Fracking In Oklahoma Essay

What is fracking? Fracking is the process of drilling into the ground and releasing a high-pressure water mixture into rocks in order to fracture them and release the natural gases inside. The water mixture consists of water, sand and chemicals. Fracking is beneficial because it lowers the prices of oil and gas, reduces America’s dependency on foreign oil, and reduces CO2 contribution.

There are two sides to every argument and hydrofracturing is no different. Phelim McAleer, an investigative journalist and producer of FrackNation, uses logic to convince viewers that fracking does not pose environmental concerns. Josh Fox however, employs a multitude of logical fallacies as well as arguments based on emotions in an attempt to convince the audience that fracturing is bad for the environment. McAleer created his film to refute this opinion. Ultimately, Phelim McAleer’s documentary made a better argument than Josh Fox’s documentary.

Prior to watching Gasland 2 and Truthland, I am familiar with the term “fracking” but never took the time to look into it. After watching these two films, I realized how fracking is a controversial topic in the world of environmentalists. These two very different films explain how fracking is effecting the environment around us. Before explaining further into these films, we need to know what fracking really means. Fracking is “a process by which the rock is split so that natural gas can flow to the surface,” defined by Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

What The Frack, an anti-fracking video campaign showcasing an array of entertainers, including Lance Bass, Daryl Hannah, Hayden Panettiere, Marissa Tormei and Wilmer Valderrama, recently received a rebuttal from the common man. “Celebrities; You don’t know what the Frack you are talking about” was the Western Alliance’s response. This video features no celebrities, just folks who appear to work in the oil and gas industry touting fracking’s safety record and importance of providing low cost energy to homes all across the U.S specifically at a time when Americans need a break. They point out that fracking has been used for over six decades. The “frack and forth” is the direct result of environmental groups crying wolf about expanding energy technologies in states like Colorado,tSorry Hollywood, this is not a movie, it’s the

Fracking is a process that should be discontinued due to its various negative effects on the people who live within the proximity of the site by contaminating the water which causes issues of loss of drinking water, health problems and economic

With the increased scale of fracking in Texas, one might wonder if the oil boom is affecting our water supply. The value of water in Texas is deeply cherished considering Texas’s dry climate and long-standing droughts. One may even wonder if Texas is valuing its water as much as it is its oil. As research furthers, we can begin to weigh the positive and negative effects of oil fracking. By providing overwhelming data on oil fracking

Fracking: A Crime against Humanity As a law abiding citizen, I cannot conceive or be an advocate of fracking, without questioning its impact on Earth’s layers; and its role in the increment of frequency of earthquakes, contamination of water, and the related human health hazards. While fracking is helping the U.S. to extract shale gas, which is basically trapped between fine sedimentary rocks, the liabilities are overwhelming. In the field of fossil fuel, these rocks are well-known as stale and its exploitation is supporting American’s population, in obtaining the most needed fossil fuel. Deplorably, the risks seem unbeatable.

Gasland Summary The documentary Gasland, structured in the form of a travelogue, is written, directed and narrated by John Fox. Fox travels through various parts of the United States in search of instances where water, and waterways, are polluted by “produced water” (industrial term for waste water) of hydraulic fracturing. He had heard of various instances of water contamination and other hazards caused by fracking. He wanted to investigate the likelihood of him facing the same circumstances, because his land was on a proposed fracking site.

Earthquakes Over the past five hundred years, Earthquake activity has increased tremendously. Even in 2015 Irving, Texas has had at least eighty nine earthquakes! Earthquakes are formed underground when tectonic plates begin to rub against one another. Earthquakes are starting to form and happen constantly because of many different reasons.

In the history of Mexico, there are many geological natural disasters that has happened there. Starting with earthquakes, there were 67 earthquakes there. First off, an earthquake is a violent shake in the ground, it happens because of the tectonic plates in the crust moving. The worst earthquakes that has happened this year in mexico is Los Mochis, Sinaloa. It had a magnitude of 6.6 but, that’s nothing compared to what happened 30 years ago.

For example, “in September 2013, a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.7 Richter scale had killed over 300 people causing immense damage to life and property” (SkyMet Weather, 7). That being said, earthquakes destroy many places every year, but they are most unfavorable in areas sitting above multiple tectonic plates and/or are less

Researchers have “requested data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, all states heavily involved in the recent surge of oil and gas drilling, about complaints related to hydraulic fracking for oil and gas” for their research on fracking (Dechert).   The research collected was shocking, over 2,000 complaints in Texas alone and several cases on well water contamination within the states mentioned in Decherd’s article. People need to be alerted about how real fracking is and the damages it is doing. These complaints and cases should be a wakeup call to the world and say that we should put it to a

For the citizens, “fracking will give them jobs so they can make money and support their families” (Rogowsky). Furthermore, with the addition of fracking “the United States can get about 1.8 trillion barrels of shale (“sedimentary rocks that have rich sources of petroleum and natural gas” (Rogowsky)) a year compared to Saudi

Saying that the Pacific Northwest is in trouble would be an understatement. There have been rumors that Seattle is going to take a huge hit in the near future. This upcoming earthquake may be news to most Washingtonians or others may just be in denial of the whole situation. The seismologists have been doing research on the Cascadia subduction zone, which is a convergent plate boundary that runs for 700 miles off the Pacific Northwest, and starts from northern California and goes all the way to Vancouver Island. A subduction zone is the place where one tectonic plate slides underneath another.

Therefore, fracking will not continue because of its bad reputation. Fracking companies should also list the chemicals used in fracking fluids so that the contamination in water can be reversed. Linda Dong from dangersoffracking.com clearly explains that the underground water that is contaminated is permanent damage. Without knowing the chemicals in fracking fluids, better alternatives to harmful chemicals cannot be found. However, the fracking fluid that is left underground damages the environment that we live in.