Paper Example. Fracking Contributes to Global Warming

Louis W and Allstadt support the idea that fracking contributes to global warming by giving facts and evidence of their counter-arguments (Allstadt & Louise, 2013). The authors think that it is a wakeup call in finding what the extreme lengths that are required to pull oil and gas out of the ground, especially when most of the conventional reservoirs has been exploited. Fracking is a method in which rocks is fractured by a pressurized liquid, and the process is used to extract natural gases and petroleum. It is basically drilling down through a cap rock, an impervious rock that has trapped oil and gas beneath it. According to the author, the process itself is a contributor to global warming since once you're into the reservoir, the natural pressure of the gas will push up the gas and oil in a manner in which these products comes out will pollute the environment hence cause global warming.

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The cause of global warming, according to Allstadt and Louise, start when the prospect of finding more of the conventional reservoir especially on the land and places that have been heavily explored such as the US and Europe. The companies that extract this product using franking methods are aware of this problem of finding more conventional reservoir yet all of them only talk about the need of going either nonconventional shale or tight sand drilling. These companies also cause a lot of harm to water bodies by going deeper into the water in their process of extracting these conventional reservoirs, and the effect of polluting water catchment areas is global warming.

Another of authors supporting evidence is that both the horizontal drilling and fracturing has been around for such a very long period and some industries can even confirm that it has been in existence for about 60 years. The adverse effects of this method lasting for those years is that there will be a difference in the volume of fracking fluids and the volume of flowback that will occur in these wells. According to them, the difference is 50 to 100 times more than what was used in the conventional wells. Another different that support their argument is that the rock above the target zone is not necessarily impervious the way it is in the conventional wells. This difference in their view is a significant volume that could cause global warming. The industries can even attest that the miles between the zone that has been franked is not going to let anything to come out; hence there is no point of doing it in the first place. There are however, case when the methane has made it up into aquifers and atmosphere, which is a great contributor to global warming. The extractors are not sure how much gas is going to come out yet they are opening up a channel for gas to come to creep up to the surface and into the atmosphere without considering the consequences it will have on Ozone Layer that protect us against global warming. Allstadt and Louise concluded that fracking contributes to global warming.

Franking does not Contribute to Global Warming by Coral Davenport.

The counter-argument about how fracking doesn't contribute to global warming was authored by Coral Davenport in 2015, where he gave various opposing points and evidence about the issue, (Coral, 2015). His argument was based on a study conducted by the proceeding of the National Academy which concluded that hydraulic fracturing which is a controversial technique behind the nation's recent oil and gas boom doesn't significantly contribute to global warming as many environmental conservation groups have warned. According to Core, this is excellent news for oil and gas companies such as Shell and Chevron who depend much on fracking technology to cheaply acquire vast new reserves of domestic oil and natural gas that has been trapped in the Shale-rock formations. The survey is groundbreaking which serves to add substantial new evidence that hydraulic fracturing does not contribute to climate change neither does it contribute to the emission of methane at a higher rate than those set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Coral view is that the study that was conducted reveals that majority of hydraulically fractured natural gas wells contain surface equipment that prevent and reduce on-the-ground methane emission at least by 99 per cent. The study didn't fail to recognize that in the process some valves do allow methane to escape at level 30 per cent higher than the set by EPA. Nevertheless, the overall emission of total methane from fracking technology is only about 10 percent lower than EPA standard hence difficult in causing a significant effect on global warming. Based on the study, Coral concluded that fracking does not contribute in any way to global warming since there are mechanisms set that reduce the emission of methane gas to the environment and atmosphere.

The Convincing Positions of the Two Arguments.

I find the argument of Coral on fracking doesn't contribute to global warming to be most convincing since he has clearly outlined the facts and evidence of his case. His opposing points can also be considered to be genuine since they are based on the study of a qualified and renown institution called the National Academy of Science. There was a lot of input in conducting the survey where $2.3 million was used. The people used to hold the research were also scientists from the University of Texas, and their knowledge on the matter is unquestioned. Coral has also proven how the study was done in an independent manner such that even the sponsors of it had no input on the research and result. The report was also subjected to independent peer review before being published.

Work Cited

Allstadt, Louis W. "Fracking Contributes to Global Warming." Natural Gas, edited by Dedria Bryfonski, Greenhaven Press, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Accessed 12 Dec. 2016. Originally published as "Former Mobil VP Warns of Fracking and Climate Change," Truthout.org, 19 July 2013.

Davenport, Coral. "Fracking Does Not Contribute to Global Warming." Natural Gas, edited by Dedria Bryfonski, Greenhaven Press, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Accessed 12 Dec. 2016. Originally published as "New Study Says Fracking Doesn't Contribute to Global Warming," National Journal, 16 Sept. 2013.