourselves? Indifference is never the way to make a decision. With companies like Monsanto producing harmful pesticides and herbicides that make us sick – to gas companies polluting our water and soil – future generations will have shorter life spans if we don’t put an end to this. The bottom line is that it’s all due to greed, but we have the power to change things. Once again, knowledge is power, and our knowledge in this case could mean the difference between life and death.

Be well,
Maria