It is difficult to get people to care about fracking and other environmental issues.
On Tuesday, I went on a trip to Wetzel County, West Va., to witness the impact of fracking.
Now I’m writing this down with my fingers trembling, eye filled up with tears: It was terrifying, horrible, horrendous. I was shocked, appalled, astounded.
No, I’m just kidding. As much as I wish that’s how I felt after my encounter with fracking, it wasn’t, I need to be honest and objective here because I am an awesome journalist.
The truth is, apart from the busy traffic, there was not so much going on. Yes, I did see some fracking sites, but they were no more different than any type of construction sites, and they were just sitting there, looking quiet and innocent — nothing monstrous. OK, one of the sites was a little loud, but observed from a rather distant place, it did not bother me much, if at all.
But you see, you will be much more interested in my story if I start with “a visit to fracking sites in West Virginia makes the worst experience of my life” than “OK guys, even though I did not see anything, I heard fracking is bad”.
This brings up my first problem: There are very few dramatic happenings going on in the world of environmental news. Granted, you would see some dramatic news from time to time, but sometimes it’s exaggerated or it’s only a one-in-a-million example.
For example, before I went on this trip, I was so sure — based on some relevant coverage I had read about fracking — of what I was about to witness: The fracking company people acting like total jerks, landowners setting their faucet water on fire and people frowning and holding breath from the bad smell from the contaminated water and polluted air. In fact, I was so sure that I even wrote an imaginary column based on the dreadful scenes in my head.
So you could imagine my horror when I realized I was not seeing anything terrible.
The second problem is the invisibility of the outcome. One of our group members brought up the situation of wild life near the fracking sites. The guy who gave us the tour (and who looked like a cowboy, by the way), an active member of Wetzel County Action Group, said there was no scientific study done to show the impact of fracking on wild life.
Let’s be honest, even if there were studies, unless I take a picture of a cute squirrel running and screaming with its hands covering its ears, or a disturbing story of the fact that wild animals getting killed drinking the water contaminated by fracking fluids, the science stuff — the numbers and words — will not do much.
And last but not least, life is not black and white. I would love to portray big oil company as a fat Satan and environmental activists as angels, but the reality is much more complicated.
Our group talked to a guy who considered himself a victim and complained about all the change forced to his life; we also talked to another old guy who used to be a coal miner, and he told us the positive impact the industry has brought without making any big change to his life.
Both gentlemen were nice; both had a saying on this issue; and both sounded sincere.
And at moments like this, I just hate the “evil side” for not being completely evil so that everybody hates its guts and I’m the hero everybody counts on to take it down.
Bixi Tian is a graduate student studying journalism and a columnist for The Post. Email her at bt121511@ohiou.edu.
