Fracking and Wildlife

The construction of roads, drilling pads and pipelines for thousands of drilling operations are adding up and impacting rural communities and affecting America’s landscape. The clearing of thousands of acres of forests is leading to reduced and fragmented habitats and other potentially life-threatening impacts for wildlife.By destroying the habitats of plants and animals, we are making changes to our ecosystem, many of which can not be undone. In the U.S. alone, over 1.2 million previously drilled wells have been Fracture stimulated, and another 300,000 are set to be drilled in 2012. This amounts to major damage to various ecosystems, and changes in the atmosphere as well through leaked methane making it to the surface. Another problem is the transportation of the toxic "used fluids" from the fracturing process. There have been 5 recorded spills since 2009, 4 on public roads and 1 at a drilling site. Luckily none of those documented cases caused major damage, but with the growing amount of wells and therefore fluid being transported there is an ever present danger of major environmental impact.