Website Blog Piece written on 1 August 2011, emailed privately on 4 August 2011; reprinted here in unedited form, following the 5.9 August 23rd 2011 earthquake in Virginia. Now officially “On the Record.”
“Each one feels it is the only, its cause the most important. Each finds a way to rumble beneath the growing discomfort of the mantle of the earth. The shuddering that takes the whole world by surprise, finds its voice in the cracking and crackling of resentment and refusal to be violated any more.
This voice is heard far and wide, and comes from the very center of its being. Not another moment of being pierced in these unforgivable ways. Not another excuse for making the planet better, for “development.”
This action [probably hydraulic fracturing], more than any other except nuclear attack, asteroid or meteor craters, and natural tectonic plate movement, threatens the very infrastructure of the earth.
Take heed, be aware, and beware of the unanticipated consequences of hiding out beneath the surface of the earth in a futile attempt to go unseen and undetected by conventional measures of electronic surveillance. The other – inner – forms of knowing supersede the heavy, ungainly, ineffective measures of knowing what the “other” is up to, is doing to threaten one’s own survival [related to military measures]:
• Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas
• Bridge pilings [new and retrofits]
• Railway revitalization and freeway widening
• Earthquake retrofitting and preparation for high rise buildings
• Fossil fuel extraction both underground and above ground
Nuclear and non-nuclear testing
Underground shelters for military and civilian uses
All of these measures create sound effects and ripple effects that are not fully understood, and that reach far beyond the locus of the activity. All except nuclear building and testing have clear immediate benefits, and yet must be moderated and modulated to avoid long term cracks in land and marine populations.
Add to this the natural motion of continued Pangeatic expansion, and you have a disaster of unheard of proportion looming on the horizon. Forget asteroids and comets. There is enough internal fracturing to take us to the brink of extinction or near-death as a civilized planet.
There is water table seepage deeper into the earth (and less available to wells) as a result of these various forms of fracking, and drilling interventions means that potable or potentially potable water is now replacing fossil fuels in these areas gaps where the fuels used to be, contributing to increased vulnerabilities. The water is farther away, out of reach, and the fossil fuel “cushion” for the movement of tectonic plates no longer exists. Water simply cannot play that role, so it is lost for consumption and recedes deeper into the earth, where heat evaporates it and the steam produced accelerates the interior rumblings. Imagine inserting water into places where gels are needed to avoid abrading elements. No solutions there….
…the danger is real and already in play.”
[Earthquake measuring 5.9, centered in Virginia, felt from Martha’s Vineyard to Ohio and Michigan according to CNBC television reporting.]
[CNN Newsbreak: “Ten nuclear plants in four states have declared ‘unusual events’ — lowest level emergency alerts — after earthquake”]