By: resourcewatcher

Feb 13 2012

Tags: fracking, Halliburton, hydraulic fracturing, natural gas, produced water

Category: environment, property values

4 Comments

Aperture:	f/7.1
Focal Length:	55mm
ISO:	100
Shutter:	1/100 sec
Camera:	Canon EOS REBEL T1i

…AND HE IS US.*

We found ourselves at a party with a long-time Halliburton employee.  Our conversation was totally predictable–I launched into my spiel on fracking, frackers, produced water, toxic spills and Halliburton’s particular role in plundering my world.  The employee, who shall remain nameless, remained calm as he smilingly defended himself and his employer, an upright ethical company that cares about the world and all the people in it.

Later I wondered at his passivity; I couldn’t have maintained my cool in the same circumstances. 

And then it came to me:  he has no stake in the real discussion.  His home isn’t under assault; his water isn’t threatened by contamination from an amazing variety of toxic substances; his sleep isn’t disturbed by the sounds of drilling and fracking; his road isn’t filled shoulder to shoulder and sometimes beyond with the countless well field service vehicles that come and go 24/7; his property hasn’t been devalued; his view hasn’t been destroyed; his family hasn’t sickened and died; no produced water trucks have run off the road next to his house or spilled fracking fluid on his ground.

Being in the trenches and fighting the war, even if it is just blogging and writing letters and going to meetings and speaking out and signing petitions, gives a person a different perspective.  Pardon me if I don’t see environmental degradation and greed in a positive light.

Oddly enough, the above-mentioned Halliburton employee wears jeans and T-shirts.  He’s a little overweight like most of us and likes to cook and make things out of wood.  He enjoys his beer and the out-of-doors.  He even goes out of his way to buy organic produce, natural grass-fed and humanely-slaughtered beef, eggs from free-range chickens, and bottled water.  He’s a bundle of contradictions. 

He values some of the same things I do, yet he defends corporate practices that deny me and my neighbors a safe environment.  His lifestyle isn’t at risk and it doesn’t bother him one iota that other people are negatively impacted by his employer and others like it.  Until we can convince people like him that we’re losing the battle against pollution and resource depletion and climate change, we’re all doomed–equally.

Want to see some of the things that Halliburton might get up to in its spare time?

*Quote courtesy of Pogo and Walt Kelly