Get Ebooks The Real Cost Of Fracking: How America's Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, And Food
A pharmacologist and a veterinarian pull back the curtain on the human and animal health effects of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” Across the country, fracking—the extraction of natural gas by hydraulic fracturing—is being touted as the nation’s answer to energy independence and a fix for a flagging economy. Drilling companies assure us that the process is safe, politicians push through drilling legislation without a serious public-health debate, and those who speak out are marginalized, their silence purchased by gas companies and their warnings about the dangers of fracking stifled. The Real Cost of Fracking pulls back the curtain on how this toxic process endangers the environment and harms people, pets, and livestock. Michelle Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a pharmacologist, combine their expertise to show how contamination at drilling sites translates into ill health and heartbreak for families and their animals. By giving voice to the people at ground zero of the fracking debate, the authors vividly illustrate the consequences of fracking and issue an urgent warning to all of us: fracking poses a dire threat to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and even our food supply. Bamberger and Oswald reveal the harrowing experiences of small farmers who have lost their animals, their livelihoods, and their peace of mind, and of rural families whose property values have plummeted as their towns have been invaded by drillers. At the same time, these stories give us hope, as people band together to help one another and courageously fight to reclaim their communities. The debate over fracking speaks to a core dilemma of contemporary life: we require energy to live with modern conveniences, but what degree of environmental degradation, health risks, and threats to our food supply are we willing to accept to obtain that energy? As these stories demonstrate, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and this is an issue that none of us can afford to ignore.
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press (August 5, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080708493X
ISBN-13: 978-0807084939
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #386,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #20 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Energy Production & Extraction > Fossil Fuels > Natural Gas #43 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Energy Production & Extraction > Drilling Procedures #51 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Energy & Mining > Natural Resource Extraction
In 2012, veterinarian Michelle Bamberger and Cornell University professor of molecular medicine Robert Oswald published their study, “Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health.” Their report documented cases studies with animal owners in Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In 24 cases they found evidence of animals affected by drilling and fracking operations. However their report received little media attention. So they wrote a book.In “The Real Cost of Fracking: How America's Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food,” Bamberger and Oswald tell the stories of those people whose lives and the lives of the animals they loved and cared for were changed forever by drilling and fracking. They even go so far as to mask the identities of people who signed non-disclosure agreements, and who are in some cases speaking out for the first time.The people in these stories are farmers. They raise livestock and pets, and/or grow “organic” fruits and vegetables that end up on dinner tables across the country. But how safe is food that has been grown and raised in an environment that contains toxic chemicals? In some cases the crops and cattle were contaminated directly from spills of drilling fluids and wastewater, and they went to market anyway.Bamberger also pays a visit to a tiny community without water after a company fracked in the aquifer underneath the town and blew up all the wells, then walked away from the mess. It is inconceivable that she is describing a town in the United States. Further evidence that fracking is transforming rural America into the Third World.This book speaks to people who live in the gas patch. Where I live in Silt, Colorado, we are surrounded by more than 10,500 oil and gas wells.
XXXXX(1) "Water dispensers and water buffalos have displaced our water sources"(2) "All my puppies were born dead"(3) "I have no calves this year"(4) "My vet can't figure out what's happening to my animals"(5) "We had to leave our home to escape the bad air"(6) "We all have headaches, nosebleeds, and rashes"(7) "We are not living; we are merely existing"The above common complaints of people living in fracking (the extraction of natural gas by hydraulic fracturing) areas are found in this revealing book by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald. Bamberger is a veterinarian & author and Oswald is a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University.In the beginning chapters of this book we sit across the kitchen table from REAL people who have been seriously affected by fracking, families with children (including babies) and with pets--dogs, cats, horses, goats, pigs, chickens, and a donkey.The middle chapters encompasses farmers and food-producing animals (largely beef cattle).In the last chapters, the authors analyse the issues surrounding unconventional gas drilling (which fracking is) and delve into environmental justice.
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