Opened Eyes

This week for me started off like any other week, woke up late on Monday and debated if math was what I really needed to start my week with, spilt my coffee on the floor of my truck and got to class to find out it had been canceled. The level of irritation I had reached before 8:30am on a Monday was just about enough for me to want to take a jog to get my mind of off things (which for someone like me who probably wouldn’t even run if a bear was chasing them, that’s saying something). Something that I didn’t realize or take a second to think was just how lucky I am that these were the problems that I started my week off with, these small yet easily fixable complications. I did not realize this though until we watched “Gasland” in class.

My whole life I grew up seeing natural gas being pumped and stored all over Texas. I would hear about all of the great advantages that the drilling for gas would provide for communities all over the state like job opportunities, increased income for small towns and money incentives that came along whenever you agreed to allow drilling to take place on your piece of property. It is funny though how all of the negative side effects were forgotten about when trying to convince an area that it would be a wise choice to start drilling in their area. We never heard of the the effects that it could have on a families life. How the drilling could cause ones drinking water to not be safe to be around anymore, how at any given moment an explosion could occur taking everything your family owned and had worked for due to a simple spark. “If a fire starts don’t worry, we have our water to put it out, oh wait that catches fire as well” should not be considered an acceptable statement in anyone’s eyes, especially in the big companies who started these problems in the first place.

Another big problem that we do not here about is the danger workers working to obtain oil and natural gas are put in. After watching Gasland I decided that I wanted to ask a few questions of my own, so I decided to make a few calls. The man that I am named after and his son both work in the oil and natural gas industry. They did not feel comfortable discussing the effects of the drilling on the communities around them but they did give me a few details on what it was like working in the field harvesting these resources. When Nick was younger he was working on laying down pipe for a rig and something came loose and crushed three of his toes causing them to have to be amputated, nothing super traumatizing, but his son on the other hand was not so lucky. One day working on one of the rigs he was assigned to, something happened (he wasn’t to excited to discuss the event so I received a short version) causing him to fall getting has arm caught in part of the rig which resulted in the rig cutting his arm off. He still considers himself to be lucky though because it’s very possible for someone to make a mistake and end of losing their life because of it.

The fact that an industry that promises to be there to help the community and people everywhere by harvesting these precious resources but then turns a blind eye to all the trouble and danger that it causes continues to shock me. I feel that I grew up hearing lie after lie being fed to me in order that I wouldn’t develop a conscience that was capable of recognizing a problem and have the ability to question it. This in itself is something that should be making me mad enough to want to take a jog on a Monday before 8:30, something that puts people in danger, something that is effecting lives all across our country not just in my back yard. I get the luxury of not having to drink flammable water, or have my view from the top of the hill at my farm be obscured and destroyed by a sea of gas wells and tanks, but I can tell you it makes me angry when I think about all the people that are being forced to struggle and deal with a problem that they didn’t cause, but are being forced to have to fix.