Hydraulic Fracturing Essay Example for Free

Hydraulic Fracturing Essay Thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface, flows vast reservoirs of one of our planets most sought after commodities. In ancient Babylon there are writings of a dark elixir oozing from the lands surface, even then the people understood how precious this material was. Oil, along with Natural gas, are exceptionally rich sources of energy. A gallon of oil surpasses the output of five kg of coal, ten kg of wood, and over fifty times the amount of energy that fifty humans can produce. The richest oil can actually provide one hundred more times the energy, than the resources used to extract it from the ground. Currently the US is entering one of the largest modern oil booms the world has ever seen. Unfortunately unlike in ancient Babylon, oil today does not simply ooze out of the ground and into our cars. New advances in science and visualization technology have given us a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Also known as horizontal drilling, or fracking, these new techniques have caused a great controversy and sparked a public debate over the potential risks â€Å"fracking† could ensue on our environment. Despite the negative pictures environmental lobbyists have painted, hydraulic fracturing is essential for the future of America’s economy. Its main purpose is to create jobs, a stable market, and advance the future of clean energy in the United States. Currently, there has been a focused attention on the negative environmental impacts fracking could potentially carry with it especially in the water supply. There are hundreds of on-going investigations taking place to ensure the protection of the environment as well the health of citizens who currently populate near sites that are using a horizontal drilling method. Most of the negative impacts on the environment, associated with fracking, are poorly understood by the general public. The water supply has been one of the main concerns voiced by lobbyists and various media outlets. Currently the United States government has issued extensive research on the matter through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has focused much of its attention on the sustainability of the water supply and soil surrounding current and former drilling sites. The EPA recently released on their main website a statement  confirming the following: The EPA currently is working closely with indus try partners to identify locations and develop research activities for prospective case studies. In prospective case studies, research at the site begins before hydraulic fracturing occurs, and then continues during and after hydraulic fracturing activities. The studies to date have shown no correlation to contaminated water supplies before or after the process of hydraulic fracturing. According to the New York Times, â€Å"Shale gas is accessed at depths of thousands of feet while drinking water is extracted from depths of only hundreds of feet. Nowhere in the state have fracking compounds injected at depth been shown to contaminate drinking water.† It is important to understand the process at which the gas is extracted to understand where the areas of risk occur. â€Å"Each well contains multiple layers of steel casing and cementing to effectively protect groundwater.† (API 1) This is essential to the protection of our water supply. It is important to understand the access large oil companies have to advanced equipment and the most brilliant minds. Each year bill ions of dollars are spent on research towards the extraction and containment of natural gas as well how to dampen the carbon footprint left after drilling. Many natural gas operators have chosen to disclose the ingredients of their cocktails to the website FracFocus.org, it is operated by the Groundwater Protection Council. This website includes a public record that can be examined by drill site or well location, individuals can effortlessly view the components used to fracture detailed wells. â€Å"As of early 2012, nearly one hundred companies have already provided information about approximately ten thousand wells and that number increases every day.† (API) Companies in our modern society understand the importance of transparency. Access to websites and detailed logs have given the public the ability to make their own judgments on the safety of individual operators. This makes large and independent companies held to higher standards than ever before. While there are greenhouse gases released during the extraction process they are significantly less than our current coal-fired plants. â€Å"Shale gas emits half the carbon diox ide per unit of energy as does coal, and coal burning also emits metals such as mercury into the atmosphere that eventually settle back into our soils and waters.