Some interesting bits:<p>Total is fracking in the middle of residential areas, drilling sites hidden from view by portable walls, protected by police from investigations of air pollution, while asthma rates are over twice as high as in the rest of the country.<p>"They [Total] don't get to go everywhere they want to go, but we have a great relationship so I'm happy with Total" (Arlington mayor after revealing a new fountain sponsored through oil and gas revenue.)
Fracking <i>for</i> Europe, <i>by</i> a (mostly) French company, done <i>in</i> the United States.<p>Would be interesting to see if methane gas emissions can be actually detected - of course they're not going to flare the gas when the extraction site is in a residential area, that would be too conspicuous.<p>Which of course also begs the question why this has to be done in a residential area. I looked at Arlington, TX on Google Maps and realized that this must be a side effect of the American sprawl: if there is oil/gas to be extracted in the area, you <i>have to</i> do it in a residential area, because there is no open space to be seen anywhere nearby...
There's definitely enough blame to be spread around between several countries for the current mess we're in and for the people suffering from fracking, that I don't know how this could be fixed and make everyone happy.<p>If there was enough cheap, clean, abundant energy for everyone, we wouldn't be in this mess, but since the global energy demand is much higher than the supply of clean energy, it's natural that the less wealthy and influential people and nations get the short end of the stick in the process of supplying enough energy for everyone.<p>Also, capitalism and highly profitable energy production require that the supply be controlled in order to always be below the demand, see the OPEC cartel, so barring momentary fluctuations due to unforeseen events, we'll always have an energy shortage to a degree no matter what.<p>I don't know how this can be solved so that everyone wins and everyone is happy, without creating more global turmoil in forms of economic depression, wars and climate change.
What the actual heck? I thought this was declared illegal everywhere in the EU? How and when did this happen and how did I miss this? Figures it would be Germany leading the charge in something this corrupt. Is this happening in other EU countries as well?<p>Edit: I'm an idiot. I'm halfway through the documentary now and realized this is about fracking in the US FOR the EU that made buying pipline gas from Russia illegal. Instead we're forced into buying 6x more expensive US gas. Heavy industry is dead, some of my friends are out of work. Enjoy the pollution. At least it's not just the EU population that is getting the shaft by US industrialists.