The natural gas industry has done a masterful job of portraying itself as the "green" fossil fuel because it burns about 45 percent cleaner than coal and about 30 percent cleaner than oil. But as Little Red Riding Hood would be the first to tell you, don't trust a wolf in sheep's clothing or as in this case, a non-renewable fuel wearing a "green" cloak.

If you consider the environmental costs of drilling deep into the Marcellus Shale below our rolling agricultural farmland, natural gas turns into the big bad wolf at the door, not "America's clean energy." Industry apologists spend millions a month trying to convince elected officials and the population at large that gas is the "clean" transitional fuel Americans need as we await the truly green energies of the future: solar, wind, geothermal and other sustainable approaches. But why wait? The future is now in Germany, Spain and other nations that have realized it is not only healthy but profitable to "go green."

Solar and wind are considered the energy of the future only because Americans have swallowed gas industry half-truths and rhetoric. But if all the counties and states poisoned by hydro-fracking knew what we know now and had fought against this method of gas drilling, sustainable approaches would be providing significant energy as they do across the Atlantic. It is wise to be a NIMBY on this issue. In fact, if you want to maintain your current quality of life here in Tompkins County, it is the only choice.

In this day and age there are many things to worry about - for example, the economy, climate change, terrorism, etc. But here in our agricultural community, many of us feel insulated from those very real but rather distant problems. The wind is rustling in the trees, there is mu sic in the air and the lake is glinting in the sun. People flock here to enjoy our lake, drink our wine, hike our trails, and see our leaves fall. We benefit from the resulting commerce and many of us shut our eyes to larger national and international issues.

But not one of us will be able to ignore gas drilling. When it comes, it will come with the roar of hundreds of trucks and the din of compressors hammering day and night and our dappled fields will sprout drilling rigs and the irreplaceable resource on which everything else depends - our water - will be stolen from the lakes and then poisoned. You can ignore just about anything else for a while but you won't be able to ignore gas drilling in Tompkins County.

Please join the NIMBYs on this issue. In fact if you don't, soon we will lose not only our proverbial backyard but also our lifeblood - Lake Cayuga.

Want to help? Go to tcgasmap.org to locate the 37 percent of the land that has already been leased in Tompkins County and then go to shaleshock.org to learn more so you can join the movement to prevent gas drilling from ruining life in the Finger Lakes.

Ken Zeserson is the chairman of the Town of Ulysses Planning Board and secretary of the West Shore Home owners Association.