† (New York Times) This is of great importance to understand especially as one of the oldest and largest coal-fired plant operates in  west Texas. Advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club are fighting to shut down these highly destructive plants. â€Å"Coal and gas-fired power plants emit more than 2.3 billion metric tons per year of carbon pollution, approximately 40% of total U.S. energy-related carbon pollution.†(SierraClub.Org) Because of intense restrictions any emissions from oil and gas wells must stay within agreed state and federal restrictions to guarantee the health and well-being of residents. â€Å"Natural gas is considered a clean burning fuel because of its comparatively low emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, and nitrogen oxides.†(API 1) According to the Environmental Protection Agency, natural gas-fired electricity generates half the carbon dioxide of coal-fired production. As a country we have gained a dependency on energy and as we grow new techniques will have to be discovered to maintain our consumption rate. Hydraulic Fracturing brings us closer to clean energy while having an instanta neous benefit to our atmosphere and environment by making dangerous coal-fired plants obsolete. The oil and natural gas industry resources are considerably valuable to the United States ‘economy as one of the country’s major employers and buyers of imports. Maintaining its growth through a struggling economy, Americas oil and natural gas operators carry on to deliver well-paying employment, returns to administrations and share growth for millions of Americans. â€Å"With increased access to U.S. oil and gas resources we can create 1 million new jobs in the next ten years alone.†(Green 1) That means if the nation could regulate the practice of fracking, while protecting the environment, it in return would create one million American jobs. That would not only raise our unemployment rate exponentially, but would insert millions of tax dollars back into the economy for improved infrastructure or education. â€Å"Expansion of oil and natural gas shale assets sustained more than 2.1 million jobs in 2012.†(API 1) Affordable, native natural gas is vital to refreshing the chemical, manufacturing, and steel industries. These great industries have supported our nation in the past and will continue into the future. The American Chemis try Council determined: A 25 percent increase in the supply of ethane (the liquid derived from shale gas) could add over 400,000 jobs across the economy, provide over $4.4 billion annually in federal, state, and local tax revenue, and spur $16.2 billion in capital investment by the chemical industry That added boost to  the job market is a gift long overdue to our struggling economy. Similarly, the National Association of Manufacturers estimated that high recovery of shale gas and lower natural gas prices will help U.S. manufacturers employ 1,000,000 workers by 2025. This will directly stimulate small town communities by offering technical job positions with life-long benefits. As well the added income will help to slowly relieve the burden of debt many families are suffering from. An IHS report, America’s New Energy Future: The Unconventional Oil and Gas Revolution and the US Economy, estimates that: â€Å"Mainly due to lower energy prices, average disposable income per household increased by more than $1,200 in 2012.†(IHS 4) This has continuously been omitted from the main stream media. Numerous industry sponsored reports are connecting gushing oil and natural gas production brought on by fracking is lifting the United States economy by dropping energy costs for clients and producers. It has a direct correlation as we produce more on shore energy our costs and high import taxes decrease. This in affect has a trickle-down policy when oil costs less to extract, ship, and use then household energy bills go down. President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address the President claimed recognition for governing the leading decline in oil imports in current times and for accomplishing the lowest use of need on oil imports in sixteen years. He accredited that notable outcome somewhat to improved oil production in North and South Dakota but mainly to the substantial surge in gas production that has directly stemmed from hydraulic fracturing. There is a clear indication that the risks of fracking are reducing day by day as the benefits continue to increase. The crash of 2008 brought our economy to a grinding halt. There is currently no other market that could stimulate the economy as much as the energy sector. The United States Economy will progress substantially over the next ten years due to the shale boom. Hydraulic fracturing will reduce the cost of energy while raising manufacturing. Most importantly it will reassure chemical and technology companies will receive higher endowments givin g us an edge over our competitors. Fracking will also reduce the cost of transportation by fueling our vehicles with clean natural gas. By performing quality due diligence we can omit the fears associated with hydraulic fracturing once and for all. Joint cooperation from the US Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency will contribute access to up to date reports on the environment and public safety. Hydraulic fracturing offers us hundreds of years producing clean, dependable, sustainable energy. It will directly affect the following generations while having a positive effect on our current economy. â€Å"Hydraulic fracturing is the future without it, we would lose 45 percent of domestic natural gas production and 17 percent of our oil production within 5 years.