I swam from the source of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico as a performance and environmental statement - because I love the river. Frack sand isn’t just about the sand or air quality. When frack sand leaves Winona or any other facility, it goes to be mixed with hazardous chemicals in a toxic cocktail that is forced into the earth under high pressure to fracture rock and release gas and oil. Millions of gallons of water are contaminated. It enters our underground aquifers - rivers, lakes and streams that support all life. When you think of pure and clean spring water - that’s an underground stream surfacing. If those same chemicals were being pumped directly into the river, most reasonable people would probably be up in arms.
There’s an abundance of water on this prime planet
We’ve got so much we take it for granted
But we become the fool as we find
That salt water won’t get it for us most of the time
With surface and ground water that interconnect
They’re both sources of life, so let’s show some respect.*
I readily admit to using fossil fuel. I do not believe it makes one a hypocrite to use what is available within the parameters of the existing culture while still pressing for positive change. In my latest project, I have dedicated a daily blog to the changing climate with 657 posts so far, uninterrupted since January 1, 2013 because:
The multinational corporations behind the US oil boom sell to the highest bidder on the world market. Just because it’s extracted here does not mean it will stay here and insulate us from “foreign oil”.
The Pentagon has recognized climate change as an immediate national security threat. Scientists agree, the fossil fuel industry has more fuel in reserves than can ever be safely burned. Not tapping it leaves huge potential profits untouched. It becomes a moral dilemma that has been compared to slaveholders giving up their profit from human bondage. That case ignited the war between the states. Change causes bumps on the road.
This is a time of transition. Five years ago in the USA, there were no plug-in vehicles on the market. Last year, 96,000 were sold - about double what was sold the year before. The global investment bank HSBC says home solar energy in Germany will cost less than the grid’s energy within the decade. Michigan State University developed a transparent luminescent solar concentrator that could one day turn whole skyscrapers or any window into an energy source. The electric airplane, Solar Impulse, flew across the US using only solar power. The electric car company, Tesla, now employs more people in the California auto industry than Toyota.
There is no free lunch. Critics sometimes point to the threat to birds from renewable energy without including death tolls from other power sources. The “US News blog” estimated yearly avian death toll from energy production in the US. It put coal as the leading killer followed by oil and gas. Nuclear was next - wind and finally solar last. They all have significant body counts, but solar and wind kill fewer birds than coal, gas, oil and nuclear energy.
We are on the cusp of next-generation energy and the fossil fuels of coal, gas and oil are destined to gradually become an alternative rather than primary energy source. For the most part, the telegraph gave way to the telephone, gas light to electric light and horse and buggies were replaced by automobiles. There are winners and losers, but standing in the way of progress will not stop it.
*From: “The River Rap”, “Billy X: Solo Set” available on CD