Food For Thought

It came to me this morning, that many of you who are still straddling the fence on the whole fracking issue may not have thought of two things…

1) There are a lot of TV ads proclaiming the safety of fracking…if that were true, do you really think the oil/gas companies would spend so much money on commercials to convince you?

2) Let’s say you didn’t sell or lease your mineral rights and you aren’t worried about it. Take a drive two miles from your home (Google Earth will do it with satellites so you can map your route before leaving home) and if you see an area of land about the size of four-football fields THAT is an area where a frack well could sit.

What does that mean to you? Well, once they turn that drill bit horizontally they can drill up to two miles away. That means they could drill under your land…yes, right in your back yard. And guess what? Your well water is now at risk for contamination.  Your neighbor, who is two miles away from you, will be the person getting that nice fat check for the lease of their mineral rights and residual income if the well produces…..and you get nothing…except perhaps water that you can’t drink or bathe in.

How is that fair?

Go to http://www.letsbanfracking.org and find out where you can sign a petition to get this on the ballot in 2014. Better yet, sign up and commit to getting 12 or more signatures in the next two weeks. We still have time to slow this down now and stop it in 2014.

Call or write your state representative (find your state representative and how to contact them here):

http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/

and your state senator (find your state senator and how to contact him/her here):

http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysenator/fysenator.htm

and

Governor Rick Snyder:

PHONE: (517) 373-3400
PHONE: (517) 335-7858 – Constituent Services
FAX:(517) 335-6863

Mail: Governor Rick Snyder
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Talk to your local government and let them know you are against fracking.

Radiation Exposure from Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Radiation Exposure from Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

You really have to check out the information on Radiation Exposure in this article.

With the worry in the scientific and medical communities regarding the US’s potential for exposure to radioactive isotopes from Japan, it seems ever more important to stop the rape of our continent by the oil/gas companies…especially in and around Michigan which  is home to one fifth (1/5) of the worlds fresh water supply.

In a “worst case scenario” Michigan’s fresh water could mean the difference between extinction and survival. This huge fresh water supply should be considered a national treasure and be protected at all costs.

Fracking uses 6-8 million gallons of water per day…can we really afford to poison that much water? We may need it to drink and grow food in the very near future. Currently, gas prices are very low, due to the glut on the market from all the gas made available from the frack sites currently operating. There’s absolutely NO NEED to continue to mine natural gas in America right now.

Call your representatives, senators and governor(s) and tell them Fracking is not what America needs right now. Heck, call the President too while you’re at it.

We don’t need radioactive anything…

A friend who is a member of the Sierra Club sent me this info in an email last week.

“Back in July, on one of those 100+ degree days, Consumers Power recorded their highest electricity use day in Michigan history.

What was most significant about that was that both Davis-Besse (near Detroit) and Palisades (near South Haven) nuke plants were off-line that day, and there were no black-outs or brown-outs. This suggests that we do not need these dangerous, aging dinosaurs in our energy mix; especially considering how expensive they are compared to renewables. We need more wind and solar to supply our energy needs in the future.

Vote for 25% by 2025 on your November ballot!”

STUDY: Fracking Chemicals Are Killing And Neutering Pets And Farm Animals – Business Insider

STUDY: Fracking Chemicals Are Killing And Neutering Pets And Farm Animals – Business Insider.

 

If these chemicals can do this to our animals, you know we are next. Animals serve as our sentinels, we need to pay attention!

Natural Gas Drilling Debate Heats Up: Read Our Guide – ProPublica

Natural Gas Drilling Debate Heats Up: Read Our Guide – ProPublica.

This isn’t going to go-away unless we make it happen. The greed of corporate America and the corruption of the media and government won’t go away unless we, the 99% make ourselves heard.

Get petitions and circulate them. Write letters. Write emails. Make phone calls. Get out there and make a difference. If we don’t save ourselves, we have no one to blame when it all comes crashing down except ourselves.

“They” have already begun drilling in Ionia County, Allegan County, and southern Barry County.

The time to get involved is NOW !

Who Are America’s Top 10 Gas Drillers? – ProPublica

Who Are America’s Top 10 Gas Drillers? – ProPublica.

Remember, there are safe and sound methods of powering America that don’t include raping the planet!

These companies don’t care about the public interest, only their own greed for ever more money.

Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking – ProPublica

Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking – ProPublica.

There is mounting evidence that the toxicity associated with horizontal  high-pressure hydraulic fracturing is contaminating our air and drinking water. Act now to preserve our species!

Ready for the Triple-Team

Wednesday 7/18/2012

Again, the 6 p.m. -10 p.m. shift 🙂 I asked the person who’d done the afternoon shift if they’d been approached by anyone working in the oil company telling them they were crazy to be trying to ban the wonderful opportunity of fracking. They had not. It appears then that they save their time and talent until my shift. Oh, lucky, lucky me 😉

After Tuesday nights triple team, I went home and did some research on the fracking boom in North Dakota…so far, the two people who most loudly proclaimed the safety of the practice, and claiming they worked in N. Dakota were very, very wrong. I printed out the documentation so I could prove my points to them…they didn’t return.

