This week, Elizabeth Kolbert writes about the controversy surrounding the fuel-extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the United States. A recent project by the photographer Nina Berman documents the fracking industry in Pennsylvania, and how the rapid increase in drilling has impacted rural life in the region—the state has seen sixteen hundred new fracking sites in the past year alone.

Photo Booth: Fracking in Pennsylvania : The New Yorker