Fracking is a horrifying path to a dismal future void of diversity and significant beauty in life. Humans’ desire for convenience and simplicity through “cheap-energy” is what is ultimately leading to complexity and the inconvenient truth that the environment is being destroyed.
Fracking can be broken down into a few simple steps: Drill a well about 10,000 feet below the surface of the earth, pump hundreds of truckloads full of sand and “fracking fluid” (2-8 million gallons of water and chemicals) at high pressure into the new well, shattering the rock layer and causing natural gas to build up in the cracks in the process, collect the gas, and distribute it to the market. Repeat.
There are some flaws in this process though. The “produced water” (a clever term coined by the fracking industry which really means chemical-infused waste,) is stored in a dirt pit on-site, where it seeps back into the earth before being transported to a treatment facility. Sometimes the toxic water is sprayed into the air so it can evaporate faster. Not only that but also not all of the natural gas rising from the wells is collected. Sometimes pipes break, and even more gas leaks out. More commonly, the gas and fracking fluid inside the well seep into the fissures and is unable to be collected because it ends up in other people’s wells.
Fracking, and the lack of knowledge I had on it until taking this class is surreal. Fracking is poisoning water, filling the air with methane, and triggering earthquakes around the drilling sites. Homeowners can’t sleep because of the constant drone of the machines outside their once peaceful country homes. Families are getting sick, the air and water is not safe for consumption.
This drive towards cleaner energy might have been a step in the right direction if only the people in charge had thought first about the consequences of their actions.
Two Sides of Nature 