†(API 1) Some view hydraulic fracturing in an undesirable context. I am confident in hydraulic fracturing and see it as a window of opportunity for America that will help boost the economy while giving an immediate reduction in greenhouse gases. The benefits and rewards of hydraulic fracturing simply outweighs the risks. Works Cited Brantley, Susan L., and Anna Meyendorff. The Facts on Fracking. Nytimes.com. New York Times, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. Efstathiou, Jim, Jr. Bloomberg. Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. . Green, Mark. Energy Tomorrow Home. Energy Tomorrow Home. API.ORG, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. Hassett, Kevin A., and Aparna Mathur. American Enterprise Institute. AEI. Aei.org, 4 Apr. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. Larson, John W., and Richard Fullenbaum. Americas New Energy Future. Rep. no. Vol. 3. IHS.com, Sept. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. . Pierce, Richard J., Jr. Scholarly Commons. Site. Gwu.edu, 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. . Sierra Club Home Page: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet. Sierra Club Home Page: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet. Sierraclub.org, 2012. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Department of the Enviroment. Progress Report Webinar. Epa.gov, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. . Zobak, Mark. American Petroleum Institute. American Petroleum Institute. API.ORG, Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

Southern Cyprus :: history

Southern Cyprus Southern Cyprus as Terrorist State The most insidious and nefarious partner of terrorism against Turkey is â€Å"Southern Cyprus.† I will not deal in this work with the EOKA murders directed at the British and the Turkish Cypriots perpetrated by the "Southern Cypriots" striving for the union of the island with Greece, how the Southern Cypriots accommodated the Armenian ASALA organization, and got them to kill the Turkish diplomats. Here I will only disclose the relations of the "Southern Cypriot" administration with the Marxist-Leninist Maoist terrorist organization PKK. The reason why the rulers of "Southern Cyprus" embraced the ASALA and the PKK for 20 years is the hatred of Makarios for the Turkish State and the nation. The fact that same feelings are carried by Karamanlis; Papandreou and similar Greek politicians has seriously endangered the security of the region. In the years following 1974, while the then Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis thoughtlessly and promptly withdrawing. Greece from the military wing of the NATO, Makarios, following a parallel path, was turning Cyprus into a "communist base". The policy followed by Karamanlis and Papandreou was the intimidation of the West. Moscow, striving to penetrate into the Eastern Mediterranean and to cause a collapse in the Western Alliance, had sent the agents of all the communist bloc to "Southern Cyprus". What made "Southern Cyprus" an international terrorism base is that policy. The number of so called Soviet, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian "technicians" based in "Southern Cyprus" in 1976 was more than 1000. When 250 Cubans traveling between Syria and "Southern Cyprus" were added, that number was approaching to 1500. The militants of the extreme Middle Eastern Terrorist organizations was not ixicluded in that calculation. The one who prepared the ground for the operation of ending the influence of NATO in the Eastern Mediterranean was Vassos Lissarides, the Marxist advisor of Makarios. Lissarides, the founder of the socialist EDEK Party, is the person the ASALA before 1985, and the PKK today, on to the island, who brought to attack Turkish targets. Lissarides, in speeches he made in the anti-Turkey meetings held in Athens and Paris in 1976 had explicitly said that they were preparing "a new VietNam style War" in order to expel the Turks from the island. Lissarides played his own game for 40 years on the island and continues to do so. In this period, his connection with certain people has aroused the attention of intelligence organizations.

Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s 1916 play titled â€Å"Trifles† uses many elements of drama such as, diction and spectacle through the actions of the two women as they rummage through a unusually messy kitchen to develop complexity and hold the attention of the audience until the very end. Glaspell uses irony and common misconceptions to convey her powerful message â€Å"Trifles† is also a play that reflects a clear notion of gender and sex roles. Glaspell, a feminist writer, writes plays that are known for their development of deep, sympathetic characters that have strong principles that are worth standing up for (Holstein 288). Trifles† opens up in its setting, which is a rural area of Nebraska in a newly abandoned farmhouse kitchen belonging to the Wright family. The play is written from two different perspectives. The perspectives include a male’s, which include George Henderson, the county attorney, Henry Peter, the sheriff, and Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer, and a female’s, which includes Mrs. Peter’s, the wife of Henry Peters and Mrs. Hale, the wife of Lewis Hale. The male characters enter the house as a crime scene. The county attorney carries out the investigation in an orderly way by interviewing the key witness and asking for the facts only. â€Å"The audience hears only male voices for the first quarter of the play as they go from room to room routinely until they left nothing out, ‘Nothing of importance’† (Holstein 283). The females of the play were very hesitant to enter the house. The beginning scene describes, â€Å"The women have come in slowly, and stand close together near the door† (Glaspell 958). The women enter the house as a home rather than a crime scene. They are there only to gather items for the imprisoned, Mrs. Wright. They are very nervous and timid, which can be determined by the diction that Glaspell uses. Many dashes are used as the women speak slowly and thoughtfully in the home where a man was just murdered. Seeing the bread outside the breadbox, the broken fruit jars, and the rocking chair that Mrs. Wright was sitting in before and after the alleged murder that Mrs. Hale almost sat in causing it to rock back and forth all startled and made the women uneasy as they wondered around the house (Glaspell 962). These details also play a role in the spectacle that Glaspell is creating. As the play progresses, they are able to put themselves in Mrs. Wright’s position, making them more comfortable as they explore the familiar kitchen. Mrs. Hale has been Mrs. Wright’s neighbor for years and knows how hard it is to keep up with the cleaning and womanly chores of the home, which is why she is angry when the men are snooping around and judging her (Glaspell 962). She recalls when â€Å"Minnie Foster, now Mrs. Wright, wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up in the choir and sang† (Glaspell 968). As the women find the birdcage and later discover the dead bird wrapped in a beautiful box and realize what has happened in the Wright’s home, they begin to sympathize with her. They first think about â€Å"the lonely quiet of her childless farmhouse† (Holstein 285). Mrs. Hale â€Å"mourns the loss of Mrs. Wright’s preserved fruit, remembering her own hard work during canning season† (Holstein 286). For the first time throughout the play, Mrs. Peter’s softens to Minnie’s situation remembering the time a boy murdered her kitten and whispered, â€Å"If they hadn’t held me back I would have—hurt him† (Glaspell 967). Holstein mentions, â€Å"She also contemplates the stillness of her old homestead after her first baby died and compares it to Minnie’s solitude† (286). It is clear that the women are able to sympathize with Minnie Wright because â€Å"they share her experience† (Holstein 286). The play begins to be ironic as the men tease and belittle the women by poking fun at their â€Å"trifles† such as whether Mrs. Wright would sew or knot her quilt. â€Å"Mrs. Hale says, resentfully, â€Å"I don’t know as there’s anything so strange, our takin’ up our time with little things while we’re waiting for them to get the evidence† (Glaspell 964). Holstein points out that evidence is nothing more than the â€Å"little things† (284). The first trifle that was discussed was â€Å"a neighbor’s visit†, which Mrs. Hale has ongoing guilt about throughout the play. â€Å"Mrs. Hale observes, â€Å"We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing† (Holstein 287). Other examples of their trifles that are discussed are items such as the birdcage that no longer has a bird in it and the square of quilt that is not nearly as neat as the others. These â€Å"trifles† become major evidence in the murdering of John Wright, but are kept secret by the women. The women ironically become the main characters of this murder mystery, which was groundbreaking in the time that Glaspell wrote this play. The men seemingly disappear as the women instinctively uncover the mystery for themselves piece by piece giving