Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing is the way of breaking dense rocks in the ground to create a fracture network to make crude oil and natural gas flow in a wellbore to bring on the surface. The process of fracking is complex. Workers have to inject fluids like water, sand, and other chemicals into the ground. Fracking is a good way to get resources but ultimately bad for human health and the environment. There are different types of pollutants that bould be released, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), particulate matter, and methane.
Air Impacts Fracking effects on human health:
Fracking releases a gas known as carcinogens. This type of gas is harmful to
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Fracking also leaves leaking methane to make ordinary water as flammable as lighter fluid. These fluid could affect the water and add unnecessary acids or chemicals, which is dangerous for the environment and humans. In an ecosystem where the water source is scarce, the polluted source would affect the environment. Fracking has affected and damaged so many ecosystems many species have died out but those …show more content…
Fracking consumes two hundred and fifty billions gallons of water from two thousand and four to two thousand and fourteen. In that time frame fracking also produced two hundred and ten billion in waste water. That is a lot of water that could be put to good use besides fracking. While people say fracking is does not use that much water in the long run it is still harmful to our environment to produce that amount of waste water. While it is better than most because it uses less than one percent of water nation wide it is still just as bad.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion fracking has major impacts on our lithosphere that is not entirely good. While the impacts may have minor to some it still has a harmful effect. Fracking has impacts on the environment the same way it has on us, if fracking affects the environment the environment will affect us by air impacts, water and many more ways. We should mind how much we use fracking because while it may not have impacts that is of concern right not you never know what the future will
Fracking the Good and The Bad In the essay, “Hope It’s in Your Backyard,” by Neil deMause, he wrote about the positive and negative factors of fracking and its effect on the world. The ramifications of fracking could be devastating to the earth with regards to natural gas and oil. It is debated that fracking, in the United States, would stimulate economic growth, lower gas prices, create more jobs, and make our country independent for oil and natural gas. The effects of burning fossil fuels is negative to the earth’s climate and the cause of some pollution. Natural gas is cheaper, but its effect on our ecosystem may be devastating.
Fracking involves drilling a hole into the ground and injecting a combination of fluids and chemicals into the shale. The fracking fluid contains upwards of 600 different chemicals (David). The pressure of the fluid is what causes the shale to fracture, then releases natural gas. That fracking fluid is what is really dangerous, as this is what poses the biggest threat, since many of those chemicals are extremely dangerous and some are completely unknown by the public. After the fracking process is complete, the fracking water, known as flowback, which includes water, chemicals and additives, is either collected and transferred to holding-tanks or it is injected back into the ground for storage
My general overview of this article is the methods used to obtain fossil fuels is hurting people and nature all around the world. People are beginning to come to a realization about how fracking is harming the world. However, people in cities like “Buffalo, New York, Pennsylvania, and the author’s hometown
Lennon’s third Strategy that he uses is an Exemplification, which is where the author provides specific examples or cases (“Introduction to Rhetorical Strategies”). One example that he uses this is where he talks about how natural gas is sold as clean energy. Lennon States “Natural Gas has been sold as clean energy. But when the gas comes from fracturing bedrock with about five million gallons of toxic water per well… Don’t be fooled. Fracking for shale gas is in truth dirty energy.”
According to the EarthWorks government site there are some seriously negative health effects that come with fracking. This is due to all the chemicals used to make the fracking fluid and how they can make their way into contact with humans. These chemicals can be ingested in water, contact with skin, or even be respired by way of vapor. These chemicals can lead to health hazards in almost every area imaginable such as EarthWorks cited Natural Gas Operations from a Public Health Perspective by Theo Colborn where he broke these hazards into the 12 categories seen here: “skin, eye and sensory organ, respiratory, gastrointestinal and liver, brain and nervous system, immune, kidney, cardiovascular and blood, cancer, mutagenic, endocrine disruption, other, and ecological…”. There are 71 chemicals used in fracking that are known to cause 10 or more health effects individually.
Methane gas and toxic chemicals leak out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater. Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking water wells near fracking sites than in normal wells(Dong). A man in Colorado went and got a lighter and held the flame by his faucet and it whistled and made a popping sound and it erupted into flames. Contaminated well water is used for drinking water for nearby cities and towns around the fracking sites causing public health concerns(Cart). There have been more than 1,000 cases of humans getting contaminated.
When the gas escapes the well, it significantly increased the chance for an explosion, and has even been the cause of small earthquakes. Fracking is also contributing to changes in the climate. Since carbon dioxide gets released during the gas extraction, fracking has been known to cause more greenhouse gas contribution than another other gas extraction method (Brantley,
Fracking fluid not only contains chemicals that have been known to cause cancer, but it also contains a number of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs have been linked to sex changes in wildlife and contaminated water have also caused fish deaths. Over 100 are EDCs that have been linked to respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, and reproductive conditions. These evidences are confirmed that fracking can cause species to die and to become sick with just touching the water or the air. You need to know that fracking can have a potential effect on our lovely planet.
Keep in mind fracking has also caused earthquakes, pollution and health issues for humans, but in the early 1980s, there was so much natural gas that all gas prices were reduced. All of that natural gas came from hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
It also has been linked to increased seismic activity along fault lines. Fracking is more harmful than beneficial because of effects on the environment, local communities, and human life. How it Works Fracking is the process in which rock is
Fracking poses potential danger to all of the workers. For example fracking can cause small earthquakes that can be harmful. The earthquakes have not been a safety concern yet but if they get any bigger they can become a big concern. During fracking it takes several days, during those days it requires continuous monitoring to ensure the safety of the workers.
As well as having advantages hydraulic fracturing has some possible negative impacts on the environment. The largest and most talked about problem with fracking is the pollution related to the waste water. The water that is pumped into the subsurface is comprised approximately of 90% water, 9% sand which is made up of naturally occurring sand grains, coated sand grains and high-strength ceramic materials. Another small percentage is made up of additives that serve various purposes. Not all of the wells use the same additives (Chen, Al-Wadei, Kennedy and Terry 2014,
The Anglers of the Au Sable, a Michigan environmental conservation group, and others, worry that this will deplete freshwater sources and potentially dry up rivers and streams that are key to Michigan's environmental ecological health. Even though danger is known and theoretically could be managed,no one knows how the enclosed water will behave in the future since there are no long term study on this subject. The chemicals used in fracking varies from the hazardous to the extremely toxic such as formic acid.
In the reading “Fracking: Pro and Con” by Gail Bambrick we are able to analyze both the pros and cons of fracking as discussed by Bruce Everett and John Rumpler respectively. Health issue is the primary concern of fracking. Due to the emission of harmful gases like benzene the area where fracking is done is becoming cancer cluster areas. Injecting large amount of water into the earth’s layer is not without danger, media, and journals have highlighted the potential risk factors due to fracking. Earthquake being one of the main problem prompted by loss of stability in earth
Our natural resources are at risk every time fracking occurs. Fracking needs to be banned since it is hurting our health and that it drains our natural and limited resources required for us to sustain life. Water is an essential to living and it is a need. Without it we would be dead from the dehydration. Fracking in this case can contaminate it to where we cannot drink it and if we do it can lead to death or a trip to the hospital: