“Don’t Frack My Mother.” That’s the title of a catchy folk song now making the web rounds, written by Beatles scion Sean Lennon and performed by Yoko Ono, Liv Tyler, and assorted other celebrities. The song is intended to send a message to New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who will decide, likely later this month, whether to allow hydraulic fracking for natural gas in his state.
As you can tell from the song title, the celebrities are not in favor of fracking.
The song makes a number of claims about the dangers of fracking … but are they true?
Let’s look at the lyrics (in bold italics) and the on-screen messages (in bold), and see.
Lyric: Now gather round and listen to my song
So please don’t frack my mother
Don’t frack my mother
Cause I ain’t got no other
Don’t frack my mother
On screen: 60% of wells leak over time.
This number would be shocking if it were true. But it’s not entirely accurate. The “60 percent” comes from a 2003 study on wells in the Gulf of Mexico based on data from the U.S. Minerals Management Service. In the history of energy development, 2003 was a long time ago, long before fracking became widespread in Pennyslvania. Also, the paper’s 60 percent number refers to wells affected by what’s known as SCP, or sustained casing pressure. Not all cases of SCP result in leaks. And in many of those cases, the leaks were of methane gas, not fracking fluid. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is flammable, but it’s not as evil as the filmmakers make it out to be. Methane is a common byproduct of anaerobic digestion and is found in lot of places, including at landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and of course, in the flatulence of ruminant animals.
You can do anything that you wanna do
But don’t frack my mother
No hold up kid listen if you will
You can’t tell a man where to stick his drill
The cow don’t know what’s good for her udders
So I’m going to frack your mother
Don’t frack my mother
Cause I ain’t got no other
Don’t frack my mother
You can do anything that you wanna do
But don’t frack my mother
Now we can’t afford for this world to get hotter
On screen: The fracking process injects hundreds of toxic chemicals into the Earth at high pressure to free natural gas and oil.
This assertion—about chemicals and pressure—is borderline. The fracking formulas of most companies are proprietary: They share the ingredient list only with the Environmental Proection Agency. But occasionally a company will release its formula. Earlier this year, Halliburton, which fracks in eight states, released a list of some of its fluids’ components. In the main formula called “WaterFrac” are 22 ingredients. Of those, eight have been deemed “hazardous” by outside surveyors, including state environmental regulators and the EPA.
And we can’t afford for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in our water
Teratogens, carcinogens enough to make you shudder
The shuddering is up to you, as well as pronouncing that long term. But it is reasonable to be concerned about some of the chemicals found in fracking fluid. In 2011, a Syracuse University researcher found that ingredients like naphthalene, benzene, and acrylamide, which have been shown to lead to cancer and, in other cases, birth defects.
