Fracked In Park Slope

Close to three thousand people showed up to the New York Crossroads Anti-Fracking yesterday on June 17th in Albany, NY. They came to tell Governor Cuomo to ban fracking and to create renewable energy. I happened to be one of the thousands there.

I first learned about hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—when I watched the documentary Gasland with three friends in my senior year of high school. Images of water from kitchen sinks lighting on fire blew my mind. The testimonies of locals who had fallen ill shortly after fracking sites frightened me. The health risks of fracking were clear and catastrophic. It was obvious that blasting many harmful chemicals into the earth at high pressure to extract gas would not leave our earth unharmed. I realized that I took our kitchen tap—and the clean water it always produced—in Brooklyn for granted. Two years later, I have decided to do more about the issue than merely signing every online petition that popped up in my email inbox; this summer I took a position as an intern at Food & Water Watch.

Two weeks ago, the other bright eyed interns and I showed up at of Food & Water Watch's DUMBO office. We immediately started marathon rounds of phone banking, trying to reach every person on our list and letting as many people as possible know about the rally. Although I knew all of the bare bones facts and the outline of events, I was not completely prepared for my own experience of the rally. I was amazed by the excitement in the air and the passion each person brought to the crowd.

My two favorite things about the rally were the courage many of the individual protestors had to stand up for what they believe and the positive, yet constructive, messages from the speakers.

I spoke to one woman from Oneonta, New York who told me that at a town hall meeting about fracking she had stood up and said, “Why doesn’t the health of the Oneonta kids matter as much as the kids in New York City? We need to ban fracking to keep all of our kids healthy.” I told her that I would have been scared to stand up in a meeting like that. Her response was, “Oh, I was terrified.”

The rally did not only showcase the bravery of many protestors who found the courage to say no to fracking, but also provided answers to the questions left in the hypothetical wake of a fracking ban. Most notably, the speakers addressed how to produce clean energy in a cost-efficient way. In his remarks at the rally, Mark Jacobson not only explained why fracking is awful and why it should be banned, but he also gave an economically feasible—and desirable—option to replace the process. He laid out step by step why renewables, wind, solar, and geothermal, methods that pose few risks, actually become cheaper in the long run.

I found both the protesters’ bravery and their ingenuity inspiring.

If you couldn’t make it to the rally, you can still make a difference. Park Slopers, Brooklynites, New Yorkers, tell Cuomo to ban fracking.