Hi readers.  Everywhere people gather with no television playing and no cell phone calls to attend to the US citizenry conversations eventually get around to fracking.  Drilling oil and gas wells horizontally into shale and fracturing the deposition to release energy producing minerals.

Heck, I’d never heard of it until a couple of years ago, when my neighbor began telling me about the amazing oil discoveries in Texas now reaching production.  Oil reserves larger than the combined deposits everywhere else on the planet.

At first I was skeptical, and I couldn’t imagine what fracking was.  But one thing I discovered immediately was the fact everyone who knew the word was possessed of a certainty about whether it was a dangerous risk to one or another environmental facet.

When I visited Eddie Brewer in Andrews, Texas while waiting for the VA to try figuring out what manner of health problems I’d given myself I found he’d educated himself about it.  A neighbor was drilling a number of wells so’s to sell water to drilling companies for use in fracking.  And Eddie was concerned about depletion of his household water well.

It was through Eddie I first became fundamentally acquainted with what’s involved.  And with him I watched a number of television documentaries on the subject of fracking and groundwater contamination.  I didn’t come away with a deep understanding of the risks, and I doubt anyone actually can lay claim to a thorough understanding of those.  But at least I was able to comprehend the basics.

And gradually became cognizant of how much BS was coming from the mouths of people who didn’t understand those basics in the form of almost religious opinion, either for, or against fracking.

So, even though I don’t have a good reason for doing so beyond curiosity, I recently decided to devote some time to learning about it.  Just enough to decide whether I’d have an opinion if I were smarter and better informed than I am.  I started by watching two movies currently streaming on Netflix:  Gasland, and FrackNation.  What would appear at first glance to be a way of getting both sides of the viewpoints.

Unfortunately, Gasland turns out to be a fraud.  Which doesn’t mean a strong stand opposing fracking mightn’t be valid.  All it means is that Gasland was a deliberate nest of lies and misrepresentations intended to propagandize unfavorably about fracking.

However, here are some other videos giving both sides of the subject.  I’ve watched them carefully and learned a lot.  But I still can’t figure out whether I have an opinion.  Or, if I have an opinion, what it might be.  I’ve graduated from not having an opinion out of total ignorance, to not having an opinion knowing a good bit more, and being more acutely aware of how much a person with an opinion ought to know.  Which most of us don’t.

FrackNation vs Gasland

The Director of ‘FrackNation’ Fights Back!

Dr. Ingraffea Facts on Fracking

FrackNation the documentary that exposes Joshua Fox as a liar?

WARNING Fracking An Inconvenient Truth Watch Learn about Fracking Shale Gas what they dont say

If you watch it all and discover yourself to be without an opinion, I’d guess you’ve learned a great deal more than you knew beforehand.

Old Jules