Hydraulic Drilling or What The Frack?

Happy Earth Day!

After seeing many campaigns promoting Earth Day and how we can try to improve the longevity of our beloved earth I came across many helpful and thought provoking articles. Topics like recycling, planting trees, carpooling, electric/hybrid cars and more. It seems that there are many possible ways we can make Earth Day everyday.

One intriguing concept that I found made me feel like I was in high school all over again.  I was torn between feeling like I wanted to know more on a subject but wasn’t sure if I wanted to bother because it was only extra credit. But my curiosity got the best of me so I ventured to learn more. I came across a controversial technique to extract natural gas from the earth by means of hydraulically drilling into the dense earth and injecting it with water mixed with sand and chemicals. The result would cause the rocks and shale to fracture allowing natural gas to flow up to the earth’s surface. Since natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel, unlike some other fossil fuels such as coal or oil, it would be a more environmentally safe alternative for fuel. Of course it is not without its controversies. It has been reported that hydraulic drilling, or fracking, has caused tremors, earthquakes, chemical contamination in drinking water, and there have been reports of shale gas leaking into homeowners tap water causes the water to catch on fire.

Now since this is all fairly  new to me I haven’t yet formed my conclusion. I have researched and read and watched videos of people against and for this technique. I am a person that that has to have a lot of information on subjects like this before I come up with an opinion. As interesting as it is I don’t want to see it as just sensationalism but I can say I am very intrigued. Drilling companies claimed that it is safe, however, if it is done wrong, for instance, poor drilling techniques and poor practice, then the potential for the harmful side effects can happen.

I think if you are drilling into the earth purposely causing fractures then I would believe that fracking would be a cause for tremors and earthquakes. Plus the injection of the water and chemicals into the earth to cause the fractures doesn’t seem like it would be that helpful either. But I’m no geologist so back to my researching on the matter.

Hydraulic drilling can be done all over the earth but here in the U.S. some of the best areas for fracking are the Barnett Shale Field in Fort Worth, Texas area, the Antrim Shale Field in Michigan and the Marcellus Shale field which extends to parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.

I wanted to contribute something that could have been funny or cute or something that we could share to help promote Earth Day but I figured after learning about fracking it was an issue that one day could be an influence on our earth in the future anyways. I’ve been reading opinions from both sides of this controversy but I feel like I don’t have enough information as of yet to believe either side. They all have their good points and bad points. If anyone has any solid information about fracking I’d like to learn more or if you could point me into the right direction I can look it up.

There is a documentary movie by a Josh Fox called Gasland about fracking. I think I check it out.

Here is a trailer: