If you’s po’ and lives in Penns’vania, ‘hio or West Gini, you’s gettin’ polluted by that evil, nasty frackin’. And chances are, you’s too stupid to knows it.” That’s the essential conclusion of a highly discriminatory and inaccurate “study” called “Spatial distribution of unconventional gas wells and human populations in the Marcellus Shale in the United States: Vulnerability analysis,” recently published in the so-called journal Applied Geography by so-called researchers from Clark University. The “researchers” don’t bother with fundamental research, like reviewing health records of people who live near active Marcellus Shale drilling areas. That would take waaaay too much work. Instead, they just assume that if you live near drilling, you’re getting polluted. The focus of the “research” is on the cockamamie theory of environmental justice. The “researchers” found that people living out in the country–where this activity typically takes place–by and large are poorer than those living in towns and cities (and on elite college campi). Wow–such a brilliant insight! “Because they po’, they don’t read all that much…they can’t figure out theys gettin’ polluted.” Yes, its disgustingly prejudiced–but that’s what passes for scholarship these days…
