Fracking Fury

            “Fracking Fury” by Janna Palliser is an in depth look at the risks and benefits value of fracking.  There are several pros to fracking.  First, hydraulic fracturing is a rapidly growing industry that promotes expansion and jobs.  Natural gas is also cleaner than its alternatives coal or oil.   Furthermore, if the US is more dependent upon our own fracking they will be less likely to purchase natural gas from foreign markets.  The largest con of fracking is the risks involved.  Regulations are not keeping up with production rates and the dangers are not as well-known with fracking as other fossil fuels.  Thus, there is growing concerns of the damage fracking is doing to humans, ecosystems, animals, and the drinking water. 

            The greatest concern for many is the question of what fracking does to drinking water.  Fracking can indirectly affect water sources through “surface discharge of wastewaters, depletion of drinking-water supplies, and methane migration” (21).  Fluid leakoff is caused by injecting fluids flowing to other areas.  Fluid leakoff can reach 70% of the injected volume which makes it possible to reach drinking water aquifers. 

            Pavillion, Wyoming has been extensively drilled for the past 20 years.  Recently the EPA found high levels of benzene, toluene, naphthalene, traces of diesel fuel, and at least one 2-Butoxyethanol in wells drilled deep into a water aquifer.  Waste waters from hydraulic fracking are not designed to remove fracking contaminants in the drinking water before it is into the rivers.

Palliser, Janna. "Fracking Fury." Science Scope 35.7 (2012): 20. Science Reference Center. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination Synthesis

            The article “EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination” discusses whether or not fracking is linked to the contaminants being found in Wyoming’s water.  The Environmental Protection Agency recently conducted a study that found “at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids” in the water around Pavillion, Wyoming.  Glycol ethers were found in the water which are a direct product of ground water and hydraulic fracturing fluids.  Reports of foul smelling water arose in the mid-1990s and continued to progressively get worse until 2004.  By 2004 there were also complaints of brown water after gas wells were fracked.  In 2008, the EPA found traces of contaminants in the drinking water and the suspicions were confirmed in 2010.  Due to the contaminants recently found health officials warned residents to drink their water and to ventilate their homes while bathing.  There was methane found in the water samples which could cause explosions.  The EPA drilled two water wells to 1,000 feet to substantiate their finds.  In the wells the EPA found benzene and 2 Butoxyethanol which are both used in fracking.  No specific conclusions have been made because the EPA is considering all the possible causes for the contamination such as agriculture, drilling, and old pollution from waste pits.  The EPA confirmed that the 33 abandoned oil and gas waste pits were the source of contamination for at least 42 private wells in Pavillion, Wyoming.  Only one 2 Butoxyethanol contaminant was found in one sample in one out of three labs.  Therefore, EnCana does not agree that it should be constructed as fact that the 2 BE found was caused by fracking since the result was not replicated.  Some of the findings in the report challenge longstanding arguments by the drilling industry of how fracking is safe.  Some arguments are that the hydrologic pressure would naturally force fluids down and not up, that deep geologic layers provide a watertight barrier that prevents the movement of chemicals towards the surface, and that the problems with the cement and steel barriers around gas wells are not connected to fracking.  Investigators found that the cement barriers had been weakened and separated from the well above the area that fracking took place.  They also found that hydrologic pressure had pushed fluids from deep geologic layers towards the surface.  The EPA’s findings are currently under peer and public review and are hoped to be finalized by the Spring.  Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, finds the EPA’s report “offensive.”  Last year, he challenged the EPA’s findings saying they were bias.

Visual Rhetoric

The Earth is crumpled like a wadded up piece of paper in this photo.  Humans tend to treat the Earth like a ball of trash by our littering and destruction of the Earth.  We have environmental laws in place to help protect the Earth from becoming trashed but they never seem to be enough.  The Internet is one of the best ways to propose, discuss, and petition new or current laws to improve them.  The Internet allows people to globally unite to help the Earth.

