Global Warming,

Man-made or Man-made Hype?

Graph of temperature changes per year.

Global Warming may seem very real but it is actually just hype. Everything factors into the belief of Global Warming from the government, to Hollywood. "There is a lot of money involved and tens of thousands of jobs depend on global warming.” (The Great Global Warming Swindle) " Also, the scientists that don’t believe and support global warming, get fired for it,” (The Great Global Warming Swindle). This happens because they don’t agree with the government so they don’t get the jobs from it. In an article from CNN Money, It states, " A think tank partly funded by Exxon Mobil sent letters to scientists offering them up to $10,000 to critique findings in a major global warming study released Friday which found that global warming was real and likely caused by burning fossil fuels." If scientists are being paid to prove only one side of an argument, then how can we believe that their facts are valid? With the issue of Global Warming, is that the truth is covered from the public. Scientists are being paid for one side of the issue while other scientists don't even have jobs because they don't believe in the Global Warming. It all comes down to that in past history there have been warming periods and ice ages “There was a little ice age 1500-1600 and a medieval warming period 1200-1300.” (The Great Global Warming Swindle) So it is normal that our planet warms up and then cools itself off with a ice age. The proof of Global Warming not being real is in the past, not the future. 

Fracking vs. Coal

Fracking and Coal are both very different ways, of getting resources out of the earth. Fracking is where the workers spray water with many different chemicals into the earth to blow the natural gas out of the earth. By doing this it affects the region a lot. In the area, people's drinking water can be set on fire! Also, it can give them people and animals in the area many different harsh side effects. The fluid the companies use are made up of 569-632 chemicals that are all un-named. The problem with fracking is that the liquid that is used to blow the natural gas out of the ground, is contaminated and put into big storage ponds. Some of these ponds are not lined and even leak then dangerous chemicals out into the ground then contaminating the publics water. It is a hard problem to stop too. In the documentary Gasland, it says "come into an area develop it quickly, and if you trash anything you make the people prove it first make them argue it in a court of law and then pay them off and say nothing so public never hears about it." This was a statement from one of the victims in the documentary. One of the reasons this problem is so hard to get rid of is because if you take the companies to court, you will eventually run out of money to pay and the court case is dropped. This doesn't happen to the companies because they have so much money that they don't have to worry about running out. "EPA was getting money from natural gas company to protect the company." This is what happens a lot of the time so the problem is hard to stop because the companies that are doing harm are being protected from the Environmental Protection Agency. With coal, the coal is extracted from the tops of mountains or underground. The Mountain Top Removal, is where the coal miners blow up the top of mountains to get the coal. This blow all the coal dust into the area and the water sources in the area. Many different streams and rivers in the areas of Mountain Top Removal, flood because the dust plogs the river then with a big storm all then water comes rushing over. This can destroy many communities. With coal mining, the coal workers mine  in a underground mine. In the mine, the machines dig at the earth that brings up coal. This coal, then gets shoveled onto a conveyor belt the bring it all the way to the surface of the mine. The workers are the ones shoveling the coal and moving the coal around. With the coal moving, it makes coal dust which gets inhaled to the coal miners lungs. From coal mining, there is a disease called Black Lung. This is when the coal dust is inhaled too much and coats the inside of the lung. Some of the miners with really bad Black Lung, are on a  waiting list for new lungs. With the mining, it also goes into the air and water around the mine. This can cause black lung in the community too. Coal dust and water mixed together, is called slurry. This slurry is kept in impoundment ponds. Just like with fracking, 

Coal Worker in coal mine 

the ponds sometimes are not lined or even leak with lining and the toxic slurry can get  the public's water.


 

Nuclear vs. Foreign and Domestic Oil

Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Nuclear power is a energy source that is made by Uranium and Plutonium. These two elements are both radioactive. The radio active rods of Uranium or Plutonium are dipped into cold water. This creates a lot of steam,that spins a turbine. This turbine creates electricity. This is how the electricity comes from the radioactive energy. The rods are extremely hot and need to be cooled down. If there is a problem with the reactor then it will blow up. This causes a radioactive cloud which is very toxic to humans, plants, animals etc. The past two latest nuclear disasters, Chernobyl and Fukushima, were very bad reactions. Chernobyl was a 7 on a scale of 7 being the worst. Fukushima was a 6 on the scale of 7. Domestic Oil impacts our world because it is extracted from the earth in the area that the public lives in. A lot of the times there are oil spills, which is very bad for the planet. Oil spills contaminate the water and kill a lot of animals and plant life. It is also very hard to clean up and the chemicals that are used are bad for the environment.  The main chemical that is used is Corexit. Corexit is very bad for health of human and animal. It is as bad as the oil itself. They use the Corexit to break up the oil in the spills. I don’t think it is as bad as fracking because if there aren’t any spills of the oil, then there aren’t any problems. But if there are spills, then that’s when there are problems. The side affects from the oil and the chemical Corexit is different then the side effects of fracking. It all depends on how much. The side effects for the oil and the fracking may be different but are both very bad for the health in different ways. The reason why I think that fracking is worse because it is constant with health problems while domestic oil only affects us when there is a spill. The questions I have about domestic oil are that are there any problems when there aren’t any spills? But, when there is a spill, the lands are contaminated for 1000 years even if it was cleaned.  Foreign Oil is when we get our oil from other countries.  In the U.S we get 29% oil from Canada, 14% from Saudi Arabia, 11% Venezuela, 10% from Nigeria and 8% from Mexico.  Just over half of the U.S oil imports are from the western half of the hemisphere. There is a lot of speculation about the war in Iraq, saying that Dick Cheney  sent a task force into Iraq to study  the oil amounts. Since the wars in the middle east, this causes oil and gas prices in U.S to increase. Foreign Oil, requires per country to depend on other countries. 

The most important environmental issue... 

homeowner catching his tap water on fire

I think the most important environmental issue is Fracking. I think this because it is a rising problem in our country right now, and if we can stop it early it won't be a big issue. With fracking, it is a big problem because it can harm a lot of people in area in a quick amount of time. In the movie Gasland, people could set their water on fire! Also, their wells were exploding, they were getting cancers, migraine headaches and much more. Their animals were getting sick too, by vomiting, loosing fur and dying too. Now, the gas wells are all over the U.S through the west and south, and the companies are planning to make more. The companies are asking the homeowners to lease their land to them for money. But with this it comes an increasing amount of problems. The companies will pay the homeowners off with money or take them to court till they run out of money too. Politicians won't do anything about the problem either. One politician in the movie Gasland, said " there is no such thing as perfect energy." Also, the politician didn't think there wasn't any thing wrong with the water he was presented, but he wouldn't drink it. Fracking is a huge problem because it can get thousands of people sick but also by destroying the environment. The water, streams, animals, and plants in those areas all become contaminated. As you can see, the fracking for natural gas has a lot of bad affects on people and the environment. This is why I think this is the worst energy source and environmental issue.