Hydrofracking is a way to obtain natural gas from under layers of shale rock..This process makes mining for natural gas in dense shale more economically possible, where before it was not. “Slick water”, hydrofracking uses  more water than conventional drilling, as well as a slick water, mixture that is pumped into the shale to fracture the rock and release the gas. Second, there is an increased potential for toxicity and its long-term impacts. Finally, there is the environmental impacts of the drilling: surface and subterranean damage including forestland loss, multiple well sites, groundwater and surface water contamination, habitat and species disturbance, and likely an increased number of access roads to the well sites.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel, but is said to be a cleaner burning fossil fuel. It is more eco-friendly to burn natural gas, which is primarily methane, than it is to burn coal or oil. Natural gas can serve as an alternative to coal and oil in fueling our lives. Since it is a cleaner burning fuel, people think we should make a switch to it as soon as possible. In addition to it being a cleaner burning fuel, we can obtain natural gas domestically, rather than internationally, which would reduce dependence on foreign oil. Also, obtaining fuel locally will likely boost our economy.

The main concern with this is the fact that the drills can hit water sources and contaminate our water. 60-80% of the toxic water and fluids both used for and resulting from hydrofracking remains underground. Also gas companies claim the natural gas that is found from hydrofracking is a clean source of energy. This is only partially correct because while natural gas does burn more cleanly, the extraction process of hydrofracking releases a lot of methane (CH₄) into the atmosphere and Methane is known to be amongst the leaders in greenhouse gasses. Between hitting water sources and releasing greenhouse gasses, the process of hydraulic fracturing can be and often is harmful to both our environment and health.

Hurricane Sandy

• Question: Did Global Warming cause Hurricane Sandy?
• First: Warm water is a major source of fuel for hurricanes; this is the direct cause of the power of the storm. As the Sandy continued to move north instead of weakening it became stronger, due to rise in temperature in the ocean (due to global warming) making the waters in the north hotter then usual, by 5 degrees. Giving Sandy all the energy it needs to power up.
• Second: Sandy took a dramatic left turn when it came to the north, which swept into the whole east coast of the United States. This was very unusual weather patterns for the North Atlantic, it was due to (-NAO) negative North Atlantic oscillation: Models suggest that it resulted from the ice melting from Greenland. This is still less then certain factor but it still can be a confident data collected to determine so. Due to the melting ice, it is slowly starting to change the flow of the ocean; which is not a good thing because once the flow of the ocean is disturbed everything that is stable in nature will go out the window. Giving the ability for the Sandy to make a left turn and fuse with the snowstorm.
• Third: The unusual form of the Hybrid Storm. A winter type storm crossed the Pacific and started heading eastwards across the United States, while Sandy was forming just off the coast of Jamaica in October. Jamaica’s area is typical breading ground for Hurricanes, because in this area the water is particularly warm giving the energy for a hurricane to build up. As the hurricane headed north past Jamaica, the hurricane should’ve shifted northeast out into the ocean but did not.  The block in the Atlantic Ocean was preventing weather from moving generally east to west across the ocean, as it would usually do. Thus preventing Sandy to move east and keeping it stalled, giving the storm the opportunity to move towards the west and mix with the winter storm. This created a storm that had never been seen before, and would it be something that we would be seeing in the near future; to then raise the question: (Did Climate change/Global Warming to be completely blamed for Hurricane Sandy?)
• Personal Opinion : I believe after researching, that Global Warming/ Climate Change had been a big player in causing the hybrid storm sandy to surge to the northeast and create the damage it caused in the United States. But I also believe that, Climate Change/ Global Warming is not to be %100 blamed for the cause of Sandy. It also can be do to the fact that nature is slowly changing and it just part of the process that nature goes throw. It also can be a combination of the both. The combination of Global Warming/Climate Change and the natural course the earth takes can highlight the unusual rise of water and warming up and Hybrid Storm. Overall, we cannot point fingers to what fully caused the storm to create itself but only analyze the factors that caused the storm. There is not enough data to tell whether it was complete caused by Global warming/ Climate change. But it does rise the question: (How frequent will these types of “Hybrid Storms” will be in the future?) The only way is to analyze the storm and what were it’s causing factors and obtain as much data as possible on the ongoing changes of the weather. Continue reading →

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