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June 5, 2011 Tomgram: Michael Klare, How to Wreck a Planet 101
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Here’s a first for this site: Adam Hochschild’s new book,
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, now a New York Times
bestseller, is also hitting
other bestseller lists and getting
fabulous reviews.
So the original TD offer of a personalized, signed copy of the book in
return for a $100 contribution to the site was especially well timed.
It was supposed to end this weekend, but has been so popular (and so
helpful to TD’s finances) that I’m extending it for another 10 days. To
check the offer out, click
here or simply visit our donation page
here -- and remember, if you take us up on it, be sure to include your address!
In addition, a small reminder, if you plan to buy the Hochschild or any other book like, for example, Bill Moyers’s highly recommended new work, Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues (which includes his spectacular interview with TomDispatch regular Andrew Bacevich) or, for that matter, anything else at all at Amazon.com, and arrive there via a TomDispatch book link, we get a small cut of your purchase. It’s a great way to support the site at no extra cost to you. Tom] When it comes to the fossil fuels that our civilization now largely runs on, there’s always upbeat news. For example, the latest hot topic in recovering what TomDispatch regular Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, has long called “tough oil” or “tough energy” is hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” It’s a method that uses water, sand, and various toxic chemicals (some cancer-causing) pumped at high pressure into shale formations -- layered rock -- to crack them open and separate out natural gas. “It can,” according to one report, “contaminate ground water, deplete water supplies, lead to flammable faucet water, and leave polluted waste water in its wake.” As a method, it’s now so hot (in the non-flammable sense) that it’s being plugged as potentially solving any future American energy crisis. But as with all miracle solutions to energy problems in the realm of fossil fuels, after the revival leaders leave the tent, the problems always set in. There are, as a start, those toxic chemicals that could get into your local water supply. We need a solution to that. Fortunately, Texas, the biggest natural-gas-producing state, seems to have come up with one. In a “half-measure” when it comes to openness, the state is now going to allow gas drillers not to reveal their full toxic “recipes” -- all the chemicals they are using -- on the grounds that these are “trade secrets.” (And its top energy regulator has just called on Washington to keep its hands off natural-gas regulation.) Michigan’s Environmental Quality Department adopted a similar shielding rule. So stop worrying -- if you live in the right place, you won’t even know how bad it is until long after it affects you. In England meanwhile, a mining company just suspended its fracking operations after the process caused two “minor earthquakes.” Well, you never know, do you? Fortunately, energy expert Michael Klare does know and he’s ready, as ever, with a rundown on a fossil-fuel energy future to die for. (To catch Timothy MacBain’s latest TomCast audio interview in which Klare discusses the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and resource conflicts, click here, or download it to your iPod here.) Tom The Global Energy Crisis Deepens |
