The recent technological advancements in energy extracting
processes have proven to be a double edge sword that has caused a massive controversy in the past decade, specifically about hydraulic fracturing.
Fracking is complex processes that demonstrates a simple principle of physics.
Take water, sand, and chemicals and force the mixture into the ground to force
out the raw energy sources.
Economically, fracking is a brilliant innovation in natural
gas extraction. There is now a much larger source of natural energy that
Americans can benefit from, which creates many hundreds of thousands of jobs,
keeps energy bills for consumers lower, and keeps the nation independent from countries
the United States has relied on for these energy sources. According to Dr.
Scott A. Elias, professor of Quaternary Science at the University of London,
"more than a third of natural gas burned in the US is coming from fracking
wells, and shale gas is now cheaper than coal in the US."
Nearly everybody is on the same page when it comes to
fracking when understanding its value economically, but the meat of the controversy
is about the potential health and environmental effects. By actual scientific
evidence, the effects of fracking have proven to better the environment.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, just under half of the
fall in greenhouse gas emissions are due to replacing the burning of coal with
shale gas. However, Opponents believe that fracking negatively affects ground
water reserves. Steve Everly of Energy in Depth has found dozens of experts and
regulators including the US Dept. of Energy, US Geological Survey, the EPA, as
well as a long list of others who have acknowledged that there is little or no
evidence that fracking has ever contaminated groundwater.
Hydraulic fracturing has a long and prosperous history which
is inconvenient for opponents to acknowledge. According to the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, commercial fracking has been used by natural gas
extracting companies since 1949. History
shows that we have little to worry about fracking procedures which produce economic
growth as well as a clean and healthy environment.
To fully understand the importance of energy in our everyday
lives, we must consider a simple scenario. The environment would remain perfectly
unchanged should we quit driving cars that are fueled by carbon based products, stopped using electricity since generating it causes a large component of
greenhouse emissions, and stopped using water and sewage systems since these
operations have leached more cancer causing chemicals into the ground since the
EPA has founded in 1970 than the EPA has totaled in every Resource Conservation
Recovery Act super site cleanup recorded to date. Maybe not so simple after all, since few individuals cannot imagine life without cars, electricity, and indoor plumbing.
The works of Plato and Aristotle have manifested their importance in Western civilization today. Engineers continue to take what we know and apply it to real world situations with the guidance of morality and ethics. The role of ones character and virtues that determine and evaluate ethical behavior is known as virtue ethics, which place an emphasis on being rather than doing. Since morality stems from the identity and character of individuals rather than due to their actions, engineers embody virtue ethics in their daily work.
Virtue ethics will continue to guide engineers who will keep working on
new products and processes. Engineers designs inventions and innovations with
intrinsic values that will better humankind, and they will continue to be on
the forefront of it all by finding technologies that satisfy both sides of the hydraulic fracturing issue. Energy is the key to everything, and it is intuitively obvious
that we should frack. There are many government and state regulations on it
that protect all citizens and America will continue to remain free, not
being bounded by foreign energy bonds.
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