I was surprised to learn that Bill McKibben, a very staunch environmentalist, has not always condemned fracking. In a book review for the NY Review of Books he writes, "I was originally encouraged at the thought of major natural gas finds as well, because they seemed, as I mentioned in passing in my 2010 book Eaarth , to extend slightly the short time we have to get off fossil fuel without doing more climate damage." But that was then, now he is very strongly opposed to fracking, mainly for reasons of climate change. He is not the only environmentalist to have changed his mind, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is another.
In addition to climate change issues, McKibben discusses what are now recognized - at least by those with no financial interest - as problems related to fracking: damage to water wells, underground aquifers, rivers, streams; air pollution; lax regulation.
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