What is fracking and why is it so bad for the environment?

Fracking is the act of blasting water, sand and chemicals deep underground in order to extract out the gas or oil. This is known to be very bad for the environment for three reasons:

  1. It causes harm to the environment and countryside - breaking rocks in order to reach gas isn’t such an easy process. In order to match the amount of oil that is received average from oil rigs with fracking, it would require thousands of wells to be created in the countryside. The wells would spread underground potentially ruining animals homes, and even peoples.

  2. It uses too much water - Fracking requires a large amount of water, and the water industry itself has warned it could potentially make shortages even worse… But there is also another risk to water - if things go wrong on the drilling site (or in transit) then contaminated water from fracking could spread into the environment, polluting ecosystems. The fracking process also involves potentially toxic chemicals at almost every stage, so you can imagine the consequences.

  3. It’s damaging to the climate - The world already has far more gas and oil than we can burn if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of global climate change. Fracking for oil is even worse for the climate than normal oil production and studies have shown that some of the gas that has already been fracked should have remained in the ground. It is a risky process which doesn’t seem to bring many positives..

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Fracking, also known as the extraction of shale gas is a process by which the earth is drilled vertically (although horizontal is more efficient) after this water, and chemicals are forced on to the rock at a very high pressure. This in return releases the gas which can be used in other applications. Now the controversy which underlies the extraction of shale gas is as follows :

  1. The enormous quantities of water to be used in the extraction site can lead to environmental deprivation due to water misuse
  2. also, this practise does not follow in the UK. and cannot attempt at solving the energy requirements of any country.
  3. The occurance of small tremors due to fracking
  4. Locals complain that the process releases harmful and hazardous chemicals. Carcinogens are also being reported, however authorities claim they may be a cause of wrong practises.
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