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On April 22, 2011, the 41st edition of "Earth Day" came and went. Truth is, it wasn't much of an attention grabber for the nearly 7 billion human children of Mother Earth busily engaged in the business of thriving -- or merely surviving -- yet one more day. But the truth also is that given the status of the planet, we need to remember that every day must be Earth Day.

Given the current condition and emerging trends, people around the whole earth must pay attention to the forces that create and sustain the gift of life on this planet that is unique in the entire known universe. We are called upon as never before to show due respect to the life-giving, nurturing forces of nature and to the world’s natural resources entrusted to us to manage as wise and selfless stewards. The resources are not endless and our time is finite. Therefore, take care to do no harm to the source and nourishment of your being. Remember to walk softly and leave no tracks.

Twenty-one years after he worked with Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to create the first Earth Day, John Heritage recently wrote: “The human species has now taken dominion over the entire planet. Earth’s well-being is now our responsibility. In turn, our fate depends on the condition of Earth. Rules alone can’t save the planet. Human beings acting in concert, with barriers down and differences healed, might be able to do it.”

May Earth Day kindle a spark of death-defying hope needed to preserve Mother Earth as we know her.

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It’s a cry now being heard across the state from politicians on Jones Street to citizens on Main Street and applauded by the entire gas drilling industry. It’s a call to grab hold of that low hanging fruit (shale gas) just beneath our feet and reap the harvest. It’s an invitation to partake in a monetary feast to be spread out among the State, land owners and energy moguls alike. It’s perceived as Mother Nature’s gift to us, a Cornucopia to shore up sagging revenues, bolster individual bank accounts and boost business profits. But that’s not all; it also comes with the promise (or premise?) of being a home grown (no foreign fingers in the pot), clean (less CO2 and grimy stuff), safe (think Fukushima reactors) bridge to an alternative energy future. And how about all those jobs it will create for our local truck drivers, bulldozers and well sinkers. What’s not to love? Let’s git ‘er done! Let’s get fracking!

And so, the great NC “Gas Rush” of 2011 begins with high hopes and great expectations by many as a partial panacea for our economic and energy woes. But just as politicians, land owners and gas executives hurriedly line up to find their place in the parade, others of a more questioning and wary nature step in line. Their caution is perceived as dark clouds looming on the horizon. Will they bring rain to delay or cancel the parade? Will they ruin a good time with a down pouring of doubts? Will they just dry up and blow away? Doesn’t everyone love a parade?

Like most “hot button” issues facing a diverse society and divided populace, the extraction of natural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) tends to draw a line in the sand (or shale in this case). The resulting “tug-of-war” sets up a contest to recruit and persuade people to throw the weight of their knowledge and convictions into the tussle. Helping folks to understand the pros and cons, assets and liabilities, and the potential for help or harm based on factual study and documented information is critical in the fracking debate. It is important to straddle the line, look in both directions, gather facts and filter misinformation in preparing to choose which direction to pull.

As an education and advocacy organization, the fracking issue has been on CCEC’s radar screen for many months. We’ve looked in both directions, listened and learned and discerned. Now, with the local activity of gas drilling companies to secure leases for mineral rights, and the move afoot in the NC General Assembly to remove fracking prohibitions, we believe it is time to be proactive. With this in mind, and upon CCEC’s invitation, a dozen folks representing ten organizations gathered on April 20 for a brain-storming session. Together they began to lay the foundation for an alliance of groups and individuals to address the issue of natural gas extraction via fracking in Chatham and NC.

In the coming weeks and months CCEC will continue to collaborate with this core group, and we look forward to sharing emerging plans for citizen education and advocacy as together we get cracking on this critical and controversial issue of fracking.

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Question: Would you swallow a bottle of “magic pills” just because a pill salesman told you that you need them, that they will be good for you (boost your energy), that your purchase will help the economy, that it will create jobs, that you will be paid to take the first bottle and that you’ll even get a cut of the sales profits? Hmmm, that does sound tempting.

Would you do it even if you didn’t know what was in those pills and there was no disclosure of potential health risks on the bottle? Perhaps you’d ask the salesman to tell you what is in the pills? What if he told you, “It’s none of your business what’s in my pills; that’s a trade secret protected by law.” What if, in spite of the unreasonableness of this scenario, you took the pills, passed them around to all your family and neighbors? What if many got sick and some died? What if you reported it to the pill company, and they claimed no responsibility? Would you feel like you had been snookered? Would you be ticked off … outraged?

There’s a salesman in our neighborhoods right now with a deal every bit as preposterous and lethal as that of the ubiquitous pill pusher, but just as tempting. He’s betting that P.T Barmun was correct (“a sucker born every minute”), and that the government of the state of North Carolina will help him promote his business. It’s worked in 34 other states across the country, and the climate in NC is getting friendlier all the time. His “oh-so-tempting” sugar coated poison pill appears in the form of “shale gas,” and it’s the traumatic water-wasting, toxin-lased horizontal drilling method of extracting the gas from underground shale deposits that’s the killer.

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for short, pumps a noxious chemical cocktail combined with massive volumes of water deep underground to fracture shale containing pockets of natural (shale) gas. This horizontal drilling method and injection of chemicals is currently banned by law in NC, and for good reason. The cost in community degradation, human suffering and the pollution of subsurface and surface waters as well as land and air is documented in states where the ill conceived practice is allowed with little or no regulation or enforcement measures required.

As NC legislators explore ways to cure our economic ills, some are swallowing the pitch from the “magic pill” (natural gas drilling) salesman. As a result, while New York has imposed a moratorium on fracking, our longstanding law prohibiting fracking is in grave danger of being deep sixed under the lure of an alleged “clean” and relatively cheap home grown alternative energy source and economic booster. And in our own back yards (forests, fields and rivers) of Chatham and Lee counties, gas drilling companies are already successfully offering speculative predatory deeds to landowners for rights to drill for shale gas, betting that the laws will soon be on their side. With little or no information on the horrific consequences of their actions, people are swallowing the poison pill as though it were good medicine for all.

There is already plenty of hype about the perceived benefits of natural gas and promotion of it. More public education about the downsides of fracking as it is now practiced is a proper and responsible civic response. When the National Weather Service issues a Tornado Watch or Warning, it’s not a scare tactic. When the FDA requires a Warning label on your pill bottle, it’s not a scare tactic. When neighbors warn neighbors that “fracking” isn’t all the sweetness and light that it’s packaged and sold as … that it has a bitter dark side, it’s not a scare tactic. It’s public service. Good neighbors don’t let neighbors (or legislators) frack without all the facts.

As citizens come to understand the high cost of fracking to human, animal and environmental health, we are less likely to be snookered into the fantasy of harmless fracking, and are more likely to question legislation to legitimize the practice. For this reason, we believe concerned Chatham organizations and citizens should unite to wage a campaign to educate fellow citizens and advocate for no legislation that would allow fracking at the cost of human and animal health and community and environmental degradation. We’re not buying into the “Don’t Worry… Be Happy” seal of approval that seeks to reassure the public that we can trust our personal and environmental health, wellness and prosperity to the frack masters.

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