Fracking could be good for Poland by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Fracking can be good for the environment Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

..when is fracking good...

'The air is stinking, it’s dirty': the fight against pollution in Kraków

As residents in the historic Polish city complain of coughs and nosebleeds a new ban on the burning of wood and coal in homes could have unprecedented repercussions for the country’s economy, and its health.

Protesters on an anti-smog march in Kraków call for cleaner air. Photograph: Kraków Smog Alert

With a neatly trimmed moustache and white doctor’s coat, Dr Krzysztof Czarnobilski, head of internal medicine and elder care at Kraków’s MSWiA Hospital, speaks nervously, his English formal and stilted. His message, though, couldn’t be clearer. The filthy air in Poland’s most picturesque city is making his elderly patients sick, shortening their lives and increasing their isolation. The pollution, he says, worsens cognitive and emotional problems such as dementia and depression, and exacerbates breathing and circulatory disorders.

From where we sit in America, we often complain about the evils of fracking.  Fracking is blamed for more earthquakes, polluted water, smelly air, etc.  Some of it is probably true, some of it is just in people’s head.  People are usually for or against it.  The truth is that it probably can be done responsibly with minimal risk and bad effective, or it can be done irresponsibly.  The big boys, with a lot of assets on the line, like Exxon are more likely to be careful, not because they are necessarily the good guys (or bad guys), but because they have a lot to lose.

But, here is the thing .. Exxon et al has the fracking technology to switch Europe from a coal burning society to a natural gas burning society.  Poland has some good reserves.  So, Poland can chose to keep choking on coal fumes with old people dying from air pollution … and that is what they have chosen for the most part in Europe.  Fracking is bad per Europe.  Green energy like wind and solar is good, but expensive.  They don’t have money for green energy so the suck up the fumes from coal.

The small economic boom in America is in part due to fracking and low cost energy.  Low cost gasoline and natural gas prices the world over, that is from fracking, no doubt.  Many of the jobs created in the U.S. recently and many more to be created are from fracking.  Many secondary jobs will spring up to support the jobs in oil and chemicals.  The boom will probably last a decade or more.

So, Europe has decided that fracking in bad.  Horrible air pollution in Kraków is one result.  Less wealth coming into Poland is another consequence.  They could chose to be like America with cleaner air and with more money coming in to line the coffers of the rich. 

Of course, I don't need to mention how much clean natural is than coal ... and that fracking would produce plenty of natural gas for Poland and they could stop burnin dirty coal ... and stop being in debt to Russia and dependent on Mother Russia.

I keep imaging there is this magical kingdom that makes logical decisions and it benefits all the people of the kingdom.