We can’t change the past, but we can better ourselves for the future
Many Americans are misinformed when it comes to fracking and what the real rooted issue is behind polluting. In Colorado, residents for the last decade have been battling the political leaders against allowing fracking in their communities. This ongoing battle has led to scripted environmentalism from political parties to help push back civilian efforts to fight the issue.
Despite the views of locals, several major news sources like Forbes and the Guardian have released scientific evidence supporting governor Cuomo’s statement last year that there is insufficient evidence to back up the idea that fracking is bad for the environment. This was in response to banning fracking in New York in 2015. The effects of fracking really depend on the technique used and how “sloppy” techniques are the culprit to environmental rooted problems. The technique generally is a safe practice if done correctly, but many people believe the idea that mining for oil is bad like in the ocean or on land. Other inefficiencies from the machinery used in fracking will also pollute more deadly toxins than the fracking process itself. Despite the public belief on the issue, oil is a necessary component of today’s society from powering cars and the economy to providing hundreds of thousands of people with jobs.
People have been hesitant to switch to solar panels and other forms of renewable energy due to its high cost of installation. This is the direction our society needs to be going in to allow for different forms of energy other than oil. Renewable energies have proven to be more efficient and more environmentally friendly to use but it can’t be enforced on the same scale that oil is.
If we can’t force people to use renewable energy, then how do we address the problem of fracking? We look at the alternatives to fracking and the impacts they will have on the environment and the market.
Imagine that fracking is banned by President Biden this year, where would America get its oil from? The demand for oil is very high because people need it for everyday life. America would need to import more oil to compensate for the loss in domestic oil production. Importing and exporting is done through the use of large container ships to transport the oil across several oceans. This may seem good in theory, but many people skip over the fact that those ships release toxins into the air and water at a more alarming rate than many might initially think.
A study done by the Guardian showed that seven of the largest container ships produce as much toxins as the worlds 760 million cars. That is 50 million cars polluting for a full year compared to a single trip for a ship that releases about 50 million toxins. This study also found that about 60,000 people die every year due to health and lung related illnesses, which amounts to over 330 billion dollars in health and medical costs annually. Imagine if these ships and its pollutants were tightly regulated. This would help eliminate so much exhaust that the world probably wouldn’t know how to react. These studies were done based on engine size and the type of fuel consumed by those ships.
Former President Trump did little to prevent climate change and President Biden has already done more in office in two months than Trump had done in his whole term. Building off of the environmentally favored agenda by Biden, America must get on board with transitioning away from importing as much oil as we use because that in turn is causing just as much harm as many other ways of polluting legally.
Setting standards for ships over a certain size will allow for a base guide to be put in place to begin to enforce them on all ships. I think this is a decision for the UN to decide on because no one country can make these decisions for them all. However, I think that making a decision on fracking should be held off until more regulations are out on the ships that are actually doing the majority of the damage to nature.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/08/28/fracking-really-isnt-so-bad/?sh=102e1cdb1f12
