Fracking Jumps The Pacific

[tyellas]

Welp, my cat's dead and National (the local equivalent of the Republicans) is back in power after New Zealand's election this weekend. So I may as well extend my grumpiness with a post about fracking.

I've been paying quiet attention as the gas extraction/mining process known as "fracking" has spread. Fracking is particularly prevalent in Pennsylvania, my old geological stomping grounds. Pennsylvania also has a long history of suffering from mining practices that turned out to be longer-term geological bad ideas. Centralia, PA’s coal fire, started in 1962, is still burning underground. Abandoned mines and mine shafts are a serious safety issue. For a long time, Pennsylvania had the second highest rate of coal-mining-related acid rain in the U.S. (second only to West Virginia).But I digress from fracking.

I'm very curious to see Gasland, the movie about fracking.

Here's an excellent shorter overview from the New Yorker.

Longer piece from the New York Times. This has it all, the happy, the disgruntled, the sick children and dead animals.

What does this mean for New Zealand? There seem to be fracking permits issued for Canterbury.

Comments

[milites.livejournal.com]

Fracking scares me silly too - especially since Christchurch depends for its drinking water on water filtered through a hundred miles of shingle - right through the red bits of the North Fracking Permit area (approval pending).

One screw up, and Christchurch will be drinking bottled water, which is a shame, since it used to be fantastic straight out of the tap.

Of course, it's already threatened by dairy farmers taking so much water out of the system that the aquifers under the city are in danger of salination.

/me shakes his head

It's all really frustrating, and disappointing.

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I worry what we can do, especially as an articulate, politically connected friend of mine in Waihi burned herself out protesting against the expansion of the Martha Mine. She has written about her experience here. (http://watchdog.org.nz/about/living-in-waihi-a-personal-account/) Over several years she kept me up to date on the locals' attempts to stop what was going on - and, in the end, they failed.