First thing I have to say is that anyone who has not seen Gasland you should go watch it immediately. It's a documentary about the effects that hydraulic fracturing have on the communities and members who live in the area around. Hydraulic Fracturing is the technique used by companies extracting oil and natural gasses from the reservoirs. This technique uses literally tons of water and hundreds of different types of dangerous chemical to push the fossil fuel out using pressure. These dangerous chemicals leak out into the environment and contaminate the drinking water, the plants, the animals, and most importantly the people who are unfortunate enough to live near by. These peoples lives are being turned upside down and are forced to live in awful conditions with their families. Needless to say, what is happening is completely unacceptable and should be stopped immediately. Well I won't bore all my family and friends with the details because I couldn't say it even close to the way the Josh Fox, the man behind the documentary does. But I can ask some questions that have risen in my mind since watching this movie.
How can these travesties be going on with the general public in the dark about it? Where is the transparency that the American citizens expect from their government? When will these large oil and gas companies be forced to stop what they're doing and own up to the problems they have created? When these companies are put in the spotlight how will that effect our economy? Are these families homes and lifestyles more important than fueling our nation? (Obviously the correct answer to this should be obvious) When society and economy clash with one another who should win? If natural gas isn't a permanent solution for fueling out nation then is it worth all the issues that it comes with? Where is the solution to these problems?
I have these questions and so many more swimming in my head right now. I'm not sure what the correct answers are or what the best solution is but I do know what's happening now is wrong and as a people we need to tell the government what we want.
If you are wondering why the United States is still heavily reliant on oil and gas instead of turning to alternative energy, here is your answer, which I discussed in one of my blogs: The United States has been saving their oil reserves, waiting for universal oil depletion in order to be able to place their own price in the global market and maximize profit. Unfortunately, the United States has come to realize that the world is moving away from oil and is looking at other sources for energy. Realizing that the business plan for oil marketing is flirting with failure, the United States has decided to start rigging our own oil under the Obama administration. Because we are increasing our domestic oil production, one would expect the price per barrel of oil to drop significantly. However, this is not the case: because the big American oil tycoons have overspeculated their predicted incomes, they decided to keep the prices high to make up for the loss they would encounter in the failure of their anticipated international oil monopoly. Meanwhile, as the United States is very slowly moving towards alternative energy in small increments, the American oil tycoons are planning to deplete their supplies and make some money before oil is abandoned as an energy source altogether. Other countries, such as Brazil, do not have this problem, as they have been rigging oil regularly. Therefore, they can immediately start the ‘green revolution’ without any anxiety over any lost revenue on oil. -Panagiotis Katsaros
ReplyDeleteYou've got a right to be angry about it. The environmental impact of this process needs to be studied neutrally, so we can determine if we should allow it or not. Studies are coming out, but its such a high-stakes issue for industry that bias is rampant. Time is an important factor to balance also, because many impacts could take years to notice, and by then we may have scaled up too quickly before instituting proper safety measures.
ReplyDelete