In 1962, US Army Corps of Engineers personnel pumped 165 million gallons of waste fluid into rock 12,000 feet below the surface of the earth at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal and noticed that the pumping was accompanied by a number of small earthquakes. Six years later,  the US Geological Survey monitored seismic activity as the Corps pumped some of that water back out, observing a noticeable increase in seismic activity after the pumping.

Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking,  causes earthquakes.  Or, rather, deep-injection disposal of the wastewater from fracking causes earthquakes.

Some people — namely, public relations flacks and lobbyists for the petroleum and natural gas industries, and their political allies — would have you believe that’s a disputable, even controversial, claim. It isn’t. It’s something we’ve known for half a century.

In a study published the September 23 issue of Science, researchers from Stanford University establish a firm link between fracking wastewater injection and a series of earthquakes in east Texas, including the largest quake ever recorded in that region.

Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.

Question: What’s the difference between a drunk driver who totals your car with his reckless, intoxicated driving, and an oil company that damages your house’s foundation with its reckless, earthquake-inducing fracking?

Answer: The oil company can afford to buy off politicians and regulators to let it injure you without legal consequence or liability, and to run slick public relations campaigns aimed at convincing you to not believe your own lying eyes. The drunk driver counts himself lucky if he has enough cash on hand to buy the next six-pack.

Some self-styled advocates of “capitalism” and “free markets” have prostituted themselves out to the fracking industry, attempting to justify that kind of privilege and favoritism in the name of cheap energy and economic growth, all the while decrying “crony capitalism” as it relates to industries which haven’t written generous checks to fund what the so-called think tanks euphemistically refer to as “research.”

There’s a difference between a free market and a free-for-all. In a free market, you have to pay for what you take. That includes restitution for damages caused by your reckless, negligent, or even criminally intentional, activities.

Fracking causes earthquakes. Earthquakes damage stuff. It’s time for frackers to start picking up the check for that damage or to knock off the fracking. They don’t have to like it. That’s how it needs to be whether they like it or not.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Crony Capitalism and Political Privilege: Earthshaking. Literally.” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 09/27/16
• “Crony capitalism and political privilege: Earthshaking. Literally.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Claremont, New Hampshire Eagle Times, 09/28/16
• “Crony capitalism and political privilege: Earthshaking, literally,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pahrump Valley, Nevada Times, 09/28/16
• “Crony capitalism and political privilege: Earthshaking. Literally.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Fayette, West Virginia Tribune, 09/29/16
• “Crony capitalism and political privilege,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Courier Times, 09/30/16
• “Crony Capitalism and Political Privilege: Earthshaking. Literally.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Bradenton, Florida Times, 09/30/16
• “Crony Capitalism and Political Privilege: Earthshaking. Literally.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 10/01/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Oshkosh, Wisconsin Northwestern, 11/16/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio Enquirer, 11/16/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Arizona Republic, 11/16/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Palm Springs, California Desert Sun, 11/16/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Alexandria, Louisiana Town Talk, 11/16/16
• “Fracking. Causes. Earthquakes. Period.” by Thomas L. Knapp, Des Moines, Iowa Register, 11/16/16

 

On July 16, 1945, the United States conducted its first test detonation, dubbed “Trinity,” of an atomic weapon. The following month the US became the first (and, to this day, the only) nation to use atomic or nuclear weapons in war. All in all, the US detonated more than 1,100 nukes in the 47 years between Trinity and Julin, its final nuclear test series, in 1992. The technology, it seems, has been thoroughly explored and then some.

Four years after the Julin tests, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. US president Bill Clinton welcomed and signed the pact, but 20 years later the US Senate has yet to ratify it.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

The US has a half-century testing head start on any future would-be nuclear powers. Why wouldn’t foreign policy hawks in the Senate want to stop the clock with that advantage on the scoreboard and with a UN mandate for keeping it stopped? These are the same politicians who in the past have gleefully turned to alleged violations of such pacts as the excuse for sanctions and war.

