Shale Game: Playing With Unknowns Underground

Sandra Steingraber

[Photo credit: Dede Hatch]

[Published in the May/June 2010 issue of Orion magazine]

Sandra Steingraber has been called the modern Rachel Carson by some.  She is an acclaimed ecologist, author, environmentalist, educator, cancer survivor, and wife and mother.  This article is a short, but impassioned, piece which asks us to think, to think about the possible effects of natural gas drilling, in particular, high-volume slick water hydrofracturing.  She tells of four stories that need our attention in regard to gas drilling: the geological story, the engineering story, the environmental story, and the human story.  Read the whole article here.

On the way home, walking on an unbroken sidewalk made of shale above an as-of-yet unshattered bedrock made of shale, my son said, "We shouldn't wreck this place down, right, Mom?" And his words drew a battle line across my heart.

For more information on Dr. Steingraber, go here.
Her blog can be found here.
She writes a weekly post on The Huffington Post.
Here is an interview with her from terrain.org.