Who Needs Food And Water When You're Rich?

my⋅op⋅ic  [mahy-op-ik]
2. unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
3. lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.

Myopia is the most prevalent disease known to Man. This sick state has become so pervasive that it is now accepted as "normal", the rationale for proclaiming it that is I assume "how can that many people be wrong?" My definition of myopia is one simple word: insanity.

I have nothing against the talking of philosophy or speculating on that which cannot be known. In fact, I find such conversation to be revelatory of the speakers involved. But due to the number of myopic souls in existence, philosophy has become an abused term. These souls - consciously or not - engage in the practice of pretending reality itself is an unknown. This crime is known as Willful Ignorance - the leading cause of myopia.

So to the myopic ones, to say the earth is round is a philosophical statement. Since a man with eyes closed cannot see this for himself, the reality of a round world becomes to him merely a point-of-view. And that's how we end up with these insane "Is the world round?" debates like "Was invading Iraq wrong?" and "Do we really need our environment?"

The second question leads me to my current topic. Texas likes to be #1 in all things and we certainly lead the way in disdain for the environment and in creating as much God fearing pollution as possible. In fact, if Texas were it's own country, it would have ranked seventh in the world in 2003 in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions (670 million metric tons, yeehaw!). Fucking up the environment is part of our religion here - our oil god demands it. You could even say we get off on it.

But as is the case with all perversions, what one achieves is the opposite of one's stated goal. In order to make Texas the best possible place to live, we are making it unlivable. We's jess smart like that, pardner. This really came home to me a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning when I felt my first ever earthquake. It was only for a couple of seconds but there was no mistaking it. It was actually kind of fun! But then I saw this article:

CLEBURNE, Texas – The earth moved here on June 2. It was the first recorded earthquake in this Texas town's 140-year history — but not the last.

There have been four small earthquakes since, none with a magnitude greater than 2.8. The most recent ones came Tuesday night, just as the City Council was meeting in an emergency session to discuss what to do about the ground moving.

The council's solution was to hire a geology consultant to try to answer the question on everyone's mind: Is natural gas drilling — which began in earnest here in 2001 and has brought great prosperity to Cleburne and other towns across North Texas — causing the quakes?

At issue is a drilling practice called "fracking," in which water is injected into the ground at high pressure to fracture the layers of shale and release natural gas trapped in the rock.

There is no consensus among scientists about whether the practice is contributing to the quakes. But such seismic activity was once rare in Texas and seems to be increasing lately, lending support to the theory that drilling is having a destabilizing effect.

On May 16, three small quakes shook Bedford, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Two small earthquakes hit nearby Grand Prairie and Irving on Oct. 31, and again on Nov. 1.

The article then goes on to detail all the money that's been made off the Barnett Shale natural gas formation - just in case anyone gets too upset about the destructive byproducts of reckless drilling. I won't go into all the details of the battles between environmentalists and drillers but it's enough to say this is Texas and you can guess who's winning. But Texas' true myopia concerns the most precious commodity to all living things: water.

The amount of water needed for a typical "frack" well is about 3,000,000 gallons which has resulted in billions of gallons of wastewater. In overall drainage from the Trinity Aquifer, it represents less that 2%, but as a UT geologist reports that is "an average, though. In some areas, gas drilling might represent 10 or 20 percent of the local usage." He goes on to state:

About 80 new wells are drilled in the area each month. As the rush to capture more gas from the Barnett play intensifies, the amount of water used for frac jobs will likely rise. At some point, it could compete with water for drinking and farming. Neighbors with shallow water wells might see their supplies drop.

But it's not just water that's used for fracking but also the dangerous chemicals mixed in. And what would happen if that toxic slush made it's way into the Trinity Aquifer, the lifeblood of the entire DFW area? One rancher found out the hard way:

Until now, the gas companies have pooh-poohed the fear, claiming their wells are dug at much deeper levels than the Trinity-Woodbine aquifer, which provides commercial, industrial, and livestock water for much of the Metroplex. But the nightmare has become a reality for Beadle and his neighbors: They have no water.

When gas companies insist that their drilling activities don’t affect water wells, it seems a reasonable enough assertion – water wells are usually drilled to depths from 125 to 300 feet, while gas in the Barnett Shale is usually found at 8,000 feet or deeper.

So how did the rancher's water get fouled and kill his livestock? Preliminary indications are a blowout in the gas pipeline near the surface leaked the toxins. Also, hydrocarbons which are "absolutely never [found] in an aquifer", showed up in water samples. Something wrong is going on down there and like Katrina, no one is going to care until it's too late.

Of course, myopia is only our official policy here in Texas. Behind the scenes we know we are taxing our reserves and our plan is to take Oklahoma's water. No, I'm not kidding. Only the Okies see no reason to oblige our stupidity, having recently placed a moratorium on out-of-state water sales. But what them there Okies don't understand is that it's Texas' right to take their water (and defeat OU) and we filed us a lawsuit saying so (not the OU part - yet). We are accusing them of, ahem, hoarding their water - like they have any use for it! And they in turn accuse us of wasting our resources with no serious though to water conservation. Well, duh!

"There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke."

It staggers me beyond belief the amount of casual denial we've come to accept. Here we are walking down the street fretting over having the latest I-Phone and crossing our fingers for a magical mystery cure to sweep away thoughts of any real solutions. But reality bites.

Do you really think we can invade a country to steal its resources and not suffer the same fate ourselves? We will be economically blackmailed by the very oil we sought to save us. What of our war machine then? The region of the world that hates us the most controls us the most, think of that. Same logic applies to our environment.

Our endgame is not life, but death. You can't eat money. You can't drink money. Our fate on this path is obvious for anyone who cares to see. But, hey, that's just my philosophy