Mammonsanto

Monsanto continues to be regarded as a person while acting like a monster.  Please follow this link to take action and resist!

Stop the Monsanto Amendment in the Budget!

nothing has improved

 

Saw Bill Cosby
(“doctorate in education”)
hawking sugar
to the kids

making cute faces
from inside the tube.

Fuck You Kids!

1985

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Celebrity and corporations are all part of the same country club.  It has always been “okay” to sell crap to children.  Just walk down the cereal aisle  at a conventional grocery.

We market to children through  trusted characters like Doctor Heathcliff Huxtable    Hey kids!  Eat our trainloads of empty calories made from trainloads of cheap commodities and chemicals.   It is sooooooooooooooo good!

And of course, if Bill Cosby thinks it is good – it must be so.

If it is okay to sell bullshit “cereal”  to children, it is also okay to jeopardize their water and air.  It is all the same mindset:  “catch me if you can” -ism.

Organized Crime

it is time for the state to act to protect the health and the rights of the citizens of Pennsylvania rather than looking out for big business and their bottom lines.

– Doug Shields who represents the 5th Council District in the City of Pittsburgh

image: Adbusters

The Kidnapping of a River and the Truth

The kidnapping of a river, wherein it is murdered and buried – gallon by gallon:

In Don William’s most recent blog post, 600,000 natural gas wells!, his sources report the industry is expecting to drill from 200,000 to 600,000 wells in Pennsylvania.

In my recent post, Fracked Dry, I reported that the 200,000 figure was one which was put forth by Penn State as the “high end”. As I related at the time, I thought their figures low. While 200,000 is a devastating amount, 600,000 is homicidal.

It represents 1.5 TRILLION gallons of water profoudly polluted and permanently removed from our water cycle.

Only a small percentage of the water shot down during the fracking process comes back up. The rest is left below – abandoned in the form of a radioactified toxified super salty slurry.

1.5 Trillion gallons is equivalent to 204 Harvey’s Lakes or 1,341 Huntsville Reservoirs left beneath the earth’s surface.

1.5 Trillion gallons represents 57 days worth of water flow throughout the entire Susquehanna watershed.

Can we afford to loose 16% of our water cycle?

Also, 600,000 wells means 360 billion pounds of chemicals shot into the innocent earth. That’s 7.5 million tractor trailer loads of chemicals. That’s a convoy which would wrap around the earth over four times!

And what amount of air pollution will this pervasive drilling bring to our children’s and mother’s lungs?

Again, this is homicide, suicide, filicide, matricide, populicide, and ecocide.

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The Kidnapping of truth:

And how about that CBS corporation. Their 60 Minutes episode on fracking, titled Shaleionaires, was laughable. “Cleaner” gas was assumed, wealth was assumed, water was forgotten. In the conclusion there was hope of a bright solution and prosperous future, if we just eliminate those pesky human errors, reign in cost cutting, and don’t drink the frack fluid.

I thought it was counterproductive.

The blog, Fracked, has much to say about the 60 Minutes piece. See Sixty Fracking Lame Minutes and Shale Gas Drilling: Pros and Cons.

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Here is a poignant comment on Shaleionaires from the CBS website:

I was relieved to see SOMETHING about the gas drilling on 60 Minutes, but the piece does not begin to cover the issues and the fear and anger we experience living in the midst of the new “gold rush.” I live in southwestern PA near Waynesburg, PA and there is a well being drilled on nearly every hill top, dividing communities, pitting neighbor against neighbor and providing very little comfort/peace/environmental protection. A public forum was held in Pittsburgh recently and the representative from the DEP was very rude to the angry citizens who only want their questions answered. We were told we now live in a heavy industry area and no longer in the agriculture area. I already have had breast cancer from living in a heavy industry polluted town in WV and now face this invasion, because that is what it feels like, an invasion. As the farmers gather their thousands and reportedly millions, sell their cattle and either move or ride around in their caddys the rest of us try to come up with Plan B, sell now? wait? See what happens? Endure the filth, the smell, the noise and wait for more cancer?
Why can’t we commit to solar and wind power with such fervor????????

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Covert Fracking Cheerleaders: WVIA, the Kirby Theatre, WILK, Time Leader, Citizen’s Voice, CBS,… and many more. Some are transparent, others avoidant, others play both sides. It all has to do with donors and advertisers. Income is the game.

At the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

We took mister NoFrack Sign along, hoping to raise some consciousness.  Also, we  knew there was always a possibility his image might make the national media.   At the very least, we thought him a conversation starter.

As we  walked to the National Mall, it became clear this event would include costumes, signs, and a festive sense of play.  The closer we got, the more we realized it would also to be well attended.

 

 

 

“I Screwed You All.  But Thanks for Blaming it on the Black Guy”

 

 

We were unable to get near the stage or jumbo-trons so we carried our sign along Constitution Avenue.  We were greeted by many call outs from New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia people.  We spoke with folks who were active in the fight, and we were formally interviewed by an area weekly.  People were constantly taking pictures of the sign and asking what it meant.  Many thought it was a reference to the television show Battle Star Galactica which, we were told, uses the word “frack” as a euphemism for the word  “f*ck”.   One guy even shouted out  “Yea, that’s right, stop using fake curse words!”

