Modern society has taught us a lot about the earth. The ancients didn’t know what caused volcanoes to erupt or why the ground moved with earthquakes. Tectonic plates moving progressively away or toward each other would have seemed incomprehensible. It made more sense that these were the results of gods that needed to be appeased.
Yet, with all this science comes an arrogance that somehow when we do something to disturb the natural balance that we can get away with it. Sure we can on a small scale, but eventually it catches up with us.
I remember when it was OK to take the oil from my car when I changed it and “reused” it to kill weeds on the fenceposts in my back yard. Me doing that alone would hardly destroy the environment so it didn’t prick my conscience to do it at the time as it would now.
Well, at scale things like this matter and the consequences of horizontal drilling and fracking with water are coming home to roost just as underground coal mining in Pennsylvania has resulted in huge subsidence situations there. Read it for yourself on the Wall Street Journal. Or this pdf copy.
We should be learning that all ideas at scale disturb the environment. We know now that large solar arrays kill birds. We know the latest generations of wind turbines do the same and can wipe out species. Yet, we persist in believing that solar and wind are the saviors of the planet.
I have warned my clients that it will only take one environmentally disastrous event to kill off horizontal drilling (fracking) and that will double or triple fuel prices. Every time I said that in a public venue I could see the nodding heads.
Well, if you all believe me, you are culpable for failing to plan your energy resources when this happens.
Notice I did not say IF this happens … the handwriting is already on the wall and double spaced for easy reading.