Fracking in Pavillion, Wyoming

            It is fair to say that water is one of the most important things in our lives. Besides air, there is not anything that a person cannot survive for at least a few days without. A person can even live without food for over a week! Scientific American posted a story by Lustgarten, Kusnetz and ProPublic about an issue that was just raised around the town of Pavillion, Wyoming. The problem is that the processes involved with “fracking” for natural gas has been linked to contaminating the water supply in underground water supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency began observing the case in 2008 and came to the conclusion that the hydrocarbons and contaminants had a correlation with the chemicals used in fracking. The case continued to 2010 where the testing results also reported that the water was becoming unsafe to drink. They also cautioned that the high levels of methane in the water were explosive! It was not until the following year after the EPA drilled in two more wells and found that they confirmed increased levels of carcinogenic chemicals. In December of 2011, the EPA connected the issue with 33 abandoned oil and gas waste pits.

The citizens of Pavillion, Wyoming had filed complaints about the water and it took four years to prove that they were right! The fracking process polluted the water that they drink, bathe, and surround their lives with. This contamination could have been the result of death among many people of the community. This issue should not be taken lightly. Every process that involves the uses of toxic chemicals should be thoroughly examined to ensure that they are not going to put any community’s lives at risk. It is very reassuring that the EPA is not taking this observation lightly. They are working to correct the problem as fast as possible and are creating new safety measures to prevent it from happening in the future.

The cement that surrounded and protected the well must be designed to be more reliant. The “sporadic bonding” that was described in the article should have been something tested and foreseen before it jeopardized lives. It is important to understand that not every problem in society is prepared for, however this issue is something that could have been avoided if the correct safety measures and testing were performed. 

Visual Rhetoric

"Every leaf traps CO2"

The image above is a great representation of the effect that rising CO2 levels have on our environment. The image uses visual rhetoric to portray how the CO2 emissions from a large airplane are absorbed into the environment. The picture of the airplane and fumes is depicted inside the leaf to give it an absorbing effect. The purpose of the image is to reduce CO2 emissions in our atmosphere.

Observation of Snyder's Works

Theme(s)

Man vs. Nature – Separate Worlds

Human Wreckage – Effecting future generations

Spreading Nature to Others

Sample Selection of Snyder’s Works

It Pleases Pg. 44

Affluence Pg. 50

Ethnobotany Pg. 51

            Continuing my analysis of Snyder’s work, several reoccurring themes that were found in other sample selection poems appeared within the context. “It Pleases” is a passage regarding a large bird, soaring over the busy town of Washington, DC. Below the bird are thousands of tourist cars, a police officer, old white stone domes; the center of power, as Snyder states. Snyder makes a vivid depiction of what we as people view Washington, DC to be. We think of the tourist attractions, monuments, and other man-made beauty. Meanwhile, the nature behind what we have created and destroyed goes unnoticed as “the world does what it pleases.”

            “Affluence” portrays another one of Gary Snyder’s reoccurring themes throughout Turtle Island: human wreckage. The poem opens up by depicting a forestry scene with pine needles, limbs and twigs, and then draws the comparison to human wreckage by including several stumps in the image. “And this from logging twenty years ago . . . it was the logger’s cost, at lumber’s going rate then . . . now burn the tangles dowsing . . . paying the price somebody didn’t pay.” Like several of Snyder’s other works, the poem is describing how much humans are depleting the environment. Without safe environmental practices, our future generations will be in even deeper trouble.

            “Ethnobotany” by Gary Snyder, portrays a less pessimistic theme than the majority of the other works. This poem paints a vivid image of the “sour fresh inner oak-wood smell” of a splitting tree. Although Snyder includes human wreckage in this poem, he follows it up with the line “taste all, and hand the knowledge down.” In this sense, Snyder has a much more optimistic tone that we can learn from our mistakes. “Taste all” – observe our wrongdoings and “and hand the knowledge down” – prevent it from happening in the future. 

Theme(s)
 Man vs. Nature - Separate worlds
Depletion of Nature in Human Life
Human wreckage

Sample Selection of Snyder's Works
Control Burn Pg. 19
The Great Mother Pg. 20
The Call of the Wild Pg. 21

When reading another selection of Snyder’s work, I came across another them of human wreckage. Most of Snyder’s poetry focuses on the separation of man and nature through man’s obliviousness, however in The Great Mother and The Call of the Wild specifically: Snyder shows a new view that man destroys nature in their own lives by shutting it out.

One of the best representations of this mindset is in The Call of the Wild. After the coyote howls, man will “call the Government.” “Trapper who uses iron leg-traps on Coyotes… my sons will lose this.” The next generations will go on unappreciative to nature because their forefathers are destroying it. The Great Mother looks at men who cross the road as “savages”. For once we begin to see that not only has man been oblivious to nature’s value, but they are depleting it. Control Burn compares humans to Indians who took the lands for granted, burning them several times a year. Loggers are no better than indians, the savages just obtained a different name.

Gary Snyder: A Man of Many Works

Theme(s)
Separation of worlds between Man vs Nature
Where as Man is: -Unobserving
                             -Unappreciative

Sample Selection of Snyder's Works
Coyote Valley Spring Pg. 15
The Real Work Pg. 32
For Nothing Pg. 34
Pine Tree Tops Pg. 33

As Snyder writes his poetic works, he separates the lives of man and nature creating two totally different worlds. These are figurative worlds that take place right beside each other. Man, as Snyder portrays, goes about day to day life without realizing the presence of nature. "Sea-lions and birds, sun through fog.. looks you dead in the eye.. the real work. washing and sighing, sliding by." 

Another observation that can be made throughout Snyder's work is that man is unappreciative as to what nature has to offer. Snyder makes a general point that the beauty of nature is something to be viewed and enjoyed by many. It seems as if Snyder feels frustrated that man has become so focused on other aspects of life that they cannot focus on the beauty of what is around them. "Earth a flower by a gulf where a raven flaps by once ... for nothing; an offer; no taker."