Wednesday night was a fellow who said he worked for an oil/gas exploration company out of Grand Rapids, MI and that fracking was totally safe.  He told me he knew more about fracking than I did. I agreed with him that he probably did.

I then asked him if he considered the New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters or the AP to be fairly credible news sources…he did. I asked if he thought legislative subcommittees could be trusted to submit fairly accurate information…he did.

I pointed to the table full of papers that were articles from those credible news sources and sub-committee reports from State and Federal committees on the topic of “fracking”…all of which contained information that any reasonable human being who can look a few years into the future would see as damning.

He wished us luck and walked away. I wished him luck also and continued good health.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/07/19/north-dakotas-fracking-boom-brings-complications-with-it/

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/142695152/oil-boom-puts-strain-on-north-dakota-towns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-north-dakota-the-gritty-side-of-an-oil-boom/2012/07/18/gJQAZk5ZuW_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/us/for-oil-workers-deadliest-danger-is-driving.html?_r=1

http://www.propublica.org/search/search.php?q=Oil+boom+brings+wealth+and+waste+to+north+dakota&o=r&p=2

http://www.propublica.org/article/feds-link-water-contamination-to-fracking-for-first-time

Okay, now I’m armed with even more facts! Where are those oil/gas guys when you have ample ammunition… 😉

Fracking Insiders Admit To Employing Military ‘Psychological Operations’ On American Citizens – Business Insider

A sad state of affairs for sure. If you dare, read the following article. Be warned, it’ll probably raise your blood pressure…

Fracking Insiders Admit To Employing Military ‘Psychological Operations’ On American Citizens – Business Insider.

And just in case the link “disappears” as so many have been lately…I’ve pasted the text of the page here…

In this next recording (also given to CNBC) the speaker tells listeners that his organization maintains several military veterans who served as psychological warfare specialists. These former “psy ops” soldiers, he explains, are using their skills in Pennsylvania.

Fracking is a contentious business. The process of injecting chemicals at high-pressure into the earth to pull out gas and oil has prompted as many reports condemning it as there are declaring it safe.

Homeowners concerned for the safety of their well water, and environmentalists, who believe the drilling even caused the Oklahoma earthquake, have formed movements against the practice, and it was these efforts that came up for discussion at last week’s oil industry conference in Houston.

Filled with industry insiders all facing the same challenges and concerns, speakers lectured openly on how they handled the American public in communities where they drilled.

There, recording it all, was environmental activist Sharon Wilson, director of the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

In the following recording, given to CNBC, one presenter tells the crowd to download a copy of the Army’scounterinsurgency manual. “Because,” he said, the movement opposing the industry is an “insurgency.”

Wilson paid full price for attendance to the conference and wore a nametag identifying herself and her organization.

In his forum called “Designing a Media Relations Strategy To Overcome Concerns Surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing,” Range Resources communications director Matt Pitzarella explains how to “overcome stakeholder concerns” surrounding fracking.

“We have several former psy ops folks that work for us at Range because they’re very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments,” Pitzarella said. “Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of psy ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania.”

It was during Anadarko Petroleum’s manager of external affairs, Matt Carmichael’s, session on “Understanding How Unconventional Oil & Gas Operators are Developing a Comprehensive Media Relations Strategy to Engage Stakeholders and Educate the Public” that he suggested his colleagues:

“Download the U.S. Army-slash-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency,” Carmichael said. “There’s a lot of good lessons in there and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable.”

To be clear on exactly what Carmichael meant when he said they’re “dealing with an insurgency” we obtained a copy of the FM 3-24 — the final edition of the 2006 Counterinsurgency manual provided to psy ops soldiers. We substituted the word government with corporation.

” … insurgency has been a common approach used by the weak to combat the strong. At the beginning of a conflict, insurgents have the strategic initiative … the insurgents generally initiate the war. They may strive to disguise their intentions, and the potential counter-insurgent will be at a great disadvantage until [corporate] leaders recognize that an insurgency exists and are able to determine its makeup and characteristics to facilitate a coordinated reaction.

While the [corporation] prepares to respond, the insurgent is gaining strength and creating increasing disruptions throughout the state. The existing [corporation] normally has an initial advantage in resources, but that edge is counterbalanced by the requirement to maintain order. The insurgent succeeds by sowing chaos and disorder anywhere; the [corporation] fails unless it maintains order everywhere.

Check out FM 3-24 below, section 1-1 provides the overview of an “insurgency.” It provides an interesting insight into how corporations impacting the daily lives of US citizens conduct policy.

FM_3-24

Stop the Frack Attack » Call to Action

Stop the Frack Attack » Call to Action.

Good information.