Books
Below are some of the best books available on fracking and climate change. Titles are listed alphabetically. All are easily available from your favorite book store. All book descriptions are quoted from the publisher.
Fracking
Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term Economic Benefit
by Walter M. Brasch (Greeley & Stone, 2016)
"Fracking America, by Dr. Walter M. Brasch, is a comprehensive and well-documented look at the impacts of a controversial process to extract gas and oil from more than a mile below the earth's surface. It is a cross-over book that meets the demanding standards of academic scholarship, while also being easily readable by the general population. Among the chapters are those that focus upon the economic, political, health, and environmental impacts of fracking. The book also includes chapters about the history of oil/gas extraction, psychological and sociological effects upon those living in the shale areas, worker safety issues, effects upon agriculture and livestock, problems with fossil fuel transportation, theological perspectives about fracking and the environment, the anti-fracking movement, how the media cover the fracking industry and how the industry and those opposed to fracking use the media, and renewable energy. He also looks at colleges that allow fracking on their campuses and which also conduct, often for questionable motives and with grant money from the industry, research into fracking that reflects industry talking points.
Fracking America presents complicated issues in an easy-to-understand fashion, while also humanizing the problems. Dr. Brasch interviewed more than 300 persons--including health and environmental professionals and citizen-activists, those who work in the industry, government officials, and those directly affected by the fracking process--in his research for the book. The book also reveals the often secret connections between politicians and the industry. It is this connection that has led to exaggerated claims about economic benefits, while disregarding health and environmental problems. The long-term benefits that politicians and the industry claim are nothing less than hype, says the author who had predicted the 'boom' to 'bubble' to 'bust' in fracking long before it has become economically difficult for many oil and gas extraction corporations to survive." -from the publisher
Fracking Pennsylvania: Flirting with Disaster (Second Edition)
by Walter M. Brasch (Greeley & Stone, 2014)
"In his most powerful investigation to date, award-winning journalist Walter M. Brasch digs into the natural gas industry and extracts the truth about fracking. This is the second edition of the best-selling critically-acclaimed first edition, with a focus on the scientific information and social issues, written for a general trade audience. Hydraulic horizontal fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of injecting as much as seven million gallons of water, proppants (like silica sand), and toxins into the earth to fracture the shale and extract methane. Politicians want natural gas drillers to come into their states, primarily because of the numbers of well-paying jobs the industry creates, the overall economic benefits, and the lower costs of natural gas to the consumer. Dr. Brasch investigates those claims, and provides an extensive look at the money trail between the industry and the politicians' campaign receipts. Combining both scientific evidence and extensive interviews with those affected by fracking throughout the country, he concludes that errors made by the natural gas industry as well as the process itself have caused significant public health and the environmental problems that also affect agriculture, wildlife, and livestock." -from the publisher
MOB and the Woodlands are featured in this book.
Frackopoloy: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment
by Wenonah Hauter (The New Press, 2016)
"Over the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas. Wenonah Hauter, one of the nation’s leading public interest advocates, argues that the rush to fracking is dangerous to the environment and treacherous to human health. Frackopoly describes how the fracking industry began; the technologies that make it possible; and the destruction and poisoning of clean water sources and the release of harmful radiation from deep inside shale deposits, creating what the author calls “sacrifice zones” across the American landscape.
The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and offers a thorough debunking of its supposed economic benefits. With a wealth of new data, Frackopoly is essential and riveting reading for anyone interested in protecting the environment and ensuring a healthy and sustainable future for all Americans." -from the publisher
The Woodlands are featured prominently in this book.
Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale
by Tom Wilber (Cornell University Press, 2015)
"For the updated paperback edition of Under the Surface, Tom Wilber has written a new chapter and epilogue covering developments since the book's initial publication. Chief among these are the home rule movement and accompanying social and legal events leading up to an unprecedented ban of fracking in New York state, and the outcome of the federal EPA's investigation of water pollution just across the state border in Dimock, Pennsylvania. The industry, with powerful political allies, effectively challenged the federal government’s attempts to intervene in drilling communities in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Texas with water problems. But it met its match in a grassroots movement—known as "fractivism"—that sprouted from seeds sown in upstate New York community halls and grew into one of the state’s most influential environmental movements since Love Canal.
Wilber weaves a narrative tracing the consequences of shale gas development in northeast Pennsylvania and central New York through the perspective of various stakeholders. Wilber's evenhanded treatment explains how the revolutionary process of fracking has changed both access to our domestic energy reserves and the lives of people living over them.
