Jon Stewart gives Oklahoma two cheers for embracing science on fracking

Jon Stewart gives two cheers to Oklahoma for embracing science — (Image credit: The Daily Show)

Wednesday was Earth Day, and on Thursday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart used the occasion to make fun of Uranus and deconstruct two unrelated stories. The second, about a sometimes creepy NSA recycling campaign, is mostly entertainment, but the first one has some meat. On Tuesday, Oklahoma's state Geological Survey said that pumping oil and gas wastewater into deep underground wells is the cause of the state's sharp rise in earthquakes. The conservative state government signed on to the findings.

"You've accepted scientific evidence?" Stewart asked Oklahoma, rhetorically and with some bemused shock. "That right there is the real earthquake." The Sooner State didn't get Stewart's full three cheers, though, because the very next day the state legislature passed a law barring counties and municipalities from doing anything to limit the drilling that's causing the earthquakes. Oh well, maybe next Earth Day. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.