Deep beneath the east coast of the United States lie trillions of cubic metres of natural gas, but far from meaning boom time, it’s splitting local communities.
Their dispute is over the hydraulic fracking,
or fracturing, used to split the rock and release the gas, which protesters claim can also release chemicals into the water supply.
Nick Lazaredes meets people in Pennsylvania who say they no longer have fresh water on tap… some have faced illness and even been forced to leave their homes.
And now the people of New York are up in arms too over plans for fracking in the Catskill Mountains, which feed the city’s water supply.
The protest movement is growing, but why are officials so keen to refute the claims and allow fracking to take place?
WATCH – Click to see Nick’s report.
FACTFILE – Read our guide to exactly what fracking involves and the latest situation in Australia.
INTERVIEW – Nick talks to SBS Radio’s World News Australia about his story and how the anti-fracking campaign has grown in the United States and beyond.
INSIGHT – Tuesday’s Insight at 7.30pm on SBS ONE will be discussing the mining of coal seam gas, which is causing controversy in Australia. Go to the Insight website to find out more.
COMMENTS – What do you think? Is fracking for gas necessary for future economic prosperity? Or are the environmental risks too high a price to pay?
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601341/n/Fracked-Off
The companies, of this world are not going to stop until the poison us all. Radiation from power plants. GM foods. Growth hormones in our meats. Radiation from Japan in our rain and drinking water, and now Fracking, which it will take longer than oil leaks in the gulf, to stop. The New World Order said that millions had to die to control the over population in the United States, as well as other parts of the world. I am ashamed that most of these problems are from people of my Boomer Generation. God should damn us all.
I suppose in a sense God is damning us all, sins of the father unto the 7th generation and all that. In my reading I’ve discovered that the legacy goes well back. Love Canal was our parents generation, and yes, they knew the problems. Writing on ecological problems were prolific in the 1800’s including Tolstoy and Liberty Hyde Baily.
What puzzles me most is that the folks in power both politically and economically don’t care about their children and grandchildren. All that matters is $$$$$ and prestige.