What fracking is doing to the Earth—and to our bodies, Beneath layers of ancient rock, a high-pressure process is reshaping the modern energy landscape. As fracking expands across the globe, so does the growing debate around its impact by Kieran Mulvaney, June 20, 2025, National Geographic
What is fracking? You may have heard about the effects this oil and gas extraction technique have on the environment, but its impacts extend far beyond that.
Between 2007 and 2016, oil production in the United States increased 75 percent, while natural gas production increased 39 percent, thanks to a massive increase in fracking. While the industry is booming, many climate scientists and communities have spoken out against the process. But what exactly is fracking and why is it so controversial?
Here is everything you need to know about fracking and its impacts.
What is fracking?
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique to extract fossil fuels—primarily methane, the principal component of natural gas—from underground rock layers. As well as being commonly used to heat homes, natural gas is also used to generate steam for industrial processes and is the source of 25 percent of the nation’s electricity.
Methane lies in small pockets within layers of shale rock that formed from ancient seabeds. To reach it requires drilling a hole approximately a mile deep. Once oil and natural gas companies reach the shale layer, the drill then turns horizontally, to encounter as much of the shale as possible.
Many vertical shallow wells are also frac’d, repeatedly, some as shallow as three hundred feet below ground surface, such as those Encana illegally frac’d into fresh water aquifers around Rosebud, Alberta, and some a bit deeper in Pavillion, Wyoming, where the company also contaminated drinking water aquifers
After engineers drill the hole, also known as a wellbore, they line it with a steel casing to stabilize it and then use a “perforating gun” to puncture tiny holes in the well wall. Then a mixture of water and sand, is injected into the well at very high pressure, blasting through the tiny holes.Companies lie to the public and their neighbours, claiming the casing is a perfect seal, while neglecting to disclose the perforating (workers have been killed by perf guns)The water breaks open fissures in the rock, and the sand holds those fissures open. The pressure of the shale then forces the pockets of oil and gas back up to the surface.and everywhere else up to surface outside well bores too! Many horizontal legs of frac’d wells are open hole, have no casing
So what are the environmental issues with this process? For one, a single well can use between 1.5 and 16 million gallons of water. Additionally, the mixture of water and sand blasted into the well also contains chemicals that prevent corrosion in the drilling equipment and reduce friction. The water and chemicals flow back up the well; the water is either treated and then discharged into streams, reused in further fracking operations, or pumped into deep disposal wells.
(How has fracking changed our future?)
Water tanks are filled for hydraulic fracturing in Vaca Muerta, Argentina. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, uses anywhere from about 1.5 million gallons to about 16 million gallons per well. Photograph by Cristian Martin, Getty Images
The growth of fracking
Hydraulic fracturing was invented in 1947A lot earlier than that. Read Andrew Nikiforuk’s Slick Water for history and gore about frac’ing and rolled out to the commercial market in 1949. Investments and technical developments led to a fracking boom as well as significant growth in U S. oil and gas production in the early 21st century.
Advocates of fracking hold it up as a step forward in reducing global warming because when natural gas burns, it emits only about half as many greenhouse gases as coal. In his 2014 State of the Union speech, former President Barack Obama asserted that, “If extracted safely, [natural gas] is the ‘bridge fuel’ that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.”Big lie, also pimped by RFK Jr, Sierra Club, EDF and others
The Independent Petroleum Association of America says that fracking “has created millions of American jobs, reduced energy prices, brought cleaner air…strengthened our national security, and transformed the United States into a global energy superpower.”More many big lies. Most promised frac jobs did not materialize and now automation is killing even more of the few jobs frac’ing provided However, some media reports have suggested that the industry’s claims of job creation have been inflated and that an initial boom in employment was followed by a significant loss as cheaper oil and gas prices—ironically partly fueled by the fracking boom—caused the industry to cut back.
The case against fracking
One of the largest environmental impacts of fracking is the amount of methane it releases. Methane is a significantly more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. A 2019 Cornell University study linked fracking to a rapid increase in the amount of methane in the atmosphere.
In addition, studies have pointed to a number of issues affecting communities close to fracking operations.
