Let Me Introduce You To My Newest Friend

Those of you who have been reading my posts over the last couple of months know that I am very concerned about the emerging water crisis that no one seems to be taking seriously. With towns in Texas and California about to run out of water, more of us are becoming aware that this is a problem. I have just discovered a new series of infographics and basic information put together by the reputable BBC. Please visit this site, review the information, and then share it with your friends. It is something that needs highlighting so that we can begin addressing the problem. Wild weather may have been the first noticeable clue that our climate is changing, the water crisis is a much more long-term and tragic result of climate change. The growing water crisis threatens to destabilize entire regions and create a very complex, global humanitarian crisis. It's time to face this head on and do something about it.

Water Supply and Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing is still quite a hot topic. While a great deal of public and grassroots furor has been made over its use in the United States, the practice still continues and is even spreading overseas. Many nations in Europe would like to give it a try, especially the UK. For me, the issue is not so much the fact that fracking is occurring. It is that there is a great lack of regulations over the industry here in the United States and a general lack of scientific understanding about its effects on the environment.

Natural gas is highly sought after, and it has the potential of being a "bridge fuel" away from dirtier fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable sources of energy. That particular statement is also a hot topic right now and I will explore this further in a different blog. Currently the demand both by consumers and producers means that hydrofracking will be with us for a while. Where it is done and how it is done is what we need to focus on.

A little more than a year ago, I researched the scientific evidence about water usage and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale (a large geologic formation under the northeastern states). This is one of the major issues I am concerned with. Scientific evidence was lacking regarding the actual process of hydrofracking on water supply, but the evidence is plentiful about the effects on the water supply and that regulations are not effective enough at containing subsurface or surface pollution of drinking water supplies. I produced an informational poster for a course during my Master's program that highlighted the issue surrounding water and hydraulic fracturing. The poster details the problems of water consumption during hydraulic fracturing, loss of water from the total water supply, containment problems of polluted water, etc. The challenges are real, but something can be done about it. I present the poster here (you may have to zoom in to read the small print) so that readers can become informed about the real, scientific issues regarding this process.