| Summary: | "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"--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"--
"In Fractured Communities, sociologist Anthony Ladd and a roster of leading young (and some old) environmental sociologists present a set of crucial sociological 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 (or source rock formations) across the country. Ladd and his contributors find that the rapid development of shale gas and oil reserves through high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) methods has spawned a growing anti-fracking movement that has been gaining political clout and scientific credibility nationwide, especially since Josh Fox's academy award-nominated documentary Gasland was released in 2010. In shale communities across the country (e.g. the Marcellus, Barnett, Tuscaloosa, Utica, Monterey, Woodford, Eagle Ford, etc.), citizens have mobilized to express concerns or protest what they perceive as a wide range of negative socio-environmental impacts associated with unconventional energy development and fracking--particularly its threats to water, air, land, climate, public health, animals, and sustainable economic development. To date, over 475 community bans against fracking have been passed in 24 states, including cities like Pittsburgh, and statewide moratoriums are in effect in New York and Vermont. Additionally, national moratoriums exist in France, Ireland, Scotland, and Bulgaria, Pope Francis has publically declared his opposition to fracking, and debates over shale drilling are growing across the European Union, South Africa, South America, and Australia"--
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