What the Frack?!

JackOfAllTrades · 2012-02-21T21:09:29

I’ve heard of fracking before but never fully researched it. My initial thought was that fracking is too dangerous and harmful to the environment to justify. The companies which use fracking to extract natural gas have been doing a great job of preventing regulations to maximize their profits. When the chemicals used in fracking leak in to groundwater their effects are devastating on the environment and human beings. However, after further research and thought I’ve come to the conclusion that with greater regulation fracking could prove to be safer, cleaner, and more affordable than almost any other form of energy production. One cannot simply ignore the potential gains fracking could have to the US economy and in the future the energy produced may be our only life line. It is blatantly obvious that the companies which have been using fracking to produce natural gas are trying extremely hard to prevent any type of regulations from being imposed on them. In a report by the nonpartisan group Common Cause, the natural gas industry has been pouring millions of dollars in to congress to prevent such regulations (Browning & Kapla). Just by listening to debates on the matter one can obviously see that representatives of the natural gas industry do everything they can to distort and confuse the matter. The companies will not even reveal which chemicals they are using or conduct any baseline testing. For me it is beyond a doubt that the natural gas industry is fully aware of the harmful effects on the environment but they will do whatever it takes to hide the truth from the public as long as possible in order to improve their bottom line. You have likely heard one or more stories from individuals claiming that they have suffered health problems due to nearby fracking wells. You may have also seen people able to light their tap water on fire due to methane gas leaking in to groundwater. There was recently a report on CNN of 15 female students who all attended the same New York City high school mysteriously developing a twitching disorder which was first thought to be a stress related illness known as conversion disorder. Later it was discovered that the high school was using fracking to produce natural gas for heating and other purposes (Dr. Drew). The ground water near many fracking wells has been found to contain high level of contaminates believed to be caused by unscrupulous dumping of wastewater generated by the fracking process and above-ground spills of chemicals used in the fracking process as well. However, without baseline testing this is little more than a rumor and the natural gas industry obviously wants to keep it that way. My opinion is that these mistakes could be largely prevented if concrete regulations were imposed by the federal government. This view has also been expressed by a panel of experts not tied to the industry who spoke to a large audience at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting (Fischetti). The potential for the natural gas produced from the fracking process is endless. Besides using the gas for heating or to produce electricity, vehicles have been developed which can directly run off the methane gas (Maguire). Also researching is being done to find an efficient way to convert the methane to methanol which would be easier to store and transport since it is a fluid (Takahashi). Methanol is actually superior to Ethanol in many ways and is currently used in Champ Cars. I don’t think the US can afford to ignore the proverbial gold mine sitting right under our feet. In conclusion, I believe despite the disasters that have graced the headlines and have devastated small communities throughout the US, with tighter regulations fracking could become the clean abundant energy source the US and the world has been needing so desperately. The world’s supply of oil and coal will eventually run out but no one can say how long until this happens. There will come a time when the demand for energy will outweigh the supply, and I can only hope I will not be alive to see that day. Unfortunately, I am quite sure unless something very unlikely happens such as the establishment of a world government which imposes strict regulations on population growth such as the one child law in china this day will come a lot sooner than many may think. My hope is that through the extraction of natural gases this deadline will be extended beyond my lifetime. Though, this paints a very bleak picture for the human race one can only hope that by extending the deadline technology for either an endless source of renewable energy or space colonization can be developed. Works Cited Common Cause. November 10, 2011. James Browning & Alex Kapla. February 18, 2012 < http://www.commoncau...0NOV%202011.PDF >. CNN. February 2, 2012. Dr. Drew. February 18, 2012 < http://www.cnn.com/v...s-leroy-hln.cnn > BBC. August 5, 2010. John Maguire. February 18, 2012 < http://www.bbc.co.uk...ristol-10881080 > Department of Chemistry, University of Massachuset. Unknown. Ricardo B. Met. February 18, 2012 < http://www.chem.umass.edu/~rbmetz/publications/MOchapter.pdf > Huffington Post. June 10, 2008. Patrick Takahashi. February 18, 2012 < http://www.huffingto...l_b_106380.html > Science America. February 18, 2008. Mark Fischetti. February 18, 2012 < http://blogs.scienti...uld-come-clean/ > Huffington Post. February 6, 2012. Lucia Graves. February 18, 2012 < http://www.huffingto...n_1258307.html/ >

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Started by JackOfAllTrades February 19, 2012 02:03 PM

15 comments, last by swiftcoder 12 years, 6 months ago

slayemin

6,313

February 21, 2012 05:23 PM

I'd rather see a well written and thought out ten page paper which takes a semester to write than to see ten five paragraph essays writen on a weekly basis

And instead of teaching programming by starting with if statements and for loops, it would be better for students to just submit enterprise-grade, DMCA compliant, PCI-certified logistic solution that integrates with SAP module.
[/quote]
Just showing students if statements and for loops is equivalent to the five paragraph essay. The right way to teach programming to new students is to teach them how to gather software requirements, create a design, write the code, and test it. The problem with academic instruction for programming is that most assignments already have the requirements defined, are small enough where you don't have to design anything, and can just dive right into coding and testing. It's a bit of a disservice to students since those are valuable skills to pick up...and may even create the bad habit of 'code and fix' software development practices. In practice, the software requirements are hardly ever clear and the design is more complicated than what one person can keep in their head at once. The programming equivalent of a ten page essay paper is to have a list of requirements/deliverables, a design document or flow chart, and tested and working code.

Eric Nevala

Indie Developer | Spellbound | Dev blog | Twitter | Unreal Engine 4

way2lazy2care

793

February 21, 2012 05:30 PM

And instead of teaching programming by starting with if statements and for loops, it would be better for students to just submit enterprise-grade, DMCA compliant, PCI-certified logistic solution that integrates with SAP module.

I think the point was more at a late-high school/college level. Writing is taught for 8 years before high school in the US, and there really isn't a reason to have such stringent requirements in the majority of English courses.

I have noticed though that some English teachers are tolerant of well written papers that break the required structure. Of course I've also had an English teacher that gave me a 17 out of 275 (no typo) on a 10 page final paper... <_<

swiftcoder

18,997

February 21, 2012 05:55 PM

I have noticed though that some English teachers are tolerant of well written papers that break the required structure. Of course I've also had an English teacher that gave me a 17 out of 275 (no typo) on a 10 page final paper...

If your essays are truly of sufficient quality, nobody but a complete ass is going to take you to task over minor requirements deviations (the same is not true in high school, where stated requirements are king).

As far as I can recall, I never adhered to the written rules for length, formatting or citation style on a single college essay, and I never received less than a B+ in return. Though I did have to fight one professor over British vs. American - c'est la vie.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

way2lazy2care

793

February 21, 2012 06:05 PM

Though I did have to fight one professor over British vs. American - c'est la vie.

Apologies for my curiosity, but I was not aware there was a difference?

swiftcoder

18,997

February 21, 2012 08:35 PM

Though I did have to fight one professor over British vs. American - c'est la vie.

Apologies for my curiosity, but I was not aware there was a difference?[/quote]
Well, for starters there are many spelling differences. The most common being the dropped 'u' (honor vs honour), and the substitution of 'z' for 's' (subsidize vs subsidise).

And Americans tend to still favour the first-line indent to delineate paragraphs, whereas Brits typically leave a blank carriage-feed instead. Then there's the Oxford Comma...

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

way2lazy2care

793

February 21, 2012 08:44 PM

Well, for starters there are many spelling differences. The most common being the dropped 'u' (honor vs honour), and the substitution of 'z' for 's' (subsidize vs subsidise).

And Americans tend to still favour the first-line indent to delineate paragraphs, whereas Brits typically leave a blank carriage-feed instead. Then there's the Oxford Comma...

I totally misread what you said as:

hough I did have to fight one professor over British vs. American, "c'est la vie."
[/quote]

I thought you were talking about British and Americans thinking something different about the phrase, "c'est la vie."