He gives a voice to all constituencies, including farmers and landowners tempted by the prospects of wealth but wary of the consequences; policymakers struggling with divisive issues concerning free enterprise, ecology, and public health; and activists coordinating campaigns based on their respective visions of economic salvation and environmental ruin. Throughout the book, Wilber illustrates otherwise dense policy and legal issues in human terms and shows how ordinary people can affect extraordinary events." -from the publisher
by Walter M. Brasch (Greeley & Stone, 2016)
"Fracking America, by Dr. Walter M. Brasch, is a comprehensive and well-documented look at the impacts of a controversial process to extract gas and oil from more than a mile below the earth's surface. It is a cross-over book that meets the demanding standards of academic scholarship, while also being easily readable by the general population. Among the chapters are those that focus upon the economic, political, health, and environmental impacts of fracking. The book also includes chapters about the history of oil/gas extraction, psychological and sociological effects upon those living in the shale areas, worker safety issues, effects upon agriculture and livestock, problems with fossil fuel transportation, theological perspectives about fracking and the environment, the anti-fracking movement, how the media cover the fracking industry and how the industry and those opposed to fracking use the media, and renewable energy. He also looks at colleges that allow fracking on their campuses and which also conduct, often for questionable motives and with grant money from the industry, research into fracking that reflects industry talking points.
Fracking America presents complicated issues in an easy-to-understand fashion, while also humanizing the problems. Dr. Brasch interviewed more than 300 persons--including health and environmental professionals and citizen-activists, those who work in the industry, government officials, and those directly affected by the fracking process--in his research for the book. The book also reveals the often secret connections between politicians and the industry. It is this connection that has led to exaggerated claims about economic benefits, while disregarding health and environmental problems. The long-term benefits that politicians and the industry claim are nothing less than hype, says the author who had predicted the 'boom' to 'bubble' to 'bust' in fracking long before it has become economically difficult for many oil and gas extraction corporations to survive." -from the publisher
Fracking Pennsylvania: Flirting with Disaster (Second Edition)
by Walter M. Brasch (Greeley & Stone, 2014)
"In his most powerful investigation to date, award-winning journalist Walter M. Brasch digs into the natural gas industry and extracts the truth about fracking. This is the second edition of the best-selling critically-acclaimed first edition, with a focus on the scientific information and social issues, written for a general trade audience. Hydraulic horizontal fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of injecting as much as seven million gallons of water, proppants (like silica sand), and toxins into the earth to fracture the shale and extract methane. Politicians want natural gas drillers to come into their states, primarily because of the numbers of well-paying jobs the industry creates, the overall economic benefits, and the lower costs of natural gas to the consumer. Dr. Brasch investigates those claims, and provides an extensive look at the money trail between the industry and the politicians' campaign receipts. Combining both scientific evidence and extensive interviews with those affected by fracking throughout the country, he concludes that errors made by the natural gas industry as well as the process itself have caused significant public health and the environmental problems that also affect agriculture, wildlife, and livestock." -from the publisher
MOB and the Woodlands are featured in this book.
Frackopoloy: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment
by Wenonah Hauter (The New Press, 2016)
"Over the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas. Wenonah Hauter, one of the nation’s leading public interest advocates, argues that the rush to fracking is dangerous to the environment and treacherous to human health. Frackopoly describes how the fracking industry began; the technologies that make it possible; and the destruction and poisoning of clean water sources and the release of harmful radiation from deep inside shale deposits, creating what the author calls “sacrifice zones” across the American landscape.
The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and offers a thorough debunking of its supposed economic benefits. With a wealth of new data, Frackopoly is essential and riveting reading for anyone interested in protecting the environment and ensuring a healthy and sustainable future for all Americans." -from the publisher
The Woodlands are featured prominently in this book.
Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale
by Tom Wilber (Cornell University Press, 2015)
"For the updated paperback edition of Under the Surface, Tom Wilber has written a new chapter and epilogue covering developments since the book's initial publication. Chief among these are the home rule movement and accompanying social and legal events leading up to an unprecedented ban of fracking in New York state, and the outcome of the federal EPA's investigation of water pollution just across the state border in Dimock, Pennsylvania. The industry, with powerful political allies, effectively challenged the federal government’s attempts to intervene in drilling communities in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Texas with water problems. But it met its match in a grassroots movement—known as "fractivism"—that sprouted from seeds sown in upstate New York community halls and grew into one of the state’s most influential environmental movements since Love Canal.
Wilber weaves a narrative tracing the consequences of shale gas development in northeast Pennsylvania and central New York through the perspective of various stakeholders. Wilber's evenhanded treatment explains how the revolutionary process of fracking has changed both access to our domestic energy reserves and the lives of people living over them.
He gives a voice to all constituencies, including farmers and landowners tempted by the prospects of wealth but wary of the consequences; policymakers struggling with divisive issues concerning free enterprise, ecology, and public health; and activists coordinating campaigns based on their respective visions of economic salvation and environmental ruin. Throughout the book, Wilber illustrates otherwise dense policy and legal issues in human terms and shows how ordinary people can affect extraordinary events." -from the publisher
