Global Frackdown Plans Protests over Hydraulic Fracking

If you’ve heard anything about the process known as fracking lately, it’s likely whatever you heard was something negative. Nobody has very much to say in the way of positivity or support when it comes to fracking these days, unless the somebody in question is an oil lobbyist or corporate executive. These are the only types of individual who seem to support the process that’s come to be known as hydraulic fracking — just about everybody else agrees that fracking is dangerous, unhealthy, and is slowly but surely poisoning the ground, the water, and the environment at large.

Short or “fracturing,” the process of fracking involves using hydraulics to break apart huge shale rocks that are underground, in order to gain access to the massive quantities of natural gas that are stored within them. The problem is that the process also uses massive quantities of sand and chemicals to achieve this effect, and these things are contaminating drinking water and ruining soil the world over. It’s no surprise that hydraulic fracking has come under heavy fire from a variety of different environmentally-focused organizations, and even less of a surprise that a global event has been created to help raise awareness.

Mark Schlosberg and a coalition of nonprofit organizations and activities put together the Global Frackdown campaign, which operates on many of the same principles as last year’s Occupy Wall Street movement. Making the most out of channels like social media, the Global Frackdown campaign has spread across most of the world, with everything from smaller groups to much larger congregations getting together to raise awareness and protest this dangerous process. While the organization may be grass-roots in its approach, its goals are global.

From California to Colorado, to South Africa, groups of activists are gathering to protest the use of this process that is destroying the air, the water, and the environment at large. The leaders of this organization hope that this worldwide attention will show leaders how important it is that we move away from practices like fracking.There are plenty of industry types that would argue the benefits of a process like hydraulic fracking. Their arguments are that costs are lowered (to both the consumers and producers of fossil fuels), and that it actually lessens pollution.

The truth, however, is that fracking is an unsustainable practice that only leads us to consume greater amounts of nonrenewable energy. Rather than continuing to develop practices like fracking, which take a serious toll on the environment and chip away at the very resources that sustain us, we should be investing our time and money into ways that we might be able to live more sustainably. Groups like llm online and the Global Frackdown initiative wish only to see an increased focus on ways that we can go about our lives without such a significant cost to the world around us. Surely, with the right amount of dedication, we can discover a way to fuel our world without destroying it at the very same time.