The following was written for the new “planetary healing” section of The Aquarius Paradigm Weekly Newsletter.
As you can see, this week’s segment is titled differently than our usual “astral travels”.
I’ve long enjoyed leading our astral travel exercises, but much like I made the decision before to replace a discussion of the channeled messages given here in favor of writing about weekly news stories, I’ve decided to upgrade our “astral travels” section and introduce something entirely new.
The goal of our astral exercises has nearly always been to visualize something about our world that’s clearly out of alignment with the new paradigm we wish to build, and aptly work to give our Lighted energies to it in hopes of transmutation and resulting positive effects in our reality.
I haven’t much discussed or explained the reasons behind the necessity to bless many of the things we’ve blessed, and I’ve thought it appropriate to take us on exercises that display or describe-out those things instead.
I feel that I’m now being called to step-up the level of exposure I give to everything still polluting this Earth and holding our collective back, and in that avenue, I’d like to begin presenting researched discussions each week about various subjects in need of such widespread exposure.
Rather than loosely describe or reference them as “lower” things for us to bless, I’d like to present just why each subject I’ll talk about could be bad for the planet, for our collective, etc. and just why it’s in need of changing, as well as what we can do to Create such change.
Worry not, fellow spiritual seekers, because our blessings aren’t going anywhere. After giving my report on an issue, we’ll take it upon ourselves to bless it with a short blessing/affirmation I’ll offer.
We may still perform etheric exercises now and again if a spark of inspiration hits one week to have us do so, but I feel that it’s time to raise awareness in the clearest and most direct ways possible while still encouraging and working with our spiritual abilities.
Our Planetary Healing section may perhaps seem rooted more in physical discussion for some, but my intention is to help expose the things that’ll be discussed and incorporate our blessing abilities into the discussion.
That being said, the subject I’d like to discuss this week is the industrial “art” of fracking.
For those of you who don’t know about fracking or Hydraulic Fracturing, it’s a process of shooting millions of tons of chemical-mixed water under very high pressure, into dense rock covering up previously inaccessible reserves of oil.
Many of the chemicals mixed with the water are known carcinogens.
There are apparently dense and thick layers of rock around oil reserves that have made them inaccessible to oil companies, but advancement in modern science and technology over the years has seen the companies develop what’s promoted as an economically and environmentally feasible method of reaching oil reserves that would otherwise go unreached.
I’ve seen fracking promoted on mainstream news outlets before, and went into my research with basically no knowledge or opinion about it one way or another. I thought it an appropriate first subject to write about because I’d known nothing about it, and though it shouldn’t of, what I learned surprised me quite a bit!
One of the things I’d never realized is that those crazy videos of people here in the US holding lighters to their kitchen sinks and the water actually catching on fire were made because of fracking practices and because of the aforementioned chemicals involved in the fracking process.
Foodandwaterwatch.org has diligently kept up on informing the public about fracking and letting us know what we can do to stop it, and most of our referenced snippets this week will be from that source. (1)
Fracking is used to break up rock and allow access to oil reserves, but the chemicals used in the process and the staggering percentage of water used that’s returned to public water supply (thus the flaming tap water) outs this practice as highly dangerous to the environment and to people.
Just as I have, Food and Water Watch explains what fracking is.
“Fracking is (…) a water-intensive process where millions of gallons of fluid – typically water, sand, and chemicals, including ones known to cause cancer – are injected underground at high pressure to fracture the rock surrounding an oil or gas well. This releases extra oil and gas from the rock, so it can flow into the well.
(…) Fracking threatens the air we breathe, the water we drink, the communities we love and the climate on which we all depend. That’s why over 250 communities in the U.S. have passed resolutions to stop fracking, and why Vermont, France and Bulgaria have stopped it.” (2)
If fracking is so dangerous, can’t legislation be passed to put tighter regulations on it and make it safer? Well, given that Dick Cheney’s company Halliburton has already used loopholes in the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act to directly violate the act, and given the other factors discussed below, it doesn’t seem that any further attempted regulation would do any good.
“Why a Ban? Can’t Better Regulations Make Fracking Safer?
No. Fracking is inherently unsafe and we cannot rely on regulation to protect communities’ water, air and public health. The industry enjoys exemptions from key federal legislation protecting our air and water, thanks to aggressive lobbying and cozy relationships with our federal decisionmakers (the exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act is often referred to as the Cheney or Halliburton Loophole, because it was negotiated by then-Vice President Dick Cheney with Congress in 2005.)
Plus, the industry is aggressively clamping down on local and state efforts to regulate fracking by buying influence and even bringing lawsuits to stop them from being implemented. That’s why fracking can’t be made safer through government oversight or regulations. An all out ban on fracking is the only way to protect our communities.” (2)
For those of you who want to know more about the “Halliburton Loophole” which saw Halliburton able to bypass EPA standards and pollute our water supply with carcinogenic chemicals, I’ll direct you to reference (3).
Businessinsider.com reiterates why fracking has been allowed.
“The primary way of extracting (…) known as hydraulic fracking, has been considered safe since a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water.
In 2005 the Bush administration and Congress used the study to justify legislation of the “Halliburton loophole,” which exempts hydraulic fracturing from Safe Drinking Water Act. Legislation also exempted the practice, used in 90 percent of U.S. natural gas wells, from the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.
ProPublica investigations, however, found fracking to be the common thread in more than 1,000 cases of water contamination across seven states, including dozens of cases of well failures in which the concrete or steel meant to protect aquifers cracked under high pressure.” (4)
The article on Business Insider also mentions the startling percentage of water returned to the surface after being used for fracking, which I mentioned earlier, and the methane leaks that the fracking industry has tried to cover-up.
“Surface and groundwater supplies are also at risk since an estimated 10 to 90 percent of fracking fluid is returned to the surface during well completion and subsequent production, according to a 2011 public health report on natural gas operations.
Natural gas is mostly methane, and the potent greenhouse gas— it traps 21 times more heat than CO2— has been leaking from wells at twice the rate of fracking industry claims, according to a 2012 study published in the journal Nature.
A 2011 congressional report on the chemicals used in hydraulic fracking, states that the 14 leading hydraulic fracturing companies in the U.S. injected 10.2 million gallons of more than 650 products that contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or listed as hazardous air pollutants.”(4)
Concluded in Part 2 next week.
Footnotes:
(1)- Food and Water Watch’s main page:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org
(2)- Food and Water Watch’s main fracking page:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/fracking/
(3)- Independent Water Testing: “What is the Halliburton Loophole?” at:
http://www.independentwatertesting.com/education-center/148-what-is-the-halliburton-loophole.html
(4)- Business Insider: “Scary Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracking” at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/scary-chemicals-used-in-hydraulic-fracking-2012-3?op=1
Image: http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2010/03/img/fracking_gas_onpage.jpg
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