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| In my mother's garden |
I had a really happy childhood, so I don't know where my steady, stormy lava flow of anger came from.
Today I drove west, to Bradford County, to buy plants for a job. I like going to Bradford County because I can drive fast, blasting the same The Fall song over and over again, and the air whirls in my window carrying honey meadow smell. It's pretty there - the Amish hang blocks of deepwater purple and blue and green on their wash lines to dry.
That's all lovely, I know, but the anger-making part is this: The oil and gas industry has taken over my birthplace with drilling rigs and armadas of trucks - tankers, thumpers... tailgaters.
Here, I'll sum it up: They are extracting natural gas by drilling and fracturing a shale formation deep within Pennsylvania's netherworld... poisoning pure water, transforming air into cancer, and generally laying waste to my heartland in the process. They've made it a policy to not drive anywhere without half their wheels on my side of the double yellow line.
It takes exactly three white pickup trucks chock-full of cowboy hats and one skyscraper-high drill rig with an American flag on top to make my eyeballs roll back in my head and the words "kill-kill-kill" snap into place where my irises were.
I could blame Texas for this mess, but that would be the easy way out. And besides, I love Texas, land where sunset melds with highway and my wanderlust sighs relief.
See, therein lies the rub. I'm so angry over an oily, greasy goldrush on gas. And I'm so weightless and peaceful when I'm burning up the open road, in my sweet little black truck.
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| Harley and me |
7 comments:
Ugh, I know. I hate having to commute 40 minutes round trip everyday to work at a health food store. What a conundrum. Have you heard about "Gasland"- a documentary about the Marcellus gas drilling? Haven't watched it yet...
I was shocked when I first learned just how destructive natural gas drilling is to ecosystems, and how widespread the swaths of destruction can be, at least out here in the west. Humans and oil are a conundrum. I love the feeling out on the open road, away from all the crazy city drivers, I love a warm house in winter, but I hate what it takes to have either one, and I doubt most of us are willing to revert to ways of the Amish to solve the problem.
IM, I have not seen Gasland yet but have heard good things. News this week is another three water wells are tainted with methane (they figure this out when a part of the well blows off/up). Ugh.
CVF, you are very right - most of us are not willing, myself included. And yes, natural gas drilling is spreading so fast, under the guise of "green."
"See, therein lies the rub. I'm so angry over an oily, greasy goldrush on gas. And I'm so weightless and peaceful when I'm burning up the open road, in my sweet little black truck."
You are, indeed, your mother's daughter.
Conundrum indeed. Nice post.
We,too,are frustrated and are watching in horror as white trucks pull up and leave "festive" ribbons tied to trees along our quiet and PRIVATE dirt road. Not a "festive" feeling is it?
The Texas boys have no stake in our future or our grandchildren's future. They do as they wish without regard for what is right or moral.
Mary Ann & Jeff
Comment from LN of Down & Dirty via email: "The fracking is coming to us in Pike county. Terrifying and anger making."
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