Author: Angela L. Hotaling
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 54
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Book Description
As it is currently being discussed, hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" is the unconventional method of drilling and extracting oil and natural gas. Fracking starts at the earth's surface where the technology is created and the sites are constructed. The process continues downward: drills pierce thousands of feet vertically and then horizontally underground. Then, millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals (referred to as "fracking fluid" or "slick water") are pumped at high pressure through the pipe so as to fracture shale deposits and release gas or oil. Whether to allow fracking and its associated industrial activity is a complex and heated controversy. The mainstream positions on the issue are typically divided between concerns for the environment and the economy. My subsequent argument against fracking moves beyond both of these mainstream positions. The following argument against fracking is moral and moves in the opposite direction than fracking; it starts from the bottom and moves upward. At the bottom layer, I point out that fracking violates necessary obligations of environmental justice. At the middle layer, I claim, fracking threatens local moral solidarity as I conceive it. Finally, at the top layer, I argue fracking collides with the good life and human flourishing. In other words, I claim fracking not only hinders the availability of necessary material goods, like clean water and air, it also significantly impedes human flourishing. Moreover, fracking promotes or propagates a life of consumption that displaces the good life. I argue against fracking because of its insidious and neglected moral implications. The following three chapters are moral layers; starting at my claim that fracking violates necessary obligations of environmental justice and ascending toward the social and then the material conditions of daily life. The layers of the argument are interconnected, just like the layers of the fracking process itself. By shedding light on how fracking impedes the good life I aim to bring attention to the issue in way that is has yet to be assessed.
Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591847443
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”
Author: Adam Briggle
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1631490087
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
Winner of the Writers' League of Texas Book Awards Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize From the front lines of the fracking debate, a “field philosopher” explores one of our most divisive technologies. When philosophy professor Adam Briggle moved to Denton, Texas, he had never heard of fracking. Only five years later he would successfully lead a citizens' initiative to ban hydraulic fracturing in Denton—the first Texas town to challenge the oil and gas industry. On his journey to learn about fracking and its effects, he leaped from the ivory tower into the fray. In beautifully narrated chapters, Briggle brings us to town hall debates and neighborhood meetings where citizens wrestle with issues few fully understand. Is fracking safe? How does it affect the local economy? Why are bakeries prohibited in neighborhoods while gas wells are permitted next to playgrounds? In his quest for answers Briggle meets people like Cathy McMullen. Her neighbors’ cows asphyxiated after drinking fracking fluids, and her orchard was razed to make way for a pipeline. Cathy did not consent to drilling, but those who profited lived far out of harm’s way. Briggle's first instinct was to think about fracking—deeply. Drawing on philosophers from Socrates to Kant, but also on conversations with engineers, legislators, and industry representatives, he develops a simple theory to evaluate fracking: we should give those at risk to harm a stake in the decisions we make, and we should monitor for and correct any problems that arise. Finding this regulatory process short-circuited, with government and industry alike turning a blind eye to symptoms like earthquakes and nosebleeds, Briggle decides to take action. Though our field philosopher is initially out of his element—joining fierce activists like "Texas Sharon," once called the "worst enemy" of the oil and gas industry—his story culminates in an underdog victory for Denton, now nationally recognized as a beacon for citizens' rights at the epicenter of the fracking revolution.
Author: Steve Cirrone
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1329360710
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 146
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Book Description
SECULAR MORALITY is a book that will benefit students and instructors alike. Students of logic, persuasion, philosophy, and more, will find Part One to be a helpful guide in understanding the principles of secular morality and the premises that shape moral argument; students will also appreciate the way Part Two provides examples of secular morality put into practice through real and engaging student essays that have been highlighted for their strengths and weaknesses with respect to moral argument. Argumentation and Critical Thinking instructors will find that the rhetoric explores the principles and premises of secular morality in an accessible manner that can readily adapt to their individual classroom needs and teaching styles.
Author: Anthony E. Ladd
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813587697
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
While environmental disputes and conflicts over fossil fuel extraction have grown in recent years, few issues have been as contentious in the twenty-first century as those surrounding the impacts of unconventional natural gas and oil development using hydraulic drilling and fracturing techniques—more commonly known as “fracking”—on local communities. In Fractured Communities, Anthony E. Ladd and other leading environmental sociologists present a set of crucial case studies analyzing the differential risk perceptions, socio-environmental impacts, and mobilization of citizen protest (or quiescence) surrounding unconventional energy development and hydraulic fracking in a number of key U.S. shale regions. Fractured Communities reveals how this contested terrain is expanding, pushing the issue of fracking into the mainstream of the American political arena.
