Fracking Should Be Banned Essay

Do you think the United States would ever be without pollution of any sort? If fracking is a major form of attaining natural gas in the United States, there is a chance there won’t be. Fracking, or hydraulic fracking, is the drilling down into the earth to remove shale and other natural gases. Fracking can be controversial because it could be good economical but can be very bad environmental wise. This process uses many chemicals and is very bad for the environment, especially dealing with pollution. Although fracking can have good economic and environmental benefits, fracking should be banned or have certain rules clarifying how it’s used and when it can be used because fracking can cause problems such as: water and air pollution, earthquakes, and long term and short term medical effects.
Fracking has been a significant method of getting natural gas for a long time. This process can be dated back all the way to the 1940’s. Fracking is still being used today and is creating problems for our environment but, fracking is also very good economically. This method was created because the prices began to rise and the industry was looking for other options to lower the prices back to normal (Beaver 126). The process for getting the natural gas may be long and technical but it has changed a lot since the 1940’s. …show more content…
These earthquakes are set off more and more as more fracking sites are built. There used to be about 0 to 3 a year but now it ranges 0 to 4 a day near the site (Nikiforuk 57). Just by the Montney Shale alone 200 were set off through 2013 and 2014 (Nikiforuk 57). Even though these earthquakes might be small or have little magnitudes, they can be destructive. In the Duvernay shale Nikiforuk studies showed, “a swarm of earthquakes that culminated with a magnitude 4.4. It caused walls to shake, rattled beds, and felt like a roller coaster.” (Nikiforuk