 

A Sierra Club member from New York State.

 

A mother and daughter from New Jersey.

A young man who inquired about the sign.

The crux of the matter.

 

 

Let freedom ring!

 

 

 

 

Good job GDAC, Good job Tom

Tom Jiunta at Lehman Meeting (Times Leader)

Tom Jiunta and the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition have been working tirelessly to advance a petition in support of an ordinance which would protect the water supply of Lehman Township. Tonight they presented the ordinance which is similar to one recently passed by the the Licking Township (Pennsylvania) Board of Supervisors. The Lehman ordinance was  drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Defense Fund.

The proposal presented to the Lehman Township Board of Supervisors, would make it unlawful:

“for any corporation to import water into Lehman for use in the extraction of subsurface natural gas or to deposit waste water, “produced” water, “frack” water, brine or other materials, chemicals or by-products of natural gas extraction into the land, air or waters within Lehman Township.”

per the CELDF website.

Here is the early online edition from the Times Leader: Lehman supers hold off vote on anti-drill law

This initiative is about citizen’s rights and the heart of a democratic society.  We share the air and the water.  Collectively, we have a constitutional right to clean air and water.   Any sane society would insure that.   No individual, or corporation has the authority to usurp these basic human rights.

Although advised otherwise, the Supervisors insisted on keeping the venue at the Lehman Township Building instead of larger venues in the immediate area.  Consequently some citizens left because they could hear nothing from the entrance hall.  That is, they were not allowed to participate in the process due to venue constriction.  It is an age old strategy of those who want to impede the democratic process rather than support it.  The Supervisors’ obstructionist behavior is not a surprise given the reality that two of them were found to be ethically compromised by  the state ethics commission.

(And thank you to the Community Environmental Legal Defense  Defense Fund for your statewide efforts to bring power back to the people.)

The supervisors refused to take action on the proposal, citing a fear of law suits and a lack of authority,the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition and the CELDF will continue to put this issue forward. See the Citizen’s Voice coverage here: Lehman Twp. supervisors take no action on drilling ordinance

“natural” gas is NOT “clean energy”

From the Safe Water Movement’s petition to support a total ban on gas drilling in low-permeable deposits in New York State:

1. With a failure rate of between 2 to 8 percent, horizontal drilling and hydrofracking pose an unacceptable risk to our drinking water and the quality of groundwater, aquifers, lakes and streams.

13.Recent preliminary assessments reveal that “natural” gas is not “clean energy” but rather just another polluting, non-renewable fossil fuel contributing to global warming”

Links about dirty gas:

The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Natural Gas (from the National Wildlife Federation)

Gas is dirty energy and may be dirtier than coal ( regarding Australia)

The Dirty Truth Behind Hydrofracking (from Environmental Graffiti )

The Dirty Truth Behind The New Natural Gas ( from Kentucky Rural Water Association) ( a comprehensive overview )

The Dirty Secret of Shale Gas (from Motley Fool)

Public Health Impacts of Oil & Gas ( from No Dirty Energy )
(Take the PLEDGE)

Cornell’s Howarth Warns EPA… (good links )

A Recent Comment and Reply:

 

David Naro’s Comment:
October 2, 2010 at 7:49 pm  (Edit)

The number of jobs the drilling has created is extraordinary. I have a degree in conservation biology and I’m a 100% supporter of domestic energy and jobs. I feel it’s a shame you don’t want to lower the unemployment rate, especially in NEPA. Oh, the claim that drilling contaminates water is BS. Check out junkscience.com

NoFrackMountain’s Reply:
October 3, 2010 at 10:48 pm  

David ,  

Thank you for commenting. I, too,  am a supporter of domestic energy and jobs. I consume local milk, cheese, beer, produce, and whatever else I can support. I patronize local restaurants and businesses rather than the chain invaders. I have not been perfect, but I am becoming more mindful and resolute with each day 

Rather than turning back to the mines, perhaps this region should move forward into the green, local, and organic future. People want to know their family’s food is safe. Our shores are awash in plastic and our soil is polluted with insecticides, herbicides and God knows what else. Our government refuses to require corporations to reveal when genetically modified organisms are used in a product. These concerns will not go away. 

Energy bills continue to increase There are always promises to lower them. But dirty energy – the kind where you blast open a mountaintop, or shatter shale a mile below – is costly and leaves a sad legacy. 

NEPA ought to be manufacturing (jobs), shipping (jobs), installing (jobs), and retrofitting (jobs) alternative systems such as solar, wind, geo, and small hydro. We have good universities, experienced manufacturers, and excellent trades people. We are at a hub of transportation routes. 

I believe that horizontal fracturing is a nasty business. Even if we managed it perfectly (how often is that done?) we cannot escape the fact that each fracking leaves millions of gallons of fresh water polluted and left underground. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of frackings and you have a significant body of toxic slurry sloshing its way around a shattered system of bedrock. This once fresh water will no longer be part of our water cycle. But it will forever be a threat. 

It is time we practiced human scale, not corporate scale. 

Herb