Hypocritical...

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mairi-beautyman/five-comics-giving-anti-e_b_151892.html

              

Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, recipient of an Order of Canada in 2006, and former international chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, but most importantly is a proud Inuit citizen of Kuujuaq. She has been trying to raise awareness of the affect the melting of the Arctic is having on the communities who depend on the ice and snow for transport and hunting. Her goal is to teach people about the importance of the Arctic.
                 "It [the Arctic] cools the rest of the planet. When it breaks down, it has an impact around the world."

Watt-Cloutier is currently a visiting scholar at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick and continues to fight for the rights for the Inuit as she considers climate change a human rights issue for the Inuit people. Another project of hers is attempting to ban the pollutants which have been poisoning the Arctic food chain. Mrs. Sheila Watt-Cloutier carries a very important and heavy message, the Arctic affects us all. We are already beginning to feel its effects with the rise in temperatures and the time is now to stop this.

A Smaller Perspective

It is difficult for us to fathom that our planet is 4.6 billion years old. Therefore it is difficult for us to place everything in a time line that is comprehensible when dealing with ten digit figures. So, if we scaled down the 4.6 billion years to merely 46 years it becomes immensely more comprehensible. But by scaling down our time line that means that we have only been around as humans on this planet for approximately four hours and that our Industrial Revolution began only one minute ago. That means that in less than one minute we have destroyed forests and tore apart different lands in a search to get fuels and resources. We have been the cause of numerous extinctions and have multiplied our population by unthinkable amounts.

Now, we have not really done all of this in one minute but in comparison to the age of our planet we have progressed at such a rate that our need for more, more, more and bigger and better has caused damage and lasting effects that are only progressing further. Using the time line that the Earth is only 46 years old, if we can cause this amount of damage in one minute, without changing our way of life what state will we be in by five minutes?

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/facts.html

Is This True!? Yes, it really is.

Source: http://bradcolbow.com/

What Is Fracking?

Fracking [frak-ing] : (noun) hydraulic fracturing.

Hydraulic Fracturing: (noun) a process in which fractures in rocks below the earth's surface are opened and widened by injecting chemicals and liquids at high pressure: used especially to extract natural gas or oil.

Hydraulic fractures can happen naturally by veins and dikes but many companies and governments have begun the process of fracking, which is when a crack or hole will be made in the rock to help release the natural gas. The reason this appeals to many different industries, oil companies or governments is because of the potential money earnings.

Areas rich in shale rock all over the world have been turning towards fracking in a hope that it might help the economic downfall. New Brunswick, Canada is just one of the many areas in question. Fracking is when holes are drilled into shale rock to release the natural gas inside.  Fracking is so controversial to neighbours of these explorations and environmentalists alike because of the risks that are involved in the process and the after-effects it may have. Hundreds of people in the US alone are currently sick because of what fracking has done to their water supply! Two minor earthquakes have happened on the Lancashire coast in Britain in 2011 near where the fracking was taking place. The question is, was all of this caused by negligence, or the fracking itself?

Some sources state that the 14 leading oil and gas service companies has used approximately 750 different chemicals, including dangerous substances such as benzene, a known human carcinogen, and lead, a probable human carcinogen. 

                          "Between 2005 and 2009, the oil and gas service companies used hydraulic fracturing products containing 29 chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) for their risks to human health, or listed as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act."**

Twenty-nine known or possible human carcinogens, surely that makes the whole process unsafe and it should stop, right? Yet the companies are saying that the reason people are getting sick is because of faulty equipment or mistakes made by the workers, not the process itself. The industries say that as long as fracking is preformed correctly and efficiently then there shouldn't be any problems, but how can you ignore the visual evidence of contaminated water supplies? The companies are denying the risks involved in fracking and personally I think if they had come out directly to lay everything on the table we would be in a completely different situation. 

Currently, New Brunswick, Canada is teetering on the edge of joining this bandwagon. Being a poor province with plenty of shale rock it is definitely an option, but is it worth it? Who is telling the truth, the companies or the environmentalist? Can fracking perhaps be preformed harmlessly with minimal effect on our environment or is it a complete mistake that will render us citizens sick? Maybe fracking can be preformed differently and safer here but the evidence from previous expeditions remains and the chemicals used are frightening. Once more, it comes down to, is it worth the risk for the end result?

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14432401

                http://8020vision.com/2011/04/17/congress-releases-report-on-toxic-chemicals-used-in-fracking/ **

           http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/GeneralInformationaboutCarcinogens/known-and-probable-human-carcinogens