Don't Frack My Mother!

Natural gas has been in the news quite a bit these days- and the majority of that news revolves around a little something known as fracking. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, the process that allows those drilling for natural gas to fracture the shale rocks by injecting a fluid at high pressure. This fracturing allows for much greater natural gas recovery (and therefore greater supplies and lower costs), but it has a huge environmental impact. The fluid that is injected at high pressure is full of nasty chemicals, and a whole lot of this water is used in the process. This water is often left in open pits to evaporate, which is hugely hazardous, and groundwater contamination is common. For a good, quick explanation explaining the dangers of fracking, check out this website.  Have a bit more time? Watch the film Gasland.  It gets into the nitty-gritty of this fracking business.
And, in the meantime, check out this funny video of Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono on Jimmy Fallon. They recently started a coalition called Artists Against Fracking, which is working to prevent fracking in New York. I am teaching about fossil fuels in my environmental science class this week, so I will be sure to share this one with my students!