Frack, Frack, Fracking
We need a song!
It’s pretty clear that we need to get over our dependence on fossil fuels for our energy consumption. There is irrefutable evidence that our use of fossil fuels is the major contributing factor in the degradation of our air quality, as well as our changing climate and more severe and dangerous weather patterns.
Because the oil and gas industries make huge profits, they show little regard for people affected by the negative consequences of their extraction, production, sale and distribution of fossil fuels. The public concerns are regularly disregarded or completely dismissed. The actions of the people who create these kinds of consequences affect every other human being on our planet, including even their own children and grandchildren, regardless of age, income level, race, creed, color, gender or location.
I thought they must be missing something, and I figured we need a song that’s simple and clear to get this ‘fracking thing’ out onto the table, so we can take actions that make a bit more sense, rather than simply continuing a discussion that’s never really heeded.
FRACKING
Chorus: Frack-frack-fracking, G-D7
What the ‘frack’ is fracking? C7-G
Fracking’s using water C7-G
To whack oil from our ground. A7-D7
Frack-frack-fracking, G-D7
Your concern for us is lacking! C7-G
So we’re packing you off, C7-G
To save the water in our town. A7-D7-G, D7
We love the water in our city
But when you frack, it’s not so pretty
In fact, I feel like ‘gacking’
When I try to drink it down
‘Cause your fracking blows the water
Into places that we oughter
Keep it out of, … ‘cause it comes out
Kinda oily, green and brown!
(Chorus)
Well, you haven’t got my backing,
So let’s cut all the ‘yacking’
You’re racking up the profits
From the oil you take up!
And it seems that you’re uncertain
‘Bout the damage to our dirt,
An’ we refuse to take the risks,
Because our town is waking up!
So go back t’where ya came from! Em
We don’t want you here G
Your fracking makes our water burn Em
So let us make it clear! A7-D7
Frack-frack-fracking,
Your concern for us is lacking!
So we’re packing you off,
To save the water in our town.
Would you frack your own home water?
Would your family be distraught, or
Would you only do it far away
From where your family lives?
No one cares about the oil,
If it ruins all our soil
If it makes the water putrid,
Would you do it to your kids?
And we’ve heard about the earthquakes
That happen when you frack.
Y’say you never make mistakes,
But we don’t believe you Jack!
Frack-frack-fracking,
Your concern for us is lacking!
So we’re packing you off,
To save the water in our town.
Yes, we’re packing you off, C-G
T’save the water, in our town! D, D7, G-Cm-G
Written by Peter Alsop, ©2011, Moose School Music (BMI)
on “River Of Life” - www.peteralsop.com
I’ve been asked why I used ‘Uncle Sam’ to sing this song. A fan who saw the video posted this question on YouTube.
“I like the message and all, catchy tune. But why is Uncle Sam singing it? It’s the government that exempted the oil and gas companies from the clean water act, and helped create this mess to begin with.”
I answered, “As Uncle Sam I represent all the people of this country, not just the government or the corporations that influence the government.”
Companies and corporations business decisions are made by ‘actual real people’. These actual real people are mandated and motivated to maximize profits for their companies. They may consider the consequences of their actions, but when those consequences negatively affect their profit, they have a hard time choosing to take care of their customers rather than to make more profits for their company. If their product is detrimental to the community, but it makes money for the company, they continue to sell their product.
Sometimes an individual in that company has the courage to point out the detrimental consequences of the sale of their product, and usually other ‘actual real people’ in that company, don’t like them to do that! That individual is often threatened, ostracized, hushed, retired, passed over, moved or called a ‘malcontent’ or ‘poor employee’, and they are definitely NOT considered to be a ‘team player’! (Oh dear!) And if they keep bringing it up; they get fired, or ‘asked to leave’ or to ‘cease and desist!’ And if they still continue, they are called ‘whistle-blowers’, and eventually they will need to find employment elsewhere. So that leaves the company in the hands of the remaining ‘actual real people’ who don’t have the will or courage to make changes that need to be made. And, … that same corporate scenario is the same for those in our government.
Now, … a government ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’ is supposed to ‘care for the public welfare’ as it’s main concern. That’s not something that someone else does for us. That’s the point! It’s gotta be done by us, … the people!
Originally the idea of a democratic government was to get us all together so we could talk instead of fight, and pool our collective resources, so we could have some of the things none of us could afford individually. Because by putting our resources together, we can have streets and street lights and libraries and parks and bridges, and other things that help our day-to-day lives run better. Of course a government is made up of ‘actual real human people’ too, so often we act foolish and stubborn and selfish, and it’s difficult, and the process can feel very inefficient. But if we stay engaged as ‘actual real people’, we will collectively work things out to be better for all of us.
Companies and corporations have a bottom-line mandate that is to ‘make as much money as possible’, and that comes into direct conflict with our governmental mandate that says we are to ‘take care of the public welfare’.
There are oodles of online testimonials from rural folks who signed away their mineral rights to ‘frackers’. Fracking companies insist upon having landowners sign ‘non-disclosure, gag-order’ contracts about the use of their property. Why?! Because when a landowner’s drinking water becomes undrinkable and the livestock is dying, and the crops won’t grow because fracking chemicals have gotten into the water table and can’t be cleaned up, the ‘big guy frackers’ don’t want the landowners to talk to each other or the Press, or to organize with their neighbors, alerting others to what can happen when their property is fracked!
When we focus on people’s behaviors; what they do, rather than labeling them and attacking them for who we think they are, we can discuss and figure out ways to make things better. It’s our behaviors that need changing. The act of ‘fracking’ the land we live on, is clearly not a healthy behavior or decision for the people who live there, regardless of the jobs that are supposedly created, or our supposed dependence on foreign oil or any of the other reasons given for fracking. It’s done solely to make profits for the companies, the executives and the owners of the fossil fuel corporations and their subsidiaries who are doing the fracking.
Dakota Access Pipeline Water Defenders
So when decisions are made and actions are taken by rich and powerful corporations, without consideration or care for the good of the people who are affected by those decisions, then we, … the other ‘actual real people’ on the planet, need to call out the individual humans who support those harmful decisions, and tell them to “Stop!”
I’d love to hear from you! Re-stack, … ask questions, … What actions are you taking?
Catchy tune Peter
Though I’m a Democrat I still like gas cars,
I don’t want an electric car.
I’m Not sure we can do anything about fracking
For the next 4 years. I live in a beach city and drink water from the sink. So, they’ve learned how to manage water in Huntington Beach.
Mark G🍀
pete seeger's SOLARTOPIA! which appeared on the Grammy-winning "Tomorrow's Children"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSAMyKJKYb8