@snyder7,
Not sure if you are aware but there is a significant amount of crude oil associated with natural gas production from fractured wells in the US. Everything you see or touch in your home can be attributed directly or indirectly to crude oil and natural gas production. All the food you eat, everything you see and touch in the hospital you were born in and every other hospital on earth can be attributed to oil and gas production. Do you see where I am going with this? Everything made by man is either grown, manufactured, transported, heated, constructed and the list goes on and on. Our culture as we know it is based on the production of crude oil and natural gas.
Can you imagine living without energy. We would be living in teepees chasing buffalo herds with sticks. Additionally, you state that fracking fluids are made up of toxic chemicals. That is absolutely false and totally unfounded. These toxic chemicals you speak to can be found in face makeup, lipstick, dish detergent, starch, and ice cream. The large amounts of frack water you speak about is recycled water, water collected from wells below the bedrock which is non potable.
I'm not going to state that drilling for natural gas has no risk. Everything we do has risk: walking your dog, eating fast food, swimming, fishing, driving, playing golf, jumping on a pogo stick. Like I said, "everything we do"
You all probably think I'm some executive working for some big oil company. Well you would be just as wrong as the rhetorical mumbo-jumbo
found in your essay. I am currently a principal environmental engineer for a large environmental consulting company.