Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking”, is the process of drilling
far into the earth, and injecting a liquid mixture of water and toxic chemicals
at a high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, and so forth, so as to
force open existing fissures and extract shale gas. Over the last century the exploitation of
fossil fuels has developed from tunnel mining for coal and drilling shallow oil
wells to tearing apart whole mountains and drilling in a mile or more deep of
ocean. These have inevitably led to many
environmental disasters. Yet fracking
has been hailed as the “revolution of the
energy industry”, and investors and corporations do not want the general
public to be aware of the destruction and negative impact that this new “solution” has on the environment.
Fracking is simply a symptom of a much wider
problem. As easier to extract energy
resources are exhausted and drained by the unsustainable energy consumption and consumerism
of our present system, we are resorting to ever more extreme methods of energy
extraction. But at what cost?
