Half of America Doesn't Know What Fracking Is

By Brian Merchant, TreeHugger

If you read green news, even if only sporadically, you’ve heard of “fracking.” If you follow progressive politics, you’ve heard of fracking. If you know much about modern energy production, you’ve heard of fracking. If you’re an environmentalist, you’ve probably protested fracking.

But those descriptions don’t apply to the 63% of Americans who’ve never heard of, or aren’t familiar with, the practice known as hydraulic fracturing. That’s the eye-opening finding of a new poll, and one that was carried out with a pretty decent sample size to boot. Here’s how the results break down:

$fracking_graph.png.492x0_q85_crop-smart$
Culture of Science/via

That’s crazy. Fracking has fundamentally transformed the energy debate—and energy production—around the world. It has helped create the glut of natural gas we’re currently sitting on, and that in turn is helping to drive coal out of business. It also poses numerous health and environmental risks that everyone—especially those who live in fracking-impacted areas—should be aware of. It can contaminate groundwater, spur small earthquakes, blast methane emissions into the sky, etc.

The poll reveals that there’s a lot of work yet to be done on energy education (that’s a massive understatement all around)—the public can’t make informed decisions about the controversial practice if it doesn’t even said controversial practice exists, after all.

So, for those of you reading this who’ve never heard of fracking: It’s the process wherein companies blast a highly pressurized chemical cocktail deep down into the earth, in order to fracture the rock layer to gain access to reserves of oil or gas. Pass it on.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Evelyn W.

3:52AM PDT on Sep 12, 2012

I was one of the ignorant ones,had not heard of it.Will definately pass the info on.

September 12
send a green star

Kathy P.

3:35PM PDT on Aug 25, 2012

heard of it, thanks

August 25
send a green star

Heidi H.

1:59AM PDT on Aug 11, 2012

We all must understand the dangers of fracking and stop it.

August 11
send a green star

Dave C.

2:06PM PDT on Aug 8, 2012

Stop the Fracking........

August 8
send a green star

Joe R.

7:48AM PDT on Aug 8, 2012

Frack off!

Susan A.

1:31AM PDT on Aug 8, 2012

Good for you! Simple explanation that will hopefully raise the consciousness of those who have heretofore not heard of fracking. Thanks so much for this great article! ;-)

Loo S.

2:25PM PDT on Jun 26, 2012

noted

June 26
send a green star

Debra G.

12:23PM PDT on Jun 26, 2012

Sadly isthere any way to stop it

Phillipa W.

8:49AM PDT on Jun 26, 2012

often is this way - the more harmful something is the fewer people know about it

Michael C.

8:41AM PDT on Jun 26, 2012

Cindy B, Thanks for trying to wake the people.

Sheeple, Fracking is like diabetes, Yes, like diabetes.

Government knows full well, what mechanisms are involved in diagnosing diabetes, and yet, they choose to do nothing about it. Oh, be assured that we will arrive at place where we will no longer be able to ignore the epidemic.

Compare Fracking to diabetes, I believe that you will find that like diabetes, the problem cannot be simply ignored. Meanwhile Government is turning a blind eye to a potential disaster, the reason...short term profits, and a product that may well be shipped overseas.

Since we are good at shifting blame...maybe they can blame it on Al Qaeda, or Iran.