Environmental Issue or Class Content.

During class I've recently learned about a lot of things that I never even knew existed. Hydraulic fracturing is one of those methods of producing energy that I had never before heard of, and quite frankly I am surprised that it is legal.

While initially I didn't think much of it, and it sounded pretty harmless to me, I have since learned more about it. At first all I heard about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) was that liquid is pumped deep into the earth and into the shale in order to fracture it and collect the gas that is trapped in the rock. Which made sense to me, I mean how harmful can pumping liquid and breaking up rocks be?

Until I learned more.

Like just how much water is necessary to do this. 1-8 million gallons of water roughly. Which is water that could be put to much better use in a countless number of more deserving situations.

And what kind of chemicals are added to the water. The cancer causing kinds. Like formaldehyde, lead, mercury, and uranium. These are only some of the chemicals used. And the chemicals often end up the the water nearby these fracking wells.

Not only does it release dangerous chemicals into the ground water, water that could be the source of living for people living nearby, but as we learned in class it can actually cause earthquakes. Which is something that I really can't wrap my head around.

Fracking causes earthquakes. Something that is considered a natural disaster. Fracking unnaturally causes natural disasters. 

But enough with the soapbox talk because I should probably relate this somehow with how I could teach my future students. Like I could teach them about what NOT to do when looking for viable energy options. Lets NOT create earthquakes.

In a classroom setting I could probably use this as an opportunity to talk about energy sources that are good for the environment and use aspects of the environment without actually harming the environment. For example I could talk to them about wind and water power. Water power especially since fracking requires so much water, so I could ask my students to think of ways that that water could have been put to better use. This could lead to discussion about using waves and tides for power, as well as rivers. By teaching my students about the harmful ways to get power I could show them there are non-harmful ways as well. While all sources of power have their shortcomings some of them have less terrible shortcomings. Like earthquakes.

Overall I am glad that I learned about this power source so I can further my passions towards clean energy.