The potentially irreparable damage of fracking

In his installation Mass homily Pope Francis emphasized that the human race needs to “safeguard the earth.” He took the name Francis because, in addition to his love and care for the poor, St. Francis had an abiding love of nature and is considered the patron saint of the earth. The pope said that the mission of the church includes “protecting all creation” and he asked those in authority to be “protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature.” His predecessors – Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul II, Paul VI and John XXIII – also all expressed grave concern about the effect we are having on God’s Creation and urged us to take steps to safeguard it.
Their expressed concern arises from their observation that the earth is being seriously violated in our industrial age. Unfortunately, we may have taken the scriptural message to tend the earth and subdue it a bit too literally. It is hard to imagine the creator of this paradise encouraging us to despoil and misuse the earth and its abundance in the way in which we have and are continuing to do. Since we became capable of extracting its minerals, and especially the carbon-based fossil chemicals developed and stored deep in the earth over millions of years, we have become insatiable in our hunt for more and more without regard for the environment that our children will inherit. Or, should I say, our energy corporations, among the largest and most powerful on earth, have sought to enlarge their mining and drilling portfolios, apparently without concern for the damage they are doing to the natural environment or the earth’s atmosphere.
We have mined and drilled and extracted the earth’s resources and used the products of our work to endanger the earth and its atmosphere. The latest example of our extraction ingenuity is what is called fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing. In the process of fracking, energy companies drill down thousands of feet into the ancient strata of the earth, force down a combination of millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals in order to fracture the shale rock and release the natural gas stored there. The chemicals they use are kept secret since they claim they are “proprietary,” which is a clue to the danger they represent.
There can be little doubt that the aquifers that store our fresh water underground are in serious danger of being contaminated. This is not a one-time drilling event. They are drilling thousands of these wells on pristine land in many states, especially in Northern Pennsylvania, where there are significant deposits of shale gas. The millions of gallons of the resulting contaminated waste must be disposed of. New Jersey has become one of the targeted dumping-ground.
To follow Pope Francis’ call to be guardians of the earth and all of God’s creatures, we must become educated on the issues and not fall victim to the public relations campaign of those who stand to profit from this destructive process. The lovely lady striding across your television screen, with a background of pristine white and green, will tell you that fracking is good for you; that jobs and much needed energy will result. She appeals to our immediate wants and fears. What she is not telling us is the true cost, the potentially damaging consequences to the earth and its atmosphere by the extraction and release of the remaining carbon in the earth and, significantly, that the need to put our resources into the quest for renewable energy is being used up in the frantic pursuit by the energy companies to extract the last penny from the fossil fuel industry to which they are addicted.
It is not unusual or outside their sphere of spiritual leadership in the world for religious leaders to plead for protection of the planet and the moral imperative of protecting its ecosystems and its atmosphere for future generations. The earth has rightly been called our mother. It gives us life and sustains it – not only us as humans, but the great diversity of life on this beautiful planet.
The natural world really is our connection to our creator in a very sacramental way. Every mountain and mustard seed is a reflection of God’s plan inscribed in nature. It gives us the elements that we use in the sacraments administered by the church, the water, the bread and wine, the oils. In its scenic beauty and biodiversity it inspires us and fills our imagination with wonder and awe. It truly is, in and of itself, our primary sacrament, because without it our imaginations, our very minds and hearts, would be sterile, and we would not have the ability to know and love God the Creator.

Pat Mulligan is a member of Sacred Heart Parish, Camden, and vice president of the South Jersey Land and Water Trust, a non-profit group that works at preserving open space, farmland and natural habitat in South Jersey.