Ninth Edition Compendium is Up and Out: A Tool Kit for Campaigns
by Carmi Orenstein
From the ninth edition fracking science Compendium Summary of Findings:
[T]he vast body of scientific studies now published on hydraulic fracturing in the peer-reviewed scientific literature confirms that the public health and climate risks from fracking are real and the range of environmental harms wide. Our examination uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health directly or without imperiling climate stability upon which human health depends.
The rapidly expanding body of evidence compiled here is massive, troubling, and cries out for decisive action. Across a wide range of parameters, the data continue to reveal a plethora of recurring problems that cannot be sufficiently averted through regulatory frameworks. The risks and harms of fracking are inherent in its operation. The only method of mitigating its grave threats to public health and the climate is a complete and comprehensive ban on fracking. Indeed, a fracking phase-out is a requirement of any meaningful plan to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Released on October 19, 2023, the ninth edition of the fracking science Compendium provides the data and the evidence policy makers and frontline communities need to help facilitate that urgent phase-out. Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) a program of SEHN, compiles, writes, and publishes this vast report with Physicians for Social Responsibility. We have once again updated and expanded this compilation to include even more tentacles of the harmful energy system that the fracking boom of the recent decade and a half has enabled.
From policymakers to climate organizers, from elected officials to physicians, and from labor leaders to environmental justice activists, many of our readers urgently need organized, searchable, and up-to-the minute evidence on the risks and harms of fracking and all its accompanying infrastructure, including pipelines, gas-fired power plants, compressor stations, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, and flare stacks. We provide that.
And now for the first time, the Compendium also includes a compilation of studies on the indoor air quality and health impacts of gas appliances. We hope this new topic area will assist those who are working to facilitate the transition to all-electric buildings. Having this data in hand helps us all speak truth to power, especially as we attempt to work with governments (local, state, and national) that generally preclude in their policymaking—with significant exceptions—the Precautionary Principle.
The online document is yours to browse, study, excerpt, share, quote, and print (apologies for that expense, at 637 pages), heave into your bag and possibly drop onto your representative’s desk. Please use the contents of the fracking science Compendium to write editorials to your local newspaper, for Facebook posts, TikTok scripts, and letters to your elected officials. Let it inform your testimony at public hearings and your remarks during public comments sessions. Incorporate it into your curricula. Share it with your faith community.
In the 100-page Front Matter you’ll find major trend summaries, cross-topic analysis, and relevant historical, political and other contexts, timelines, and case studies. The Front Matter also includes an annotated list of fracking bans and moratoria around the world, a close analysis of carbon capture and storage, and a discussion of the many ways that fracking is an environmental justice issue. Fracking-related issues specific to Florida and California are organized as two special case studies.
The body of the report itself is organized into 16 chapters, each organized around a specific topic. Here you’ll find an overarching summary of the research findings about that topic and then one-paragraph descriptions of the findings themselves, with summaries of individual studies organized in reverse-chronological order.
The topics included in our compilation are air pollution; water contamination; inherent engineering problems; occupational hazards for workers; public health harms; noise pollution, light pollution, and stress; earthquakes; abandoned wells; flood risks; threats to agriculture, soil, and forests; climate threats; and threats from infrastructure.
Our infrastructure chapter is further organized into separate sub-chapters on sand mining, pipelines, compressor stations, gas storage facilities, LNG terminals, gas-fired power plants, and gas-fired residential appliances.
Our final chapters examine the social and economic blight created by fracking (inaccurate jobs claims, increased crime rates, threats to property values and mortgages, and local government burden) and fracking’s profitability problems. As we demonstrate, the myriad financial and economic instabilities that accompany fracking exacerbate its inherent climate and health risks. For example, when bankrupt companies abandon operations, they also abandoned the wells they drilled, raising questions about who should serves as the custodian of inactive wells and their associated infrastructure. Notoriously inadequate bonding requirements proved make fracking more dangerous.
Finally, we close the Compendium with an annotated list of resolutions from medical and scientific societies around the world that have taken strong positions on fracking.
Though we’ve finalized the document, we’ve only begun helping facilitate its use.
The authors are a group of health professionals who aim to apply knowledge and prevent harm. And the degree of harm to health, environment, and climate documented in the Compendium (with thanks to the researchers, investigative journalists, and organizations who produce the original studies and reports) is devastating. With the proliferation of evidence in each new edition as our guide, we continue to offer materials and programs in hopes of reaching new groups that the Compendium may assist, while continuing to support the campaigns of groups already known well to us.
A sneak-preview event the day before this year’s official Compendium launch focused on Pennsylvania and its long struggle to oppose rampant fracking, protect residents in harm’s way, and address the state’s ongoing complicity. Because so many studies exploring the environmental and health impacts of fracking have been carried out in Pennsylvania, working with Pennsylvanians holds a special importance for us.
We invite all those interested worldwide to an upcoming webinar, November 8, 2023, that we’re billing as our international release. The Compendium has been used to protect communities and fight for bans and moratoria on all continents and we know we have allies here and abroad who have anxiously awaited this new edition. Compendium authors who have tracked and assessed the data for over a decade will cover the range of health, pollution, and climate implications of fracking and its infrastructure, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. And, based on our new work for this edition, we’ll present the health risks of gas appliances in homes. Register here!
This graphic, representing the role of gas appliances within the whole interconnected set of risks and harms posed by the fracked gas energy system, is one of the series we’re rolling out on social media as a full educational program built on the new edition. Accompanying each graphic is a summary of the specific theme and the pages in the Compendium where the more detailed data and references can be found. The series begins here on Facebook; one can arrow through the photos to find the others. When the series is complete in a couple of months, it will serve as an up-to-date slide set encompassing all the major trends and findings, and be available for download.
Fossil fuel industry propaganda campaigns are reaching fever pitch in their effort to perpetuate the destructive myth of “clean natural gas,” to derail building electrification legislation, and to disparage electric alternatives like heat pumps and induction cooktops. They may have endless money to fund their front groups that are so active on social media, but we have the steadfast work of scientists, the voices of health professionals, and the commitment to protect and repair health and climate. Please let us know how the ninth edition Compendium can serve as a tool in your campaign!