For example, fracking releases pollutants into the atmosphere from burning methane flares and hydrocarbons that leak through gaps in the casing surrounding the wellbores. These pollutants can combine with nitrogen oxides, largely from diesel engines used to run machinery, to create ground-level smog.
“We know, for example, that in the Front Range of Colorado, the amount of smog produced by oil and gas drilling now exceeds the amount of smog from vehicles, so it’s the number one source of smog,” says Sandra Steingraber, senior scientist with the Science and Environmental Health Network and co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York.
(Fracking boom tied to methane spike in Earth’s atmosphere.)
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Since fracking occurs in rural areas, it brings what Steingraber likes to call, “urban style smog.”
She said that one particularly notable source of air pollutants from fracking is compressor stations, which help push the gas along pipelines. These compression stations pressurize the gas with combustion engines, but the process emits particulates and other pollutants that can impact the cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological health of people in nearby communities.
Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that fracking can affect drinking water in surrounding areas. Fracking can leak hydraulic fracturing fluids into groundwater, causing water contamination. Inadequate treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater also threatens the environment and communities’ health.
A review of chemicals released into air and water by fracking identified 55 chemicals that may cause cancer, including 20 that have been shown to increase the risk of leukemia and lymphoma.
The health impact of fracking
Steingraber notes that 17.6 million people in the United States live within a mile of oil and gas wells. She is co-author of a collection of research into the impacts of fracking on community health and the environment, which details a number of studies demonstrating the health impacts of fracking.
Among some of these studies’ findings:
The compendium adds that “other documented adverse health indicators…include exacerbation of asthma as well as increased rates of hospitalization, ambulance runs, emergency room visits, self-reported respiratory problems and rashes.”
“This is a public health crisis,” Steingraber says.
Fracking contaminates a homeowner’s well water with methane in Granville Summit, Pennsylvania. A 2011 study found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when water supplies were close to natural gas wells.
Photography by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic Image Collection
Does fracking cause earthquakes?
Fracking operations can even cause earthquakes. The primary cause is not the fracking itself, but andthe disposal of the fluids that are used to break up the shale, which are injected deep underground under high pressure. Studies have connected increases in earthquakes in west Texas to wastewater disposal from fracking.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, fracking is responsible for 2 percent of earthquakes in Oklahoma, and the largest quake known to be induced by fracking was a magnitude 4.0 in Texas in 2018.Not true. Bigger earthquakes were directly caused by frac’ing in Canada, in BC and Alberta, including a recent 5.03M at Musreau Lake (near Grande Cache) and the biggest so far, a 5.6M near Peace River.
Should fracking continue?
Fracking’s advocates assert that claims of health risks and earthquakes are overwrought or “just plain false.”
Others disagree. Cornell University’s Robert Howarth—a biogeochemist who has been described as one of the world’s premier methane scientists—and professor of engineering emeritus Anthony Ingraffea said in a 2011 commentary that “shale gas isn’t clean, and shouldn’t be used as a bridge fuel,” and that the “gas should remain safely in the shale, while society uses energy more efficiently and develops renewable energy sources more aggressively.”And frac’ing for sour oil, which Persist is doing, is much more filthy and health harming than shale gas
Those who live near fracking operations, meanwhile, must do so in the shadow of uncertainty and anxiety. As one resident interviewed for a Colorado study observed: “We’re lab rats right now. They’re learning about it as they’re going…We don’t know what the impacts are going to be 20 years down the line.”
@rebradshaw.bsky.social:
They stopped fracking close to my home but not until they shook the stone facade loose from my house. (Not covered by insurance b/c we didn’t have earthquake policy in OK.) They stopped b/c they shook some rich folks houses who got big mad. They just do it where it damages the poor people’s houses.
National Geographic left out many other impacts of frac’ing, including frac companies conning and stealing billions of dollars from banks and investors, the massive intentional dumping of radioactive toxic waste, deadly souring of sweet formations, and the permanent removal from the hydrogeological cycle of 25-100% of water injected – which I think is the worst crime against earth and humanity committed by frac’rs and their enablers, but it’s a good general review of some of the frac harms.
Refer also to:
2025: Massimo “Shitbag” Geremia led Persist Oil and Gas is planning to frac many wells for sour oil at Rosebud, in stacked horizontals, and install a sour oil facility upwind of my already heavily frac’d home and land.
