Fracking

                When people first found out about the amazing amount of oil and natural gas that was hiding underneath earth’s surface, it became an all out race to get as much as possible. Digging in very shallow areas was only effective for a short time, but eventually there was not more oil to get at such depths. This is where more modern techniques than just drilling come in. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of taking a machine that shoots fluid and using is to bore into the ground to help release oil and natural gas. The fluid that is used is more than just water and is made up of many different chemicals to increase the viscosity of the liquid. With a thicker liquid, the machine can bore faster and through tougher rocks. There is a problem with the liquid and the whole system of fracking: the chemicals seep through the ground and get into ground water, water that humans drink.

                The town of Pavillion, Wyoming is one that has been the victim of much fracking. The company EnCana had been fracking near the town for a few years when the effects of the act became visible. The people started complaining about the quality of the water in their wells, but EnCana just gave the people clean drinking water and they quieted down. The Environmental Protection Agency was not pleased with this and wanted to know if there was a correlation between the fracking and the unhealthy quality of the peoples’ drinking water.

                The EPA took samples of drinking water from the wells of many residents and tested them to find unusual chemicals. They found hydrocarbons that seemed to be related to fracking, but couldn’t blatantly state that. They redid the test a few years later and confirmed their first suspicions. With that, they warned the people of the dangerous chemicals that they would be consuming and bathing in. To confirm everything, the EPA drilled 1000 feet and took more samples finding high levels of carcinogenic chemicals that are associated with fracking.

                When the EPA brought their findings to EnCana and asked for a list of chemicals that the company uses in their fracking fluid, they declined to give them the list. They also dismissed the findings of the carcinogenic chemicals saying that they were inconsistent and that specific chemicals were only found in single samples out of the many that the EPA took.

                Fracking can be very destructive to people because of the many chemicals that are used to create the fracking fluid. The chemicals can leak into the groundwater and that can lead to serious problems for human health. Fracking has already been banned in some countries for this very reason.

Kahn Quote

            In Richard Kahn’s “Toward Ecopedagogy”, he makes many meaningful quotes, but one really stood out to me. Ones of the last things the Kahn says is that “education remains a primary institution towards affecting social and ecological change for the better, and so it deserves to be fought for, transformed by the needs of the day, and so wizened by lessons of the past” (Kahn18). This quotation is a strong one to end a long article because it summarizes what he had to say.

            Throughout the whole of the article, Kahn talks about how the best way to get people on the environmental track is through education and I strongly agree with that. The only way people will ever find out what is wrong with the world is through education. Kahn suggests more environmental education classes for children and I also think that this is a good idea. If people find out at an early age what is up with the world, they will more likely grow up trying to figure out ways to fix it.

            The quote stood out to me because of how strong it is and because of how it perfectly summarized everything that it took Kahn eighteen pages to do.

Visual Rhetoric

In this picture, a baby has a television covering one eye with the caption saying "She's got your eyes". This is a remark about how people watch too much TV nowadays and that it is rubbing off on children. Naturally if a parent watches a lot of TV, their children will follow and do the same. There are not many television shows out there now that are mentally stimulating for a young child so instead parents should read to their children or just speak to them to help their education. This picture is an example of visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is visual art used to persuade people for or against something. In this picture, it is clear that the visual rhetoric it trying to get parents let their children watch less TV.

A Third Batch

                Starting off with “The Call of the Wild”, a poem about how wilderness should be in all of us, but it is not. The poem is about an old man who will have a coyote trapped and taken away because it howls in the night. This is upsetting for Snyder because he says that the howls are music that his sons are starting to enjoy. Another part of the poem talks about other landowners who do not appreciate what they have. They sell huge, old trees because they are told of the unpleasant things that are inside of them. Many people do not understand that bugs and animals are all over the world and hidden throughout nature. In the poem, Snyder also talks about people waging war. People drop bombs and destroy nature and kill innocent animals. They release poisons into the world without fearing any repercussions to the environment. Snyder finishes off the poem by saying that he would wish to say that nature and the call of the wild is inside everyone, but it isn’t.

                The next poem, “Mother Earth: Her Whales”, is about the usage of the worlds natural resources and government action. The first country mentioned is Brazil, home of the world’s largest rainforest. The Amazon is home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species, but has been under a constant state of deforestation for a number of years now. Every day plant species are wiped out and animals lose their homes. Snyder then says that the government figure that is called “Brazil” cannot speak for all of these dying species. In Japan, whale hunters devastate the ocean giants. Snyder is disgusted that a “once-great Buddhist nation” could come to such a low, violent point. China and the USA have also lost numerous amounts of species due to human actions. Snyder finishes off the poem by calling the animals and the plants of the world to action. The government “robots” cannot go around making the decisions for the world about something they do not understand.

                The final poem is one that very much has to do with the idea of place. “Rain in Alleghany” is simply about what the title says, how it is in Alleghany when raining. Alleghany is a small mining town that has been an operational gold mine since the California Gold Rush. Snyder comments that the land is bumpy and worn like that of a miner’s hand. Alleghany can be taken as a peaceful place because of how Snyder describes a time of rain. It simply involves enjoying a beer along with the rain, but “how we love it”. Alleghany does not need all the excitement of a huge metropolis to be an enjoyable place. Snyder loves it even more for this. All Snyder needs is the peace of the area.

A Second Set

            The next set of poems had themes similar to the previous set, but this set also focused on the earth being separate from humans and being unwanted.

            The first poem, “For Nothing”, compared the earth to a flower staying in its natural environment. It is beautiful in its surroundings, but all of that is for nothing because nobody wants it. Snyder says that there are “no takers” because there are not many people who are trying to keep the earth and the environment in natural, pristine condition. While many people can appreciate the beautiful condition that the flower is in, there is no effort to take care of it and keep the flower safe.

            “It Pleases” is a poem about everything that happens because of people and animals, but how we are not the source of power of it all. In the setting of D.C., people are moving, buildings are standing, and birds are flying against the clouds. Although all of this is happening, the center of power is the earth. The earth is the power behind everything that is and was. And even though people try to control the earth, it still does what it pleases. We cannot stop all of the natural disasters of the world no matter how hard we try.

            In “Two Fawns that Didn’t See the Light this Spring”, Snyder describes two different situations that had very similar endings. In the first situation, a man shot what he thought was a buck, but ended up being a doe that was carrying a fawn. Both died. In the second situation, a man accidentally hit a doe with his car. This doe was also carrying a fawn that they found when they butchered it for meat.  Both of these fawns did not get to see the spring because their mothers were killed before their times. This poem is really only about how tragic life can be when it is cut short.