Today in the United States many households have flammable water coming out of the faucet and shower head. This hazard is caused by the growing fracking industry that is now in many states, such as Pennsylvania, Montana, and West Virginia. This form of capturing natural resources is called Hydraulic Fracturing or fracking for short. Fracking is an extraction method to pull out shale gas (a type of natural gas in shale rocks) from deep in the ground. This process is started with companies drilling thousands of feet into the ground where gas is found, then pushing chemicalized water down the pipe at very high pressure to crack the rocks and release the shale gas which is brought up to the surface through the same pipeline. This type of resource extraction has been and still is being highly debated in North Carolina, going to the state senate many times; but it has still not been legalized here. Fracking in the state of North Carolina is not a good idea in respect to the protection of its citizens and need to make sure fracking doesn't ruin lives in our great state.

One way the fracking is dangerous is that it causes areas around it to have environmental issues from the air to deep in the ground. A primary problem comes from the fact that “Methane is a main component of natural gas and is 25 times more potent in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide” (Potential Health and Environmental Effects of Hydrofracking in the Williston Basin, Montana." ). The evidence shown is a concern to the air because a large emission of fracking is methane.

The practice of fracking in the state of North Carolina would be harmful to its citizens. This issue needs to be solved to save the planet and the people on it from ever increasing threats of global warming and the well being of the their communities from illness. The way that you can make a difference is by telling your representatives to vote against fracking in North Carolina and to make the case that oil companies must pay for all the lives that they ruin through fracking.

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