Persist frac’d numerous wells north of Rosebud last year, and accessed water from a local fishing hole via 20 km long foot wide black hose like in the above news photos.
Where will Persist get their water for drilling and frac’ing at Rosebud from? The old Rosebud river that runs through my land, and which I’ve worked hard to protect from frac’ers for 27 years to that fish and wildlife have some dregs for their lives (it was nearly dry last year, and through the west portion of my land, it was completely dry – this year, even with the big spring melt, it’s still nearly dry)?
This corrupt evil fucker – stealing from the public via his greed and dumping liabilities – gets water, for free, while I am still forced – nearly twenty years now – to haul water for my home use because Encana/Ovintiv illegally intentionally repeatedly frac’d the aquifers that supply my well? Wrong, crooked and evil. As evil as shit bags Danielle Smith, liar Zionist Harper-con Carney and the convicted felon adjudicated rapist they bend over for, shit-in-his-pants, Nazi Trump.
Industry and regulators have known for decades that the oil and gas industry sours sweet formations. What do our authorities do? Deregulate & lie to enable it.
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Microbial Control of Souring in Oil Reservoirs Dr. G. Voordouw, U of Calgary
The incidence of souring following water injection is a well recognized phenomenon by the oil industry and has led to the deployment of a variety of methods intended to contain SRB activity. Treatment of injection water with biocides such as gluteraldehyde and cocodiamines is one of the most common approaches for mitigation of souring.
The use of biocide is most successful in controlling SRB in surface facilities but is of limited success in the reservoir, due to occurrence of SRB in biofilms, which usually protects them from the action of biocide. Furthermore, frequent use of a biocide could lead to dominance or emergence of biocide-resistant strains of SRB.
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Hydraulic Fracturing Additives and the Delayed Onset of Hydrogen Sulfide in Shale Gas
As natural gas production has shifted further from deep prolific gas reservoirs to shale gas, several questions are being addressed regarding fracturing technologies and the fate of chemical additives. A less investigated issue is the unexpected increase in produced hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from hot shale gas reservoirs. Understanding the source of H2S in shale reservoirs and managing low-levels of recovered elemental sulfur affects plans for future treatment, corrosion mitigation, and fracture fluid formulations. In this work we demonstrate that some typical ingredients of hydraulic fracturing fluids are not as kinetically stable as one might expect. Surfactants and biocides such as sodium dodecyl sulfate and glutaraldehyde are shown to undergo hydrolysis and thermochemical sulfate reduction reactions under moderate reservoir conditions, with H2S as the final product accompanied with long chain alcohols and hydrogen sulfate as long-lived intermediate species.
This finding suggests that fracture fluid additives can be responsible for the delayed production of natural reservoir H2S.
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The most likely cause of this souring is artificial fracturing and the increase in sour wells over time is due to, in part, the increase in hydraulic fracture fluid volumes from 5-10 m3/m to 25-35 m3/m (2012-2015).
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Understanding the Souring at Bakken Oil Reservoirs
Oil field reservoir souring is defined as occurring when increasing concentrations of H2S are observed in production fluids. This is a relatively well-known problem in the contemporary oil industry. However, the identification of the source of H2S is site-specific and requires a rigorous analysis.
The general causes of souring are geomechanical (fracturing and intrusion into another formation), thermochemical (e.g., mineral dissolution), biogenic (sulfur-reducing bacteria activity), or combinations thereof.
In all cases, the causes of excessive H2S production in previously nonsour environments are primarily anthropogenic and caused by certain operational practices.
A proportion (25% to 100%) of the water used in hydraulic fracturing is not recovered, and consequently this water is lost permanently to re-use, which differs from some other water uses in which water can be recovered and processed for re-use.
2011: How frac’ers dump their toxic waste in Alberta; AER, the “regulator” nowhere to be seen.
2011: National Geographic Methane on Tap: Study Links Pollution to Gas Drilling
2006: My water after Encana/Ovintiv repeatedly, illegally frac’d the fresh water aquifers that supply my well and the hamlet of Rosebud (they are now pipelined safe alternate water from Calgary, about 100 km to the west).
Photo by Colin Smith