There are 500,000 active gas wells in the U.S. Each well requires 8 million gallons of water per hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). Each well can be fracked 18 times. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing, chemicals that include toxins and carcinogens like lead, mercury, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde. In sum: 72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals are needed to run our current gas wells. Panelists discuss the environmental impacts of fracking and efforts to resist the industry at local and national levels. With photographer Nina Berman (Noor); and Anthony Ingraffea, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University. Moderator: Adam Harrison Levy.
This event is part of the Fall 2014 programming series ICP Talks: Climate Change. For a complete listing of series events, visit www.icp.org.
ICP gratefully acknowledges our partnership with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society of Columbia University | Earth Institute and with The Human Impacts Institute, Brooklyn, in developing and presenting public programs to accompany the exhibition Sebastião Salgado: Genesis.
Image: Nina Berman, Fractured: The Shale Play, 2011. Flaring from natural gas drilling lights up a dark rural road, Springville, Pennsylvania. © Nina Berman/Noor.