Airbiscuit,
What about the toxins in the air? This recent study by CU Denver shows people living within a half-mile of oil-and-gas fracking operations were exposed to air pollutants — such as trimethylbenzenes, aliaphatic hydrocarbons, and xylenes — five times above U.S. hazard standards:

www.ucdenver.edu/about/newsroom/newsreleases/Pages/health-im>>>

I don't see why this has to be a "You're either with us or against us" subject - some limits, like not fracking next to schools and in neighborhoods, doesn't seem to me as absurd as you obviously think it is.

I didn't realize that natural gas was "Black gold" like you say - I didn't even know it was black! Here I thought it was a colorless gas!
Obviously you're right, I haven't learned anything. Drill baby drill!

www.truthlandmovie.com/the-facts/

Truthland doesn't explain the air pollution issues at all, but I guess that's not surprising coming from the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

For some reason most people seem to be either all for it with no limits, or vehemently against it. Neither one seems like good way to more forward - such is the sadly polarized problem solving system in America. We could replace "fracking" with "banking" and have pretty much the same discussion about regulation, some all for it, some entirely against it, but neither side being able to do a thing about it. Oh well. Thanks for the discussion.

My father in law works for a company that does fracking in west texas. I was amazed when he said that fracking wasn't a good thing. Partly because it uses an insane amount of water in a part of the country that's been in a drought, and because his water well now tastes bad and has sulfur in it despite being great water for at least 20 years.

If you want published scientific information about some of this technology, in order to make an informed decision of your own, go here.

www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-natural-gas-technology

I believe it is open access, but if there is a chapter you want, and can't access it, pm me and I can send it to you.

From my perspective, the problem with energy development is that the technology always outpaces the scientific understanding of the impacts of that technology. Energy companies have a lot money to dump into emerging technologies that will increase profit. Scientists that study physical, chemical and biological processes in the environment have small budgets because knowledge about natural systems is not a commodity. Unfortunately, due to these facts, bad shit happening is usually how scientists and corporations begin to understand flaws in these technologies.

If you really want to get freaked out about shit that will make you and your family sick or dead, think about your exposure to chemicals we know little about when we use pesticides, degreasers, cleaning fluids and various aromatic compounds around our houses. Nobody ever complains about chemical companies inventing crazy organic compounds to kill creepy crawlies and make you smell good. All of us have a huge impact on water quality when we dispose of pesticides and pharmaceuticals incorrectly. But this isn't hot topic political stuff, so...?

Adam, thanks for that. It's interesting to learn that while fracking has been used for other things for some time, the natural gas fracking that is so prevalent now only really got going in the 90s.

I couldn't agree more about the nasty junk in the rest of our lives. In the future, I'm sure people will call our time the Toxic Ages. Post-Industrual-Revolution-think-we-know-everything, but filling our world and bodies with nasty shit without even realizing it.

That's one of the things I love about climbing - even groveling up a guano-filled crack feels cleaner than shopping in Target.