Please, Don’t Frack My Mother

by: Julia Cheung

Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono made a plea last month with a song titled “Don’t Frack My Mother” as they launched Artists Against Fracking, their campaign uniting celebrity voices to protest the imminent threat of hydraulic fracturing. But despite these efforts — and those of thousands of other New Yorkers – New York governor Andrew Cuomo is close to approving fracking in a few counties along the Marcellus Shale Formations according to a report by CBS.

The practice of fracking would involve drilling downwards of 2,000 to 10,000 feet into the earth, into a layer called the shale where the natural gas is located. To extract the gas, millions of gallons of chemical laced water would be injected into the earth to force open the cracks and fissures. That very same water consequently becomes untreatable toxic water that could stay underground indefinitely. And more than just the natural gas, other chemicals too would be released (many of which are carcinogenic), and have in the past, been known to leak into the water source and contaminate the air, destroying food systems and sickening local residents. In spite of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the 2005 Bush/Cheney Energy Bill not only excludes natural gas drilling but also exempts energy companies from disclosing the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

On Monday, August 27, filmmakers, Josh Fox and Sandra Steingraber who examined the effects of fracking in their short film, The Sky is Pink, will be organizing an event in Albany to demand a ban on fracking. They have also created a pledge, Don’t Frack New York, which has already been signed by more than 1,500 New Yorkers.