Introduction
In the age of heightened environmental awareness, our growing concerns are calling for an appropriate and timely assessment of new technologies and their impact. Throughout the last sixty years, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has gained its fair share of traction and grown to be a widespread technique in the mining industry. According to the proponents of fracking, well stimulation by high-pressure fluid injections is an economically beneficial way of natural gas extraction. However, time after time, the technology was found to be controversial at best and dangerous at worst. It is imperative to ask ourselves if we are ready to reject the opportunity or willing to face its long-term effects. This essay takes a firm stand against the practice and outlines three main dangers of fracking in mining.
Health Implications
Firstly, fracking has a broad array of adverse effects on the human body. For instance, in 2015, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found a link between women’s proximity to ongoing hydraulic fracture operations in Pennsylvania, US, and high-risk pregnancies and premature births (Casey et al., 2015, p. 163). Casey et al. (2015) associate pregnancy and birth complications with air, water, and ground surface pollution as well as the mothers’-to-be psychosocial stress from exposure (p. 170). The conclusions of the study do raise concerns. As of 2015, the US government had allowed for 1,7 million “frac jobs” (Kelso, 2015). Inarguably, in the words of Winston Churchill, “healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.” Thus, the country that exploits the technique, deliberately lets the said “asset” suffer and endangers future generations.
Fracking and Climate Change
Furthermore, by exploiting the fracking technique, we are contributing to environmental disruption. There is evidence that fracking may lead to uncontrollable gas emissions that contaminate the area around the operation site and even travel great distances, polluting neighboring territories. In 2015, researchers at the University of Maryland documented a considerable increase in ethane concentrations in Essex, Maryland (Vinciguerra et al., p. 149). The only plausible explanation was gas emissions from fracking operations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the states situated hundreds of kilometers away (Vinciguerra et al., 2015, p. 149). The results of the study should compel us to realize the broad impact hydraulic fracturing might have. In an interconnected world, it is only irresponsible to continue using a dangerous practice.
Resource Consumption
The proponents of fracking may argue that the economic benefits outweigh its environmental disadvantages. Nevertheless, one may rightfully contradict the claim by pointing out how resource-consuming the method is. In their longitude study, Kondash and Vengosh (2015) showed that unconventional shale gas and oil extraction accounted for the consumption of 708 billion and 232 billion liters, correspondingly (p. 276). That is barely what humankind can afford in the world that is facing water scarcity and in some regions, a full-fledged water crisis.
Conclusion
All in all, the science behind hydraulic fracturing is real. Taking all the made points into consideration, it is clear that the technique has an alarming potential of exhausting natural resources, contaminating the environment, and causing a public health emergency. The said consequences can not be further dismissed. It is imperative that further studies on the effects of fracking are conducted to reveal its dangers fully. Any expansion of fracking should be deemed unacceptable by anyone who is concerned about the future of the planet and humankind.
References
Casey, J. A., Savitz, D. A., Rasmussen, S. G., Ogburn, E. L., Pollak, J., Mercer, D. G., & Schwartz, B. S. (2015). Unconventional natural gas development and birth outcomes in Pennsylvania, USA. Epidemiology, 27(2), 163-172.
Kelso, M. (2015). 1.7 Million Wells in the U.S. – A 2015 Update. Web.
Kondash, A., & Vengosh, A. (2015). Water footprint of hydraulic fracturing. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2(10), 276-280.
Vinciguerra, T., Simon, Y., Dadzie, J., Chittams, A., Deskins, T., Ehrman, A., & Dickerson, R. R. (2015). Regional air quality impacts of hydraulic fracturing and shale natural gas activity: Evidence from ambient VOC observations. Atmospheric Environment, 110, 144-150.