HEI Awarness
How Humans affect and are affected by their enviornment
Oil Spills
Oil spills are a very serious matter because of the damage they do to aquatic ecosystems and their affect on economies. When the great oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred millions of gallon of oil washed up on beaches affecting much of the wildlife that inhabits these areas. Efforts to clean up the oil are not developed enough to keep the ecosystems from being destroyed.
The Kuwati War: How the oil spills effected the enviornment
The largest oil spill the world has seen exacted little permanent damage on coral ecosystems and local fisheries, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at Unesco. The study concluded that about half the oil evaporated, one-eighth of it was recovered and another quarter washed ashore, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas: Fracking
Less than a decade ago, industry analysts and government officials fretted that the United States was in danger of running out of gas. No more. Over the past several years, vast caches of natural gas trapped in deeply buried rock have been made accessible by advances in two key technologies: horizontal drilling, which allows vertical wells to turn and snake more than a mile sideways through the earth, and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Developed more than 60 years ago, fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of chemically treated water into deep shale formations at pressures of 9000 pounds per square inch or more. This fluid cracks the shale or widens existing cracks, freeing hydrocarbons to flow toward the well.
How people believe it's affecting the enviornment
Communities from Texas to Pennsylvania have been impacted by industrial fracking operations. Fracking activities operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during production. Volumes of toxic, radioactive, and caustic liquid waste by-products pose storage, treatment, and disposal problems. Regular operations, as well as accidents, can adversely impact the environment and public health. Well casings that are intended to prevent methane and toxic liquids from contaminating groundwater are prone to failure.
Leveled Questions
Level 1: What is horizontal drilling?
Level 2: Out of the multiple problems that natural gas fracking causes, what is the most damaging to the enviornment?