The Impact Of Fracking On Health

If John D. Rockefeller, one of the first oil tycoons, were to look at the oil industry today, would he believe his eyes? With millions of oil barrels being imported and exported each year, the oil industry has changed dramatically since the 19th century. At the forefront of the oil industry is the emergence of an oil drilling technique known as fracking. Fracking is an unconventional drilling process that is accomplished by using high-pressured water to release oil and natural gas from rock formations, known as shales. The use of fracking in the United States has made it one of the top oil producing countries in the world. However, this newfound oil and gas drilling method has not come without its costs. Despite the economic boom near drilling locations, politically, fracking has caused some international relationships to be strained. Also, fracking is seen as highly controversial by conservationists because of the environmental threats that it poses. The drilling method of fracking has deeply impacted the United States from an economic, a political, and an environmental standpoint.

While fracking has provided a cleaner fuel, there are many negative effects to the environment, the beef industry, human health and little positive effects. Some of these effects include; ground water being polluted with harmful chemicals, this polluted water can cause extreme sickness in humans. Fracking disrupts the habitats of animals and they have to leave the area to find clean water and a better food supply. Also it has been taking an effect on the beef industry in how farmers raise and sell their cattle. Fracking can have negative long term effects on the people living in the local area and make that area inhabitable.

Russell Gold, an award winning journalist, states in The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World:

Fracking is a process in which a drill is inserted into a shale, which is a cracked surface,

This week’s discussion was to be on “environmental and economic issues” which we’re facing in our home countries, I decided to do mine on fracking. I’m sure most of us in the US have heard about fracking. There are pros and cons to it, the pro side is that it taps into the natural gas within the earth and provides a natural resource. This, in turn, will allow the US to reduce their reliance on foreign oil. The con side is what it is said to be doing to the earth. The technology isn’t new and neither is the knowledge that there is natural gas and oil below the earth’s surface. However, there’s growing concern from environmental groups concerned with how much harm is being done by pumping water and chemicals into the earth. I’ll only give a few examples of each, considering how many there are. The whole debate has many people are asking “is it worth the risk?”

I currently live in Colorado Springs, CO. I have a son that is 16 and two daughters that are 18 and 21. I am married with a beauty and I am only 39 years young. I am also a grandfather of an awesome 3-year-old boy. That’s right! I am a Grandpa! I also play the guitar, but my best hobby is riding motorcycle.

Imagine an economy in the United States if we were an oil exporting country, like those in the Middle East. The States falls victim to those countries because we do not export quite as much as they do. This problem could potentially be solved by upping the amount of oil and gas fracking. Then, that now unused oil can be sent out to other countries, turning a profit here. Although many people believe that it is harmful to the environment, and bad for the public around it. The largest being that it will contaminate the underground water supply. Despite this, many people can agree that it is overall beneficial. Hydraulic fracturing is essential to the United States, because it creates jobs, it generates income, it could potentially turn the economy around, and it is crucial to our energy production as a whole.

The bottom line is that the environmental impacts of fracking are a real problem, and to which neither prohibition nor laissez faire seems a sensible solution. Instead, looking towards the mitigation of such impacts using economic tools should be applied to regulate the environmental harms.

“Fracking chemicals damage fertility and cause birth defects. A recent study suggests of the 750 plus chemicals used in fracking, over 130 are endocrine disruptors. Once in the body, these toxins have been linked to fertility issues in men and women as well as birth defects” (Group). These chemicals can be put into the water supply, Without any knowingness of it if not frequently checked.

While it is good for the economy, fracking is dangerous and bad because it could damage the air, the water, and damage the health of citizens. Fracking is good for the economy because it can provide many jobs for people who are unemployed. Fracking can damage the air because the waste fluid that is left behind from fracking releases harmful VOC’S into the atmosphere which causes contaminated air. Fracking could damage the water because during the process of fracking methane gas and toxic and chemical leach out from the system and contaminates nearby ground water. Fracking can damage the health of citizens because it produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, which can cause health hazards and gets citizens really sick. To

I like the way you support your answers with real examples. But you didn’t expand your response to the question number 4. Utilitarian’s would view the consequences of permitting or prohibiting fracking on private lands. Most of the fracking in the U.S. is done on private land. Allowing property owners to use their property for the purpose of fracking gives benefits to the property owners, but it causes a lot of harm to the environment and neighborhood. Because fracking of oil and gas causes water pollution and increase the earthquake activity. (Reuters). In 2015 the largest earthquake scientifically linked to fracking operation occurred in British Columbia. (Prince George Citizen). If the government prohibit the property owners for using their

As society starts to progress and increase in size our energy requirements also need to adhere to new standards of amount and production. Petroleum products have always been at the epicenter of energy production, and seems as if it will always be that way. But at what cost? According to research conducted by our seismic geoscientists around the globe, the method of “fracking” is a directly hazardous to our earth’s precious top layer. The crust being weakened gradually by constant drilling, resulting to poor support for the faults within the earth’s. Because of this seismicity (or earthquakes) have been reported along the fault lines of many major gas well sites. According scholarly sources this leads to many negative consequences such as gas

When a natural gas deposit is fracked, some of the gases escape and some are made trying to get to it. Methane that is released during fracking is a highly potent greenhouse gas that can speed up global warming. Methane is a heat trapping gas and is about 30 times worse than Carbon Dioxide. The removal of trees to clear out a fracking site can also harm the atmosphere because plants absorb most of the harmful gases and give back oxygen. In the town of Dish, TX there are numerous fracking sites and the community has claimed they smell gas. The company that was fracking conducted their own test and had said there were no gas leaks detectable by human nose. The town of Dish preformed their own tests and had found a toxic mix of air pollution which

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is a widespread practice in the United States. Fracking is a method used to extract oil and natural gas. Scientists and citizens report detrimental side effects of hydraulic drilling. New York and Vermont have banned fracking statewide. Maryland has set a two year moratorium on fracking, so that more research can be done to show the impacts of fracking on the environment. Nationwide, many other cities and counties have banned fracking as well. All states should look into finding alternative sources of energy, instead of using devastating practices like fracking to extract non-renewable resources.

If the question: “what hydraulic fracturing or fracking is?” was asked to the average person, depending on their location their answer could vary. Most likely though most or many people would not know what Fracking truly is but most would say that they have heard at least a little about it from the news. Hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking is a process that occurs after well has been drilled or bored, and the process through use of a perforated casing that injects fracking fluid which travels through the holes and to target zones and soon when the target zones can’t absorb the fluid and pressure is created causing natural gas or oil to flow up to the surface (Hydraulic Fracturing 101). “Hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking)