reply to post by Doodle19815
Okay.
Thanks for the extra info.
Even if this
sinkhole in Ohio is not linked to fracking (and frankly we don't have hard evidence for it yet), there are many instances of
earthquakes that are.
Fracking is one of those amazing advances in technology that many people are going to eventually wish had never been thought of. Instead of being
amazing from the point of view of getting at energy resources, it will become amazing for an entirely different reason: future generations will be
amazed that people were so incredibly stupid in allowing it to go ahead: in allowing this invasive process -- in just a few short years -- to undo
balances of forces that mother nature has taken
millions of years to establish.
Because that's what fracking does. It unbalances forces. And that's precisely what it's intended to do and that's how it works: it fractures rock
under incredibly high pressures, injecting water and chemical mixes into strata that have been dry and untouched for untold millennia, and using those
fluids and pressures to reduce their stability -- all with the intention of releasing gases (and oil) that had been trapped there and which helped to
keep things in their delicate state of balance.
Imagine if someone offered to frack the ground beneath the foundations of your home.
Any takers? I assure you that everything will be fine... Fracking is
safe.
Sure.
But in spite of the obviously destructive and unbalancing nature of this process, those who allow these things are happy to have literally tens of
thousands of these fracking wells over huge areas of land, and every one of those wells (new and old) is helping to upset delicate natural balances of
forces.
Eventually, things have to give.
The question is how long it will take before they fracture near a
major zone that is already on the very limits of
natural stability and
only needs the proverbial straw on the camel's back to set it in motion, with millennia of pent-up energies being released in mere moments in one huge
rush, instead of in many smaller, barely perceptible movements. Or, of simply bringing a future huge quake's occurrence forward by a few decades, or
centuries. Or thousands of years...
Those who make these decisions are playing god with the forces of nature, and the worst thing is that the imbalances they are creating
must,
eventually, be brought back into balance again. We have seen regions which in just the past few years have been shaken by swarms of small quakes --
swarms that they have never known before and which were so clearly tied in to the fracking in the region that in some instances, "officaldom" ordered
some wells shut down.
And even with that official acknowledgement, new wells are being started every day. In fact, some in the business world see a major
increase in
fracking operations as the start of a Golden Age for the US. Viz this article on CNN:
U.S. set for fracking bonanza, says historian
Ferguson, where it says among other things:
Ferguson, who is also an author and commentator, believes the production of natural gas and oil from shale formations via a process known as
"fracking" -- forcing open rocks by injecting fluid into cracks -- will be a game changer.
"This is an absolutely huge phenomenon with massive implications for the U.S. economy, and I think most people are still a little bit slow to
appreciate just how big this is," he said in Hong Kong this week.
"Conceivably it does mean a new golden age."
Yes, a Golden Age. There are people who seriously believe that the US can frack its way out of economic gloom.
They're blind, they're blinded by dollar signs.
It's appalling and it's going to get even worse.
edit on 29/11/12 by JustMike because: (no reason given)