 

Richard Kahn article

            Richard Kahn’s “Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature, and the Oppressed People of the Earth” showed his strong opinions about environmental education and its impact on society.  “95% of all American adults support having environmental education programs in schools;” however, “45 million Americans think the ocean is a fresh source of water.”  Obviously, the ocean is not a fresh source of water considering it encompasses 97% of Earth.  Anyone going through any form of education should know that 97% of the Earth is not fresh water.  Furthermore, anyone who has visited the beach and been in an ocean has probably tasted the saltiness of the water.  The salt water of the ocean is not fresh.  Another staggering statistics is that “125 million Americans think that aerosol spray cans still contain stratospheric ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) despite the fact that they were banned from use in 1978.”  In high school students still tried to complain about hairspray and other products in aerosol containers because they were depleting the ozone layer when in reality they were having no effect on it.

            Kahn’s article also brought to light the detrimental effects of today’s commercial fishing to the fish populations as well as other marine creatures.  A recent report showed that “approximately 90% of the major fish species in the world’s oceans have disappeared.”  Commercial fishing companies are using smaller nets that encompass the adult and younger fish.  Since the nets are taking the baby fish there is not a healthy population left behind to repopulate the area.  Due to the overfishing researchers suggest that commercial fishing will be dead by 2048.  The populations of fish will continue to deplete since humans are fishing more than ever and taking away the younger generations.  Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also caught in these fishing nets.  Roughly 1000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises die daily by being drowned in the fishing nets.

Turtle Island Poems 3

THE CALL OF THE WILD- Humans are slowly but surely destroying nature.  If we continue at the rate we’re going “when it’s done there’ll be no place a coyote could hide.”  Snyder is telling humans that if we continue at our current rate we could completely destroy nature.  If humans slow their rate of destruction nature would be better off.

THE USES OF LIGHT- Light is a very important part of everyday life for humans, animals, and plants.  The light of the sun lets humans know when to get up and go to sleep.  The sun also does the same for animals whether they are nocturnal or not.  Plants take in the light through photosynthesis.  Overall, light is important for the daily functions and growth of humans, plants, and animals.  Without light the world would not have evolved as it has.

THE WILD MUSHROOM-Mushrooms of all types are very prevalent throughout the forest.  This fungus is beautiful to Snyder because it can be used “for food, for fun, [or] for poison.”  For Snyder, the usefulness of an object is essential to him as seen in “The Dead by the Side of the Road.”  He created a pouch out of a Ringtail so that it would not go to waste.

Turtle Island Poems

People need to discover the world’s beauty now so they can come to appreciate it.  If people appreciate something they are more likely to take care of it.  Thus, once people explore the world and come to respect it they will be more apt to change their ways.

FOR THE CHILDREN-The children must continue to peruse the landscape and discover more places.  They need to travel through the valleys and pastures to learn the way the land is used and laid out.  Once they learn the land and travel through it they will learn to respect it.

O WATERS-Nature is slowly disintegrating and people need to take advantage of what is left now.  The mountains are crumbling and snowfields are melting rapidly.  If people do not start discovering the world’s beauty now, they never will.  Once they discover the beauty of nature they will come to appreciate all it has been through.

THE DAZZLE- The world is full of dazzling beauty and miraculous processes.  The way bees pollinate flowers, how roots work to grow a plant larger, and how trees bud into flowers are fruit are all interesting processes produced by nature. 

BY FRAZIER CREEK FALLS- On top of the waterfall they can see into the valley below.  The land below is glistening and full of flowers.  One can truly understand the beauty of nature as they are beside a waterfall listening to it.

Turtle Island Poems

These three poems all focus on the fact that power comes through interdependency or close dependency.  People have the most power when they focus and rely on themselves or tight-knit groups.  Thus, America will grow stronger if we begin to rely on ourselves instead of foreign countries and fossil fuels to sustain us.

FOR THE CHILDREN- The children have to persevere through climbing to make it to the valleys.  If they make it through the difficult times now they will soon encounter a peaceful valley.   The author advises the children to “stay together, learn the flowers, and go light.”  The children must learn to depend on one another for help to make it through their journey.     

WITHOUT- One must have power within to make it to the end of the path.  The journey will be rough and difficult but in the end it will heal you.  At the end, one will be so proud they finished they will sing and rejoice at their inner power.

TOMORROW’S SONG- America needs to become less dependent on foreign countries and fossil fuels.  With this new interdependency comes power.  People need to change for the welfare of themselves, the local community, their work, and the nature around them.