![]() First they visited a well pad in Bradford County, which leads the state in issuing permits for extracting shale gas with blasts of chemicals, sand and water-a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This spring, 18 Lehigh University professors from six departments spanning three colleges took a field trip to the center of shale gas mining in Pennsylvania, one of America’s shale gas hotspots. Professional Support for Teachers in the Field.Graduate Student Research Resources (Students Only).Internal Grant & Scholarship Resources (Faculty only).Opportunities to Participate in Research.Participating in the Latin American Alliance on Fracking, a coalition of organizations that promotes public debate, awareness and education among civil society groups, and supports the efforts of communities throughout the region to resist fracking.Conducting a regional outreach campaign to educate policy makers and the public.Organizing workshops and virtual seminars on the impacts of fracking.Supporting local, national, and international advocacy strategies, including litigation, to ensure that governments apply the precautionary principle to fracking proposals.Identifying fracking operations in the region, their impacts, affected communities, and civil society responses.Other documented harms include exhausted freshwater supplies (for all that fracking fluid), air pollution from drill and pump rigs, large methane emissions that aggravate global warming, earthquakes, and health harms including cancer and birth defects.ĪIDA’s report on fracking (available in Spanish) analyzes the viability of applying the precautionary principle as an institutional tool to prevent, avoid or stop hydraulic fracturing operations in Latin America. ![]() Gas may also seep from fractured rock or from the well into aquifers as a result, water flowing from household taps can be lit on fire. It may seep into aquifers and overflow into streams, poisoning water sources for people, agriculture, and livestock. The chemical soup-now also contaminated with heavy metals and even radioactive elements from underground-is frequently dumped into unlined ponds. Gas or oil trapped in the rock rises to the surface along with the fracking fluid. Fracking fluid-a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand-is pumped into the hole at high pressure, fracturing layers of shale rock above and below the hole. Then the drill curves and bores horizontally, making an L-shaped hole. What exactly is fracking, and what are its impacts?Ī straight hole is drilled deep into the earth. But in many cases they require legal and technical support. Many communities are organizing to prevent or stop the impacts of fracking, which affect their fundamental human rights. Governments are opening their doors to fracking without understanding its impacts and risks, and without consulting affected communities. “Fracking” is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract oil and natural gas from historically inaccessible reservoirs.įracking is already widespread in the global North, but in Latin America, it is just beginning. ![]() Stopping the spread of fracking in Latin America ![]()
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