Don't Frack On me.

I have one thing to say before talking at all about this wonderfully named craze (though its been around for decades) sweeping the nation. Yes, I will be using frack in an adolescent way as many times as possible throughout the writing of this post.  Lets keep count.

Fracking is the fun term for hydraulic fracturing.  This is a process during which water is mixed with sand and chemicals to frack up rocks deep under ground in order to release natural gas and/or oil.  Basically, you drill a fracking hole, and then you shoot water super hard to frack things up in a way a drill could not.  The concept doesn't seem that different from this (it may seem like a boring video at first, but just think about it).

I don't think its hard to imagine what kinds of weird things can go wrong, or what harmful side effects might occur when you are fracking injecting billions of gallons of water mixed with toxic chemicals into the earth.  Aside from a mass genocide of underground moll people, much of the water used cannot be recovered and its unclear where it fracking goes.  So, reports of tap water so fracking contaminated that its making people want to pass the frack out when showering are not unfathomable.  Up to date, their is inconclusive evidence that fracking is really causing such fracked up problems.  The EPA is now looking into it and should have an answer by 2014.  Excellent.

The interesting question to me is how a controversial practice that may negatively affect the health of many, but is a massive money maker to the all powerful and politically connected (did I mention Halliburton is highly involved?) can be stopped (assuming it should be stopped at all).  One answer might be a vast consensus from the scientific community that fracking is terrible.  But given the fact that it is probably a necessary part of being the Republican presidential nominee to deny a specific vast consensus from the scientific community, I don't have a lot of faith in this option.  That a few people in some random town in Pennsylvania now have hairless dogs and horses, isn't going to cut it either.  It doesn't mean a fracking thing what the frack happens to a few people here and there.  Why?  Because there is way too much fracking money to be made here, and way too much political capital to be gained as well.

Fracking may be the answer to our energy woes (at least for a second or two), or it may pave the way towards a tragic public health crisis.  I don't know what the answer is, but I guess ultimately I am concerned that the answer really doesn't fracking matter.

Frack count: 15

-Tim

also. Stephen Colbert is much funnier than I.

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