On the dove side, such as it is, the charms of a test ban treaty are even more obvious. The world is awash in nuclear weapons — between the  world’s eight or nine nuclear powers (Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and almost certainly Israel), more than 15,000 of them. Ending development of new weapons seems like a good first step toward getting rid of the existing ones.

As the Cold War wound down, those of us who grew up in the shadow of potential nuclear holocaust began to breathe easier. The hands on the “Doomsday Clock” maintained by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were rolled back: Seventeen whole minutes to midnight! No more “duck and cover,” no more “missile gap” propaganda, no more Cuba crises. Peace seemed to be just over the horizon.

Today the Doomsday Clock shows three minutes to midnight. Russia and the US still have thousands of nuclear-tipped missiles aimed at each other and available for immediate launch. We’re still one unforeseen incident and one itchy trigger finger away from possible extinction or something close to it.

On September 23, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution renewing the call for all UN member states to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I second the motion.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Twenty Years, Three Minutes: Time to Ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 09/24/16
• “Twenty Years, Three Minutes: Time to Ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Seoul, Republic of Korea Times, 09/26/16
• “Twenty years, three minutes: Time to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Claremont, New Hampshire Eagle Times, 09/26/16
• “Twenty Years, Three Minutes: Time to Ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 09/27/16
• “Twenty years, three minutes,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Courier Times, 10/14/16
• “Twenty years, three minutes,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Doylestown, Pennsylvania Intelligencer, 10/14/16

 

Q: How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg?

A: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.

That riddle, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, comes to mind when I think of the upcoming series of “debates” between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The two are scheduled to lock horns for the first time on September 26 at Hempstead, New York’s Hofstra University.

The idea of a “debate” presupposes reasoned arguments for and against specific propositions. The Hofstra event and its followups won’t be debates. They’ll be combination beauty contests, “professional wrestling” matches, and campaign commercials.

The only proposition either candidate will support will be “I should be president.”

The closest thing to an argument either one will put forward will be “because I am not the other person on this stage.”

At the end of the evening, the audience will have no more clue what, other than personal style, differentiates one candidate from the other than we did at the beginning — for the perfectly good reason that the answer is pretty much nothing.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The Commission on Presidential Debates could invite several candidates — perhaps all five who appear on state ballots adding up to more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the election outright (Trump, Clinton, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, and Constitution Party nominee Darrell Castle).

Instead we’ll only be shown the two establishment-approved candidates. Speaking if which, the Federal Elections Commission really should take notice that due to those exclusionary criteria, the events constitute illegally large (by several orders of magnitude) in-kind campaign contributions to the Clinton and Trump campaigns.

The moderator, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, could put the candidates on the spot with detailed policy questions on important issues, testing their knowledge,  probing their competence, allowing them to distinguish themselves one from the other.

Instead, if history is any guide, the questions and answers will make the interview round of Mr. Trump’s old stomping ground, the Miss Universe pageant, look like a doctoral thesis defense in nuclear physics. Fortunately this “debate” format skips the swimsuit and evening gown competitions.

This cycle’s presidential “debates” will almost certainly put off enough heat to measurably impact global warming statistics, while shedding little if any light at all on the applicants for the most powerful position in the world.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and ‘Debates,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 09/22/16
• “Election 2016: Of dog legs and ‘debates,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Claremont, New Hampshire Eagle Times, 09/23/16
• “Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and ‘Debates,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, CounterPunch, 09/23/16
• “Election 2016: Of dog legs and ‘debates,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pahrump Valley, Nevada Times, 09/23/16
• “Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and ‘Debates,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, Uintah Basin, Utah Standard, 09/23/16
• “Election 2016: Of Dog Legs and ‘Debates,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 09/23/16
• “Election 2016: Dealing with dog legs and debates,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Fayette, West Virginia Tribune, 09/26/16