About the book: Fracking America, by Dr. Walter M. Brasch, is a comprehensive and well-documented look at the impacts of a controversial process to extract gas and oil from more than a mile below the earth’s surface. It is a cross-over book that meets the demanding standards of academic scholarship, while also being easily readable by the general population. Among the chapters are those that focus upon the economic, political, health, and environmental impacts of fracking. The book also includes chapters about the history of oil/gas extraction, psychological and sociological effects upon those living in the shale areas, worker safety issues, effects upon agriculture and livestock, problems with fossil fuel transportation, theological perspectives about fracking and the environment, the anti-fracking movement, how the media cover the fracking industry and how the industry and those opposed to fracking use the media, and renewable energy. He also looks at colleges that allow fracking on their campuses and which also conduct, often for questionable motives and with grant money from the industry, research into fracking that reflects industry talking points. Fracking America presents complicated issues in an easy-to-understand fashion, while also humanizing the problems. Dr. Brasch interviewed more than 300 persons–including health and environmental professionals and citizen-activists, those who work in the industry, government officials, and those directly affected by the fracking process–in his research for the book. The book also reveals the often secret connections between politicians and the industry. It is this connection that has led to exaggerated claims about economic benefits, while disregarding health and environmental problems. The long-term benefits that politicians and the industry claim are nothing less than hype, says the author who had predicted the boom to bubble to bust in fracking long before it has become economically difficult for many oil and gas extraction corporations to survive. About the Author: Dr. Brasch, whose undergraduate work was in sciences and sociology/social welfare, is a former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, and former writer-producer of multimedia productions. He is professor emeritus of journalism and mass communications from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Currently, he is a syndicated social issues columnist and commentator on social issues for the Sunbury Broadcasting Corp. Fracking America is his 20th book, most of which fuse history with contemporary social issues. He has won more than 200 media awards, including multiple awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, National Federation of Press Women, Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association, Press Club of Southern California, Pacific Coast Press Club, and California Newspaper Publishers Association. He is also the recipient of the Pennsylvania Press Club’s Communicator of Achievement award for lifetime service to journalism.
