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Fracking Reflection The final presentation of the semester taught me a lot about fracking and the issues associated with it. Fracking is a process in which liquid mixed with sand and chemicals get injected underground at a high pressure into a wellbore to make it easier to extract the gas and oil which we use every day. Fracking is controversial because while there are many economic benefits to it, there are also many environmental concerns that come along with it. I believe the environmental concerns outweigh the economic benefits and fracking should not be allowed to take place anywhere in the country. We have enough environmental problems without having to worry about the affects fracking has on the environment. The economic benefits of fracking include the high amounts of hydrocarbons that would not otherwise be easily extracted from the ground. Extracting these can lead to oil prices decreasing in the long run and a higher supply of domestic fuel. Without fracking, approximately 45% of natural gas that we get domestically will be unattainable. While these benefits seem extremely promising, the environmental issues fracking causes are too devastating for it to be allowed. Environmental effects of fracking are contaminated water, increased air pollution, trillions of gallons of wasted water used in the process of fracking, and radioactivity in areas of fracking. All of these cause major health issues and potentially kill people living in areas where fracking exists. Farms and livestock get wiped out in areas with fracking as well. People get directly negatively impacted from fracking and the economic benefits do not make up for lives being destroyed. New York currently does not allow fracking and likely will not in the near

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