Overview

The fossil fuel industry and many environmental groups tout hydraulic fracturing - ""fracking"" - as a panacea, with slick promises of energy independence, greenhouse gas reductions, and benefits to local economies. Yet the controversial technology, which blasts massive volumes of fluids, sand, and chemicals into rock and coal formations, has sparked huge public protests. Slick Water tells the shocking, inspiring story of one woman's stand to hold government and industry accountable for the damage fracking leaves in its wake. After energy giant Encana secretly fracked hundreds of gas wells around her home and her well water turned to a flammable broth, Jessica Ernst started asking questions. When she put forward evidence that Encana had violated laws by fracturing the community's drinking water aquifer, Ernst was falsely tagged as a bomb-making terrorist and visited by the government's anti-terrorism squad. Frightened but undaunted, she uncovered a startling history of liability, fraud, and intimidation, along with a willful denial of widespread groundwater contamination. Jessica Ernst's remarkable story raises dramatic questions about the role of Big Oil in government, society's obsession with rapidly depleting supplies of unconventional oil and gas, and the future of civil society.

Full Product Details

9781771640763

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for The Energy of Slaves: ...shocking and deeply enlightening. ...required reading for everyone who uses oil --Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth and The Party's Over A startling critique that should rouse us from our pipe dream of endless plenty. --Ronald Wright [Nikiforuk's] plainspoken writing style is especially poignant as he gives voice to the devastating human experience of lost forests. Recommended. --Library Journal Nikiforuk leavens this tragic, instructive history with curious facts about the complex, intelligent insect ...[his] florid language, affection for the beetles, and scorn for the humans in his story...lighten the tone of what in other hands could be an overwhelmingly depressing topic. --Publishers Weekly ...packed with statistics, vivid descriptions of bark beetle life cycles, and portraits of scientists and forest managers struggling to cope with beetle colonies... --the Los Angeles Times ...Well written and informative. Summing Up: Highly recommended. --CHOICE Current Reviews For Academic Libraries Nikiforuk draws on interviews with scientists, foresters and rural residents to paint a nuanced picture of beetle outbreaks and their long-term implications. --Science News, Oct 7, 2011 A terrific book on a terrifying subject. ...Empire of the Beetle is a chilling, fascinating, and important contribution to our understanding of a rapidly changing world. --John Vaillant, author of The Tiger Praise for Tar Sands: Andrew Nikiforuk reveals the true costs of America's oil addiction. Tar Sands tells an important story with passion and wit. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change a slashing indictment of politicians in the back pockets of energy megacorporations, of regulators cowed into acquiescence, and of all of us who look the other way as we fill our gas tanks. --Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down Passionate and forcefully argued, Tar Sands is a wake-up call not just to Canadians but to the wider world to take a serious look at what is happening in northern Alberta. To call this book a polemic is a compliment. --Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919 Nikiforuk offers a scathing critique of what he calls the corporate greed and regulatory indifference that have attended development of Canada's vast oil patch. --Green Blog, The New York Times

meticulously researched...a deft history of fracking from the 1850s (when torpedoes and nitroglycerin were used) through the 1960s (nuclear explosions) to modern hydraulic fracturing. --Nature Magazine Slick Water is a true-life noir filled with corruption, incompetence, and, ultimately, courage. It is a deeply informative, disturbing, and important book. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction Andrew Nikiforuk crafts a stunning picture of fossil fuel industry and government abuse -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine In this balanced and meticulously researched page-turner, Andrew Nikiforuk follows Alberta whistleblower Jessica Ernst's quest for justice with a passion, verve, and level of damning detail reminiscent of A Civil Action. ...Jessica Ernst is Canada's Erin Brockovich, and this is an heroic book--Nikiforuk's best one yet. -- John Vaillant Praise for The Energy of Slaves: ...shocking and deeply enlightening. ...required reading for everyone who uses oil --Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth and The Party's Over A startling critique that should rouse us from our pipe dream of endless plenty. --Ronald Wright Praise for Tar Sands: Andrew Nikiforuk reveals the true costs of America's oil addiction. Tar Sands tells an important story with passion and wit. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change a slashing indictment of politicians in the back pockets of energy megacorporations, of regulators cowed into acquiescence, and of all of us who look the other way as we fill our gas tanks. --Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down

Praise for The Energy of Slaves .. .shocking and deeply enlightening. ...required reading for everyone who uses oil --Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth and The Party's Over A startling critique that should rouse us from our pipe dream of endless plenty. --Ronald Wright [Nikiforuk's] plainspoken writing style is especially poignant as he gives voice to the devastating human experience of lost forests. Recommended. -- Library Journal Nikiforuk leavens this tragic, instructive history with curious facts about the complex, intelligent insect ...[his] florid language, affection for the beetles, and scorn for the humans in his story...lighten the tone of what in other hands could be an overwhelmingly depressing topic. -- Publishers Weekly .. .packed with statistics, vivid descriptions of bark beetle life cycles, and portraits of scientists and forest managers struggling to cope with beetle colonies... --the Los Angeles Times .. .Well written and informative. Summing Up: Highly recommended. --CHOICE Current Reviews For Academic Libraries Nikiforuk draws on interviews with scientists, foresters and rural residents to paint a nuanced picture of beetle outbreaks and their long-term implications. --Science News, Oct 7, 2011 A terrific book on a terrifying subject. ... Empire of the Beetle is a chilling, fascinating, and important contribution to our understanding of a rapidly changing world. --John Vaillant, author of The Tiger Praise for Tar Sands Andrew Nikiforuk reveals the true costs of America's oil addiction. Tar Sands tells an important story with passion and wit. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change a slashing indictment of politicians in the back pockets of energy megacorporations, of regulators cowed into acquiescence, and of all of us who look th

Slick Water is a true-life noir filled with corruption, incompetence, and, ultimately, courage. It is a deeply informative, disturbing, and important book. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction Andrew Nikiforuk crafts a stunning picture of fossil fuel industry and government abuse &#8212 Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine In this balanced and meticulously researched page-turner, Andrew Nikiforuk follows Alberta whistleblower Jessica Ernst's quest for justice with a passion, verve, and level of damning detail reminiscent of A Civil Action. ...Jessica Ernst is Canada's Erin Brockovich, and this is an heroic book--Nikiforuk's best one yet. -- John Vaillant Praise for The Energy of Slaves: ...shocking and deeply enlightening. ...required reading for everyone who uses oil --Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth and The Party's Over A startling critique that should rouse us from our pipe dream of endless plenty. --Ronald Wright Praise for Tar Sands: Andrew Nikiforuk reveals the true costs of America's oil addiction. Tar Sands tells an important story with passion and wit. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change a slashing indictment of politicians in the back pockets of energy megacorporations, of regulators cowed into acquiescence, and of all of us who look the other way as we fill our gas tanks. --Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down

Author Information

Andrew Nikiforuk is a leading investigative journalist who has been writing about the oil and gas industry for more than two decades. He was one of the first journalists in North America to document the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on rural communities. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Empire of the Beetle, The Energy of Slaves, and the bestseller Tar Sands, which won the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. His book Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Oil was the winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available