The Dangers of Fracking to Human Lives and the Environment
What does one think of when they hear the word fracking? Most people think of its similarity to a curse word. In reality fracking is a curse word, in terms of its severity. Fracking is one of the most dangerous styles of oil drilling, causing not only damage to the environment, but damage to the earth's crust. Fracking is a way of drilling for oil, which involves forcing highly pressurized liquid into the earth's crust, breaking apart rock formations, and forcing oil up out of the ground. Fracking is basically using high pressure water guns to break apart rocks in the crust, and forcing out oil with the pressure.
Traditional oil reservoirs are large amounts of oil condensed in one area, but fracking is done when there is a large amount of oil, but it's spread out in many rock formations. Not only is fracking endangering the lives of oil rig workers, but it is endangering the lives of everyone on earth, Fracking is directly responsible for destroying parts of major tectonic plates in Oklahoma, which in turn has resulted in major seismic activity in an area that previously had virtually no earthquakes. Now, Oklahoma experiences over 1000 earthquakes per year. Fracking is a dangerous practice because of loss of life, dangers to the environment, and there are many renewable alternatives that make fracking obsolete.
Since 2010, the death rate for oil rig workers has increased by over 7.4%, and is directly correlated to an increase in fracking. Fracking has been known to destroy the ground beneath oil rigs, creating room for mishaps such as sinkholes, caverning, or worse. In December 2016, an offshore oil rig located in the Caspian Sea collapsed due to 90 mile per hour winds, which caused pieces of the rig to break off and tumble into the sea. At least 1 person died in the incident, and 9 others were reported missing at the time of collapse. This not only demonstrates the instability of oil rigs, but it demonstrates the instability of the very platforms that support them.
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In September of 2014, 36 year old Matt Smith went to work at the oil rig he helped maintain, when he realized a water line had frozen due to the sub zero temperatures. Smith and his coworkers went to thaw the line with a blowtorch when the line spontaneously exploded, spraying out water at over 20 times the pressure of a fire hose. 2 of Smith's coworkers were seriously injured, and were rushed to the hospital. Smith, taking the brunt of the blast, had the right half of his face torn off, and died. The company he worked for, Halliburton Co. was fined $7000, an infinitesimal sum for the multi-billion dollar company. Smith's family were blocked by worker's compensation laws, and were unable to sue for punitive damages. A later investigation found that the worksite operator failed to file a report about the water line, which resulted in Smith's death. No further fines were levied. If this is not a gruesome reminder of the lives that fracking takes, nothing is.
Not only is fracking taking human lives, but it is also taking the lives of countless animals. Fracking, and oil rigging in general destroys ecosystems, wiping out animals homes, and killing animals and plants in the process. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for an entire area to be deforested, or for land formations and icebergs to be destroyed to make room for new fracking rigs. As more oil rigs appear both on and off land, fish, birds, and mammals die from pollution, sickness, or getting caught in machinery. The ongoing oil rush in the arctic ocean has many experts up in arms about the insane risks of oil drilling operations in the arctic. According to Charles Emerson of Lloyd's of London, pursuing fracking rig construction in the Arctic could have massive implications, all of which negatively affect the animals that live there. The disruption of migration patterns of currently endangered species of whales, caribous, and other animals is extremely likely, and could drive species to the point of extinction. The only way to end this is to stop the spread of fracking.
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The Dangers of Fracking to Human Lives and the Environment. (2023, May 24). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-dangers-of-fracking-to-human-lives-and-the-environment/
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