Dangers of fracking for the environment and health
Fracking God or Demon?
‘The Earth provides enough to meet the needs of each man, but not the greed of each man’,-Mahatma Gandhi. Fracking is a technique that enables and / or increases the extraction of hydrocarbons such as gas or oil from the subsoil. This technique consists in drilling the earth’s surface between two or three media vertically and another 2 horizontally until reaching the rock formations where gas or oil is stored, then water at pressure is injected into the A is added achemical cocktail that lubricate the pipe and thus said water does not lose pressure. WHO information (World Health Organization) has increased the number of people with cancer and fracking exploitation relationships.
The injections in the subsoil began in the year of 1860 on the east coast of North America, using nitroglycerin at that time, in 1930 the acids began to be used at the time of explosives, but it was in 1947 when it was first studiedThe possibility of using water to fracture the rock. This method began industrially in 1947 by the Stand Oíl company. George p. Mitchell is considered the father of modern fracking industry. Mitchell Energy got the first commercial fracture commercially in 1998.
Fracking and its contribution to Colombia’s economic development
Hydrocarbons exploitation is one of the most important activities today for any country. Hydraulic fraction is surrounded by myths, but in reality it stands out for its success cases, as well as the ACP (Colombian Petroleum Association). A clear example of what is said in the previous paragraph is the case of the United States which is the impulse of this technique. In the United States it is estimated that the implementation of this method has increased approved gas reserves about 47% in four years and 11% estimate the existence of oil. Hydrocarbons do not also suppose a contribution of 430.000 million dollars and the creation of 2.7 million jobs.
Fracking and its risks to the environment and health
It is true fracking can boost us towards better economic development and an easier way, but what cost? This process generates a high number of environmental effects, some of which are not yet fully characterized. Between themselves:
- High water consumption and its loss for the hydrological cycle.
- Pollution of water tables and surface water.
- Atmospheric pollution.
- Gase migration and hydraulic fluid substances to the surface.
- The emission of greenhouse gases (methane and others).
- Induced seismicity.
- Adverse landscape impacts.
- Biodiversity alteration.
- What I have mentioned above has been accredited to increase diseases such as cancer to populations that live near the facilities.
If we bet on renewable energies?
In Colombia it has been notorious that in recent years oil reserves have been decreasing in an impressive way, for this reason this technique is to be implemented. Much of the energy we consume comes from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal or natural gas, the problem of these energy sources is also the limit of energy. But the consequences of this technique are too harmful to the environment, biodiversity and health. The chemicals that are added to the water are carcinogens. And it is that humans continue with fossil energies and until we change the chip and work for renewable energies we will continue to destroy our increasingly fragile planet Earth.
conclusion
At present, many countries have prohibited the use of the fracking technique and with just reason due to the environmental damage that this is a deadly technique, but the human being, this matters little, since we are a plague for the planet,We are a generation of consumerists, but man must be the awareness of the great damage that this causes on earth. Life is finished as if we had a place to live, we should bet more on renewable energies, since they are clean, inexhaustible and increasingly competitive.
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