The debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the shale gas
revolution it has spawned has a religious aura to it. Both sides have an
unshakeable conviction that fracking is either good or evil. There is a
kind of sad resignation to the incommensurability of it all. Despite
the vitriol, both camps are just going through the motions: I’ll say X
and you’ll say not-X and on it goes. No one really seems to believe what
they say is going to get an opponent to stop and think. The point is
not productive compromise, but all out victory.
It is reminiscent of a time when religious factions tore through Europe, each certain that it knew the will of God and the proper order of things. What was truth for one faction was heresy for another. We have this same problem of “double vision” that Thomas Hobbes diagnosed in the seventeenth century. As one student confessed to me, the more she reads about shale gas the more confused she becomes. Is it good or bad news for the climate? Is water at risk or not? Is it cleaning or fouling our air? Is it an economic boom or bust? The answer in all cases seems to be “yes.” Or make that “no.” Those of us not committed to either faith are drowning in a flood of contradictory information. Of course, the devout have an easier go of it, because they can see things clearly in terms of truth and blasphemy.
But obviously this is not a religious debate. Indeed, both sides make it clear they are simply reporting the facts. It is a scientific debate, because these are scientific questions about public health, economics, and the environment. But on both sides there is a kind of religiosity about science. They share a faith in science as a means to universal consent and policy action.
Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Religious-Nature-of-the-Fracking-Debate.html
It is reminiscent of a time when religious factions tore through Europe, each certain that it knew the will of God and the proper order of things. What was truth for one faction was heresy for another. We have this same problem of “double vision” that Thomas Hobbes diagnosed in the seventeenth century. As one student confessed to me, the more she reads about shale gas the more confused she becomes. Is it good or bad news for the climate? Is water at risk or not? Is it cleaning or fouling our air? Is it an economic boom or bust? The answer in all cases seems to be “yes.” Or make that “no.” Those of us not committed to either faith are drowning in a flood of contradictory information. Of course, the devout have an easier go of it, because they can see things clearly in terms of truth and blasphemy.
But obviously this is not a religious debate. Indeed, both sides make it clear they are simply reporting the facts. It is a scientific debate, because these are scientific questions about public health, economics, and the environment. But on both sides there is a kind of religiosity about science. They share a faith in science as a means to universal consent and policy action.
Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Religious-Nature-of-the-Fracking-Debate.html
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