Natural gas is a resource that many of us around the world depend on from every aspect. It is for certain that it will always be needed until we find a trusty alternative. In order to extract the most of our oil reserves in the earth the United States has taken up Hydraulic Fracturing. This is when a mixture of sand and water are injected into the cracks and shale formations of rocks underneath the earths crust to force the earth to expand. In result this creates an ultimate consumption and collection for oil and gas to flow out of the formation. With the U.S. having many reserves of natural gas that are commercially viable for  horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, these practices have enabled greater access to gas condensed shale formations. As our resources are slowly depleting this is one way to extract the most that companies can get. Stated from IEHN.org Onshore “unconventional” natural gas production requiring hydraulic fracturing, which injects a mix of water, particles, and chemicals underground to create fractures through which gas can flow for collection, is estimated to increase by 45% between 2007 and 2030. An estimated 60-80% of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing.

So what’s so iniquitous about this innovative approach to oil extraction? While there are positives to every new idea there is always a negative side. While researching this topic I found some interesting and vital information to Hydraulic Fracturing that is occurring directly in our back yard. According to IEHN.org “With Green Century Capital Management, an environmentally responsible investment advisory firm in Boston, IEHN is coordinating an investor campaign in the United States to promote improved disclosure by natural gas companies about the business and environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing.” Fracturing operations have resulted in a proposal of dangerous incidences such as risks of toxic spills of fracturing chemicals, danger to the public, and pollution of air and water. Many experts have cited that from the fracturing process elements used to carry out this act are in gargantuan amounts from millions of gallons of poisonous water and toxic chemicals. Not only that, but the corporations who partake in fracturing tend to disclose information from the public which makes it difficult to learn exactly what type of compounds have been used. An interesting study brought out by Lisa Song from InsideClimatenews.org states just how dangerous drilling with chemicals can be. “The higher the dose, the more dangerous the toxin—that principle is the basis for most regulatory chemical testing in the United States. But a new report shows that even low doses of some toxins can be harmful, and that finding could have implications for the long-standing debate over the chemicals used in natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The toxins surveyed in the report affect the endocrine system, which produces hormones, the small signaling molecules that control reproduction, brain development, the immune system and overall health.”

We are extracting our minimal amounts of natural resources with toxic chemicals for consumer demands when our own health is in jeopardy. Hydraulic Fracturing is an innovative idea that does produce the amounts of natural gas that we need. If there was a smart green approach to this withdrawal of natural resources it would be one hundrend percent sustainable and helpful from my personal point of view. However, while we are helping the human race we are also killing our health at the equivelant time. It seems that today people and corporations especially are only concerned with the culmination of a product not the goodwill or effects it posses on our earth and living beings. So when do we draw the line, will we ever or only when all of our resources have vanished for good?

Sources:

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120321/endocrine-disrupting-chemicals-fracking-natural-gas-low-dose-environmental-health#sthash.1jObnK8W.dpufSources:

http://www.iehn.org/overview.naturalgashydraulicfracturing.php

http://www.naturalgas.org/shale/gotshale.asp