Current book I've been reading in Thoughts, wishes and things

Here I’m reviewing Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
by Eliza Griswold.

This non-fiction book is about what happens when a fracking company comes into town, followed through the eyes of one family. Mysterious deaths of animals, human sicknesses, and more ensues.

Naively, I had always thought that the EPA and local government health protection agencies would have the teeth to protect citizens from harm. However, this book shows that it’s not always the case, especially when there’s an industry which could potentially bring in a lot of money. Indeed, the water crisis in Flint Michigan is eerily similar to what happened here in the towns of Amity and Prosperity in this book. There is a lot more corruption and crony-ism than you would think.

The author did a great job of thoroughly researching everything; it’s not a knee-jerk type of book, there is no author bias. It’s a fascinating story told mostly through the eyes of one family.

There are several things I took away from this book:
1. If a fracking company gets within even a few miles of you, get your water supply tested by an independent accredited laboratory. Not just once but several times. You will want to establish what they quality of your water was before they start building anything.
2. Even after doing step 1, consider selling up and moving elsewhere before your house prices plummet, and, worse - before air and water are polluted.
3. If you are not planning on doing step 1 and step 2, at least read what happened to the family in the book Amity and Prosperity. In particular, note what Stacey says about how she’d wish to punish those at the fracking company for the health problems she and her family had suffered. She said she didn’t want them to be sentenced to jail. She wanted them to be sentenced to live at her house. In my mind, that says it all. Jail at least had clean air and water.

My viewpoint on fracking based on this book:
Based on what I have read on this book, fracking is a technology that is young enough that safe methods have either not evolved yet fully, or are not being fully employed. Either way, it’s not safe.

I think that fracking companies should not be allowed within a set number of miles of a human dwelling, for safety reasons. Is 5 miles reasonable? If fracking companies find this restriction unfair, then they are welcome to make offers to buy up the land from the current homeowners. People won’t sell? Give them a good price. People still won’t sell? That’s the fracking company’s problem, not anyone else’s.

I don’t know why fracking has been so heavily touted as a good thing when the industry has such a poor track record of safety. There are other ways to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources. Many other countries, especially some European ones like France, have banned fracking altogether. Yet they’ve managed to switch toward more and more domestic energy sources such as renewables like solar and wind power. There’s no reason why citizens should suffer just to complete some ideological goal. There are other ways than fracking to achieve that. I’ve seen the wind farms in Indiana. Why can’t we all do that?

Last updated May 22, 2019