Living in North Carolina, there is a wide array of environmental issues that ranges depending on where you are in the state. In some locations the issues of factory farming and the runoff that is spread over miles of the local environment through spraying. In others, it is about the unstainable methods of harvesting lumber over large areas of our national forests and how over time we are damaging these ecosystems so badly that they will have a very difficult time recovering. But the issue that is the closest to me and carries the highest potential for environmental harm is the desire to begin offshore drilling. Offshore drilling is defined as” The operation of oil wells on the continental shelf, sometimes in water hundreds of feet deep” according to dictionary.com. This method of drilling is a very common form, being used throughout different locations offshore everywhere in the world, the first being in 1897 according to howstuffworks.com. The locations of oil are found by two main methods. The first one is by finding magnetic occurrences that are in natural in the ground. If readings found a steady amount of magnetism over a general area then suddenly a large decline, they could have found the location of an oil deposit. But to ensure that is in fact a trap, the second method called sparking. “sparking is sending shock waves down through the water and into the ocean floor.” This allows ships above to be able to read the ground below and see at different locations where
While solving the issue of having to rely on others for oil and gas, fracking is also creating the problem of harming the environment and creating issues for residents living near the sites and the leasers themselves.
As the pace of shale gas drilling has accelerated in recent years, so have environmental concerns. Incidents such as a 2007 home explosion in Bainbridge, OH, the 2008 groundwater contamination on Wind River Indian Reservation in Pavilion, WY, and the 2008 chemical poisoning of an emergency room nurse in Durango, CO, have intensified the debate over regulation of fracking.10 As a result, new laws regulating fracking activities have
Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater
The Passaic and Hudson rivers are easily the top two environmental problems in New Jersey. Both have shared similar fates, being decimated by the industrial revolution, by factories dumping garbage, medical waste, even war materials during Vietnam. The pharmaceutical industry (huge in NJ). Another issue would be the huge tourist industry surrounding the New Jersey beaches. There is hardly any wildlife left down there because it’s all been urbanized and developed.
The mismanagement of the practice has the potential to create environmental damage such as water contamination, radioactive spills, and increased seismic activity that could cost thousands in dollars in damage. Furthermore, the unintended consequences of fracking can have detrimental effects on the environmental. The potential for water contamination can pose both an immediate and long term risk to environmental stability, including landscape distortion, inhabitability and ecological displacement. This contamination of drinking water can also be detrimental to the human environment, limiting the amount of safe water available for both the residential and commercial human environment. With the increase of fracking, the level of disapproval for the practice has only mounted. Concerns including overconsumption of
Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.
Two words that can summarize the effects of climate change, over population, global warming, and deforestation is biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is the variety of life on the Earth or in an ecosystem. Biodiversity loss happens all over the world and continues to this day which can bring a major disaster to life. Biodiversity loss in North Carolina started when humans overpopulated the environment and brought over new species from oversea. As humans continue to grow and expand their own lands and needs upon the rich and mysterious environment the biodiversity of the ecosystem started to diminish. Although it doesn’t seem like much can happen with the loss of certain species, you are wrong because one species can change the entire fate of the
One of the biggest political and legal issues that affect the oil and gas industry is the cause of changing of present climates as there are a lot of harmful petroleum products that can cause damage to the environment such as carbon dioxide cause greenhouse gas, sulfur dioxide cause acid rain which could eventually be harmful to animal, planet and worsen illness and heart diseases… Another issue
Going through the Shapiro Library on SNHU Wedsite, I found a few great articlesabout the drilling going on in North Carolina called Fracking. The first article that I foundis titled, “ Fracking Fight Advances in North Carolina” by Sarah Ferris. The secondresource I found that had a lot of great information and facts is titled, “ North Carolinawants in on Fracking Game” by Reid Wilson. I found these two articles very interestingbecause they both are telling the pros and cons of fracking and what the government’splan is with the drilling.The article written by Sarah Ferris, titled “Fracking Fight advances in NorthCarolina” stated the concern of what drilling in North Carolina will do to the surroundingenvironment. Ferris stated,” The backlash
The Neuse River has played a vital role throughout much of the history of North Carolina. In recent decades however the river has seen degradation of its health and ecology via massive amounts of point and non-point source pollution. The result has been numerous events of eutrophication, resulting in the ecological “dead zones” found throughout the river. Notable contributors of this pollution have been industrial plants and agriculture, most notably power plants and hog farms. As a result, federal and state agencies have enacted strict regulations and water quality standards and procedures to monitor the tributaries, estuarine areas, and main stem of the greater Neuse River watershed.
North Carolina “Esse Quam Videri” (“To Be Rather Than To Seem”) is the state motto for North Carolina, a very interesting state with a moderate climate, scenic beauty, a culture rich in history and the arts, and much more. It is located on the southeastern part of the U.S. and has a very diverse landscape. It has everything from warm beaches to snowy mountains. North Carolina covers 53,819 square miles with more than 300 miles of Atlantic coastline and has the highest mountain peaks east of the Rockies (“NC.gov.”). Virginia colonists founded the Province of Carolina, an English colony in North America in 1653.
Did you know that oil companies are demolishing North Dakota’s environment by dumping drilling waste onto the land and in waterways? First, oil companies are taking truckloads full of drilling waste at a time and just dumping it to the side of the road illegally! This is mainly happening in the western corner of North Dakota but will most likely affect all of North Dakota. Eventually, this will affect all of North Dakota, by the drilling waste killing the animals or plants that other animals need to eat to survive. Then, oil companies also go and dump the drilling waste into the waterways. So, pretty soon all the western corner of North Dakota won’t have freshwater lakes and rivers. They have been doing this since 2014, so who knows what
The Great Smoky Mountains a border between Tennessee and North Carolina, and the Blue Ridge mountain with the bluish color when seen from the distance, is by far, one of the most impressive places in the United States.
They then pump fluid through pipelines into the drilled areas in order to extract materials that would further indicate the presence of oil. Once a company is certain that there is a sufficient amount of oil at a given location to make drilling worthwhile, it sets up a more permanent structure, or platform, from which to extract it. The oil that is pumped out is sent through pipelines back to shore. An offshore facility can pump oil from a field for decades.
Have you ever wondered how many people there are in the world? This beautiful place called earth is home to billions of humans, and human-kind is not alone. Although at times we may forget that we have several different species living with us, not only do different species live with us but they are part of the circle of life that is the root of our existence. For many years’ people have been releasing excessive amounts of CO2 into the earth, with little to no consideration of the effects it may have on surrounding environments. Exploiting natural resources to leave nothing behind except for oil spills and other environmentally dangerous components. Corporations need to be held to higher expectations with more regulations, there needs to be a government that will enforce these regulations. Who decides our government? People do, local communities vote for who runs their city, state, and country. Communities can help spread awareness and demand cleaner energy, stricter laws, and reduce their carbon footprint.