My husband and I got the chance this week to attend the national premier of Gasland 2, a film about fracking (hydraulic fracturing). Since the first film five years ago, much has happened in Illinois in this area. Leases are being signed in the Shawnee National Forest, companies have approached my county about fracking here, and the Illinois legislature has bills before it to ban fracking and to allow it with a minimum amount of regulatory oversight. You can guess which groups support each of these measures I'm sure.
But whether or not I think this should go on in the state or the world is not what I want to talk about. It's what led us to this point that I am interested in exploring. The consumerism, feelings that it is your right to use whatever resources you want without consequence, desire for cheap goods and services, desire to live the lifestyle Americans live, etc. : all of these things work together to lead energy companies to look for the next boom in the energy supply. First it was steam and wood, then coal, oil, nuclear, and now the big one is natural gas. All of these things made these companies rich at the expense of people, ecosystems, communities, countries, and the entire planet.