Fracking leaves a trail destruction
If fracking is so good for Pennsylvania, the gas industry wouldn’t spend so much time and money trying to convince us, as Dan Weaver tried to do last Wednesday in the Observer-Reporter in his op-ed “Natural gas is a winner for Pennsylvania and the whole country.”
We know plenty about the harms of fracking: Poisoned water, air pollution, and an unfathomable amount of dangerous, often radioactive waste. Communities on the fracking frontlines experience a range of diseases and health impacts, from cancers and increased asthma rates to low birth weights. These and other health risks are documented in numerous studies.
And while the fracking industry brags about job creation, it is abundantly clear that they wildly exaggerate how many actual jobs are created.
We have a moral imperative to create a healthier, safer world for the next generation. Fracking takes us in the wrong direction, leaving behind a trail of destruction while corporate interests rake in the profits.
Megan McDonough
Elizabeth
Meagan McDonough is the Pennsylvania state director for Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action.