Why Fracking Affects Us All

Fracking is a Nightmare – on our Doorsteps

 

Fracking gas flare burnoff
Fracking gas flare burnoff. Photo by Eugene Richards for National Geographic

One very important difference between fracking and other types of mining and processing is that fracking happens extremely close to towns and even close to homes.

Why? Oil and natural gas wells using fracking to extract the riches below, take up far less space than a traditional open-pit coal mine, for example.

More than 15 million Americans now live within one mile of a fracking well (2013 analysis).

fracking messAnd it will get worse – construction of new fracking wells is set to grow, quickly. Hundreds of thousands of new wells are expected across the country over the next few decades.

Related: What It’s Like to Have Fracking Near You

Is Fracking a Problem only for Americans?

hillary clinton promoted frackingNo. While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she and the State Department worked closely with energy companies to spread fracking around the globe. They wanted to boost global energy supply, and reduce the power of oil-supplying countries.

It worked.

The US became the world’s largest natural gas producer, prices dropped to record lows, and America began to wean itself from coal, along with oil and gas imports, which lessened its dependence on other countries.

According to Mother Jones, American officials—some with deep ties to industry—also helped US firms clinch potentially lucrative shale concessions overseas, raising troubling questions about whose interests the program actually served.

Isn’t Natural Gas Better for the Environment?

It might seem good to reduce oil and coal use. But far from being the much-touted “bridge” to cleaner energy, natural gas has been shown to be considerably worse for the environment and climate change than even oil and coal.

Is There Fracking in my Area?

Many countries around the globe now have fracking either happening or planned. To see if your country or area is affected, just type “fracking map” followed by the name of your country or area (e.g. fracking map UK or fracking map Utah) into Google.

Fracking is Global. So What?

OK, so we know that fracking is a widespread issue, and that it’s lousy for climate change. Fracking is gaining momentum just at the very time when we need to be cutting back on fossil fuels.

It’s making climate change worse, and all of us, no matter where we live, are affected by climate change.

But there’s more.

Fracking trucker loading wastewater
Fracking trucker loading wastewater – Eugene Richards for NatGeo

We already know that fracking is linked to drinking water contamination and earthquakes in the US.

Drinking water is the most precious resource we have together with the air we breathe.  Destroy our drinking water, and the consequences are extreme.

And the fact that fracking takes place so close to houses, really brings it home (so to speak).

But the headline from Grist.org makes it even more worrying.

Frackers near you could be breaking the rules – and you’d probably never know”.

You’d expect to be able to know, or at least easily find out, if the fracking wells near your home are safe. Do they have spills for example, do they exceed air pollution standards…… it’s important information about what’s going on in your back yard.

Sadly, it’s difficult to get this information in most states, according to a new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the FracTracker Alliance.

“There are two main issues,” said NRDC senior analyst Amy Mall. “One is that this information is extremely hard for the public to get. The second is that they’re violating the law a lot.”

In Colorado, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania — where public data is available — the NRDC identified hundreds of violations issued to dozens of companies. The citations cover everything from spills to improper drilling techniques.

It seems that many state enforcement agencies are under-staffed. Without enforcement, many companies won’t obey the rules. A 2011 review found that in Texas, for example, 96 percent of infractions by oil and gas companies resulted in no punitive action.  That’s shocking!

This is Why Fracking Affects Us All

Fracking has brought down the price of energy in America – but at what cost?

fracking wellIt’s a hugely invasive method of extracting resources.

  • It’s linked to contamination of water – our most precious resource. Even if there isn’t fracking near your home, you may be downstream of fracking wells affecting your water.
  • It’s linked to earthquakes, putting our safety at risk.
  • Fracking happens close to homes – families living near to a fracking well are more likely to suffer air pollution in their homes.
  • Enforcement of safety rules and environmental legislation is lax, and we don’t know if the companies operating in our back yards are working safely or not.
  • And natural gas from fracking is making climate change worse, which means we will all experience more unpredictable extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels, and damage to food supplies.

Fracking is affecting our water, our food and our safety.

How to Help

There are many things you can do to make it clear that you don’t want fracking near your home.

  1. stop fracking posterGoogle “how can I stop fracking in” followed by the name of your country or area.
  2. Read the advice given in many articles – and follow through.
  3. Be active.

Spread the word about fracking and how it affects us all – sharing buttons below and right. Thank you!


Tags

climate change, Energy, environment, fracking, health, safety


  • I agree with you 100% but that one little phrase in your article said it all. Deep pockets.. That’s where the problem lies in every corner. If someone is making buckets of money off something, they could care less about the future of this planet or anyone else. There has to be a better way. The water contamination is a great concern for me. I’ve been many places where water has an odd odor to it and leaves strange residue behind. If you have a solution, bring it on.

    • Imagine how much more efficient renewable energy would be by now if it had had the same sort of subsidies that fossil fuels get! But renewables aren’t quite as attractive to utilities – homeowners might become self-sufficient – gasp!
      You’re right about water contamination, it’s a real problem. We can’t survive without water.

  • I live in Pennsylvania and the problems here from decades of fossil extraction are every where. There is an area where gas is burning and people had to move out of there homes, no end in sight to when the burning could end. The years of coal mining have left such shaky ground that we are having huge areas sink (sink holes) taking homes with them. Then there are the nuclear plants which have poisoned the area. A good friend bought a house that is close enough to the nuclear plant that their water is poisoned. Again no one knows how to clean it up.

    Enter fracking. Haven’t they learned anything? We are going to destroy the world, not just our back yard. The fracking poses so many problems, to our water, the air we breathe, the soils, and now we hear that fracking in Oklahoma may cause the country to split in half, yet they continue.

    • That’s just dreadful Lois. The price we pay for “cheap” oil and gas is just too high. It’s no help to be able to afford to fill a car with fuel or heat / cool your home, if we don’t have health and clean air and water.
      I remember thinking when I was in school learning history, that we humans really haven’t learnt very much, we keep making the same mistakes. And indeed you’re right, fracking shows we haven’t learnt from the mistakes of the past. Corporate giants refuse to see the problems with fossil fuels and keep muddying the climate change “debate” – and yet there’s no debate. We’re in serious trouble and our “leaders” are doing little or nothing in terms of strong, decisive action to help slow it.

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