Disadvantages Of Fracking

Modern society consumes huge amounts of energy resources which play a key role in the human society’s development, while traditional energy resources such as coal and oil are finite resources. It is predicated that conventional energy resources will possibly be exhausted post 2200 (Mohr et al., 2015). Fracking, also known as hydraulick fracturing, is a technology which utilizes pressurized water to extract energy resources of natural gas and oil from shale plays (Gandossi, 2015). The fracking technology currently has been used as a energy security solution in many countries, and in particular, it has changed the energy picture of the United States from scarcity to abundance. Although the fracking technology can create many economic and social

There is no doubt that the fracking process needs to consume a great deal of water resources, which can worsen the situation of water shortage problem faced by many countries. As pointed out by Mcgraw (2011), to frack only one well needs to use 25 million liters of water resources, and at least 30% of these used water will be lost forever. The amount of water to needs to be consumed for drilling all 2916 wells in Pennsylvania in 2010 would be equivalent to the amount of drinking water of the whole city of Pittsburgh (Mcgraw, 2011). Therefore, it can be clearly seen that the use of fracking technology would squander precious drinkable water resources and destruct the underground water resources. It was reported that the fracking was impractical in many parts of the UK owing to the shortage of local water supplies and it could also generate a negative influence on the local water resources (Harvey, 2013). The water resources waste has become a main reason for why many countries in the world refuse to adopt the fracking

A study by Abrams (2013) reveals that in two homes that are located 1, 000 feet away from a gas production station, the air pollution level was 4 times higher than the average of the same region. This, as pointed out by Peltier (2014), should be mainly attributed to the fugitive emissions by the fracking process. These fugitive emissions consist of many chemicals and poisonous gases including toluene, ethylbenzene, zylene, carbon monoxide, silica dust and so on (Peltier, 2014). According to an air monitoring study conducted in Ohio, New York and Wyoming where the fracking technology is used, it found that there were higher levels of toxic pollutants in communities which are located near drilling sites (Villasanta, 2015). The air pollution arising from the fracking process can seriously affect people’s health. For instance, it can cause respiratory problems, birth defects, cancer, blood disorders and so on (Villasanta,