Author: David M. McCarthy
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498294448
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
Grace and Peace in the Earthly City Volume 5, Number 1, January 2016 Edited by David M. McCarthy Catholic Moral Traditions and Energy Ethics For the Twenty-First Century Erin Lothes Biviano, David Cloutier, Elaine Padilla, Christiana Z. Peppard, and Jame Schaefer Human Capacities and the Problem of Universally Equal Dignity: Two Philosophical Test Cases and a Theistic Response Matthew Petrusek A Case Study of Scholasticism: Peter Abelard and Peter Lombard on Penance Lucas Briola An Analysis of GSUSA's Policy of Serving Transgender Youth: Implications for Catholic Practice John Grabowski and Christopher Gross "For He is our Peace:" Thomas Aquinas on Christ As Cause of Peace in the City of Saints Matthew A. Tapie Infused Virtue and "22-Carat"Morally Right ACTS Angela Knobel Natural Law: New Directions In Thomistic Theological Ethics Charles R. Pinches Review Essay on the Social Problem of Family Homes for Conviviality David Matzko McCarthy
Author: William Collinge
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532632290
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 185
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Book Description
LAUDATO SI' AND NORTHERN APPALACHIA Volume 6, Special Issue 1 Edited by William J. Collinge, Christine Cusick, and Christopher McMahon The Significance of Pope Francis's Prophetic Call: 'Care for Our Common Home'for Northern Appalachia Anne Clifford Sustainable Communities and Eucharistic Communities: Laudato Si', Northern Appalachia, and Redemptive Recovery. Lucas Briola An Integral Eucharist? Pope Francis, Louis-Marie Chauvet, and Ecology's Relationship to Eucharist Derek Hostetter Pope Francis, Theology of the Body, Ecology, and Encounter Robert Ryan The Catholic Worker Farm in Lincoln County, West Virginia, 1970-1990: An Experiment in Sustainable Community William J. Collinge The Catholic Workers and "Green" Civic Republicanismin Lincoln County, WV: 1969-1979 Jinny A. Turman Discerning a Catholic Environmental Ethos: Three Episodes in the Growth of Environmental Awareness in Western Pennsylvania Tim Kelly The Consequences ofFossil Fuel Addictionin Schoharie County Nancy M. Rourke LaudatoSi', Communication Ethics, and the Common Good: To-ward a Dialogic Meeting amid Environmental Crisis John H. Prellwitz Strange as This Weather Has Been: Teaching Laudato Si'and Ecofeminism David von Schlichten At Home in Northern Appalachia: Laudato Si'and the Catholic Committee of Appalachia Jessica Wrobleski Contributors
Author: Asheem Singh
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447337743
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
In the midst of government retrenchment, austerity, and growing inequality, social entrepreneurs have in recent years come to prominence as sources of ideas, innovation, and funding for solving problems in societies worldwide. In this book, author and activist Asheem Singh shows how the social entrepreneurship movement developed from a number of extremely modest initial ventures into a global humanitarian and financial juggernaut that is rethinking philanthropy, government, and even capitalism itself. An inspiring guide to a dynamic area of activism, The Moral Marketplace not only describes the current landscape of social entrepreneurism, but also reminds us that we all can play a crucial role in taking on the biggest challenges of our time.
Author: Francis H. Wade
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532671350
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 83
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Book Description
Christian theology has lacked a tradition resembling Jewish midrash ("inquiring" or "expounding") to explore beyond the literal texts of Scripture. Francis H. Wade fills that gap with Biblical Fracking: Midrash for the Modern Christian. As he writes in the introduction, "Biblical fracking, in the spirit of its historical roots and its geological namesake, means reaching into the cracks and crevasses of the biblical narrative to extract the richness that lurks there." All forms of fracking have potential for benefit as well as abuse. Wade leads us on the narrow path to where we can hear God's word in fresh ways. For example, he asks readers to consider how Sarah felt when Abraham left to sacrifice their only son, Isaac. What was it like to have the quixotic Peter as a husband, or to have a brother like Jesus? Was Judas Iscariot simply the venal betrayer, as commonly caricatured, or was he a devoted disciple who tried to force Jesus' hand? In these and other expositions, Wade reveals Scripture's celebrated and obscure figures with empathy, designed to enrich our understanding of the Bible's saints and sinners, people much like ourselves.
Author: Ruth Gaare Bernheim
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
ISBN: 1284053725
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 275
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Book Description
As threats of infectious disease grow and the nation confronts chronic health problems such as diabetes and obesity, health professionals, citizens, and community stakeholders must address increasingly complex ethical conflicts about public health policies and practices. Essentials of Public Health Ethics introduces students to the field of public health ethics, by focusing on cases. Topics span the discipline of public health and integrate materials, concepts, and frameworks from numerous fields in public health, such as health promotion, environmental health and health policy. By delving into both historical and contemporary cases, including international cases, the authors investigate the evolution and impact of various understandings of the concept of “the public” over time, i.e., the public not only as a numerical population that can be defined and measured, but also as a political group with legally defined obligations and relationships, as well as diverse cultural and moral understandings. While the text examines a range of philosophical theories and contemporary perspectives, it is written in a way that presupposes no previous exposure to the philosophical concepts but at the same time provides challenging cases for students who do have more advanced knowledge. Thus the book should be useful in Schools and Programs in Public Health as well as for undergraduate public health courses in liberal arts institutions and for health sciences students at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.