them a certain power over the men. In the beginning of the play, the women are quiet from â€Å"powerlessness†, but by the end â€Å"Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters ultimately find power in being devalued, for their low status allows them to keep quiet at he play’s end. † The women are much like â€Å"servants and other discounted groups†, for they are allowed to have knowledge of subjects â€Å"because it is assumed they will not be able to make intelligent use of it† (Holstein 284). By not turning Mrs. Wright in, Mrs. Peters clearly makes a change from the start of the play to the end. Mrs. Hale is luckily able to change Mrs. Peters’ initial thought on the discovery of Mrs. Wright being a murderer, which was the idea that â€Å"The law has got to punish crimes† (Glaspell 968). The men enter the kitchen again after carrying out these investigations with no more knowledge of the murder than when they started. The county attorney overlooks the trifle of Mrs. Wright being afraid of cats when he questions the empty birdcage, which could have been possible evidence. Mrs. Hale lied and said, â€Å"We think—the cat got it† (Glaspell 697). Holstein mentions, â€Å"Perhaps Mrs. Hale’s remark is an oblique reference to the women’s silence, as in the old question ‘has the cat got your tongue? ’† The attorney is only interested in the â€Å"visible evidence† of the murder (Holstein 285). In the end the women’s silence is no longer a â€Å"silence of powerlessness†, but a power of â€Å"intention and choice† (Holstein 284). The plays final line is the most powerful line. The county attorney remarks sarcastically, â€Å"Well Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to—what is it that you call it, ladies? † and Mrs. Hale responded, â€Å"We call it—knot it, Mr. Henderson† (Glaspell 968). Holstein discusses that â€Å"Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters intentionally â€Å"knot† their knowledge and do â€Å"not† share it. There silence has become a mark of their solidarity, a refusal to endanger a sister. She ends her article with a basic summary of the men in the play by stating, â€Å"For the men in the play, [the women’s] secret remains an undiscovered trifle† (Holstein 290). Many aspects of Glaspell’s â€Å"Trifles† make it a moving play with a simple, yet powerful theme of women in this time period being powerful in the same way that they are powerless; in silence. As a feminist, Glaspell is able to give women the power of using trifles and womanly concerns that men laugh at to solve a murder mystery with hard evidence, and also gives them the power to stick up for a fellow female and withhold information from the portrayed ignorance of men. Although Glaspell does not come right out and say it, she is making it clear that she finds men to be overbearing and inferior to women contrary to the popular beliefs at the time this play was written. Glaspell does something inspiring by using the many elements of drama along side irony and the notion of gender and sex roles to develop a complex, chilling, and entertaining play about something as serious as a scorned woman seeking revenge on her husband and two women using simple â€Å"trifles† to understand why.

Arguments against the Use of School Uniforms - 862 Words

Uniforms School uniforms in England were first introduced during the occupation of King Henry VII. England is mostly known for their school uniforms even though British people are not very interested, in fact they spend less money on clothes than the people of many European countries. Although, the school uniforms are part of the British image, many individuals oppose the use of school uniforms. The British is mostly known for their clothes, more specifically the school uniforms, it is one of their dress code. Britain has influenced many countries to make school uniforms compulsory. Many continents like Africa and Asia were forced while they were being colonized by Britain to make school uniforms compulsory. Both the public and private schools are required to have its won colures, styles and the dress code most not be neglected. When students are shown or exposed to the positive sides of having school uniforms, they become more responsible students but do school uniforms contravenes the stude nt rights to self- expression. The most typical arguments against school uniforms are that students are not allowed to choose what they want to wear. The students are limited, and there is no other way for self-expression. The only way for modern students to become unique and different from each other, is by having different clothes and not school uniforms. Unfortunately, school uniforms make everybody look almost the same. Many parents even complain about theShow MoreRelatedThe Pros and Cons of Wearing School Uniform1523 Words   |  6 PagesScientific research shows that school uniforms make the student appear smarter and more well-behaved, according to Behling (1994). 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