EXTRACTING COAL
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Here is the Appalachian Mountains, a mountain where coal has been mined out explosively in the past.
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Extracting Oil and Gas on Land
OIL
GAS
One way Gas is extracted is Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking). Fracking is when you inject a mix of water, sand, and other chemicals a few kilometres deep in the ground. The pressure brings small cracks where gas comes out of the cracks and goes into a well. Many say this method is wasteful because it uses too much water and along with this, there is a risk of groundwater contamination and even land instability.
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EXTRACTING OIL AND GAS AT SEA
Some Oil Deposits are underneath the ocean floor so extracting them is more difficult. Drilling Rigs must be very steady. Drilling underwater also causes a much larger environmental risk, based mainly on accidents. An example is in 2010 the deep-water horizon a drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico causing the largest oil spill in history, along with this killing humans and marine life.
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EXTRACTING OIL FROM OIL SANDS
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Oil sand are areas of sand that had been mixed with oil. Oil sands have been
found all around the world. Oil sands are thick and the normal method of extracting oil will not work. So, how do companies extract oil from oil sands? Well, companies use strip mining to extract oil sands from the ground. Strip mining involves removing shallow strips of Earth's surface. They do this because oil sands are located less than 200 meters below the Earth's surface. Once the strip mining is completed, vast amounts of hot water and chemicals are added to the sand in order to separate the oil from the sand. After the oil is removed, the water is dirty and contains a lot of oil and chemicals.
Social Impacts:
There are many countries who have a large supply of oil available, usually this helps the economy, however, this is not always the case something that can happen is (what researchers say) the resource curse. For example, Nigeria produces 2.2 million barrels of oil everyday and sells most of it's oil, why is this country not as wealthy as a country who produces less oil? Nigeria suffers from the "resource curse", this "curse" can happen when the Government uses the profit made from selling the oil to the government only, and not putting the money into the general populations's education, healthcare, or any other improvements for that matter. Along with this the government does not support tourism, and the government uses harsh actions to control their unhappy population.
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IMPACTS ON NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Extracting and processing fossil fuels has a big impact on the natural environment. Mining and drilling permanently changes the earths landforms.
OIL SPILLS
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Transporting oil is a dangerous risk to the environment. At any given moment there could end up being a disastrous oil spill. Oil spills affect land and water, causing effects on all organisms nearby. In 1989 a massive oil spill in Alaskan waters killed up to 100,000 to 250,000 sea birds. This is bad because that means oil spills affect biodiversity. Now in 2016, the environment still hasn't recovered. Wars can also cause oil spills. The 1991 war led to one of the largest oil spills in history. The Iraqi army invaded a neighboring country in the Middle East. In order to slow down the American troops, the Iraqi army opened and burned oil wells. This caused severe air pollution. The effects on the wildlife where immense. To this day, oil can still be found in the area (it's almost been 26 years).
AIR QUALITY
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Burning fossil fuels such as coal for energy, emits large amounts of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the air. When CO2 is being emitted into the air, it causes global warming and that affects climate change. Burning fossil fuels also releases toxic chemicals into the air. Surprisingly, this can pollute precipitation, making it fall acid rain. Acid rain is created when rain mix with chemicals. Acid rain kill trees and other living organisms.
IMPACTS ON HUMANS
Burning fossil fuels such as coal for energy, emits large amounts of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the air. When CO2 is being emitted into the air, it causes global warming and that affects climate change. Burning fossil fuels also releases toxic chemicals into the air. Surprisingly, this can pollute precipitation, making it fall acid rain. Acid rain is created when rain mix with chemicals. Acid rain kill trees and other living organisms.
TRANSPORTATION RISKS
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Transporting fossil fuels is a risk to the health of humans. In 2013, a 72 cart train was carrying oil and it was left ignored which was a life taking mistake. The train went of its tracks and into a town, causing a ginormous explosion. 47 people were killed and more than 30 buildings were destroyed.
HEALTH AFFECTS
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Cars and fossil fuels release a type of air pollution called smog. It is the main cause of lung cancer. If you are a generally a healthy human, you might not get lung cancer because of smog, but you can get breathing problems. In 2013, there where many reports of smog in china. The government warned people to stay inside. China produces smog from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal. China burns more coal than any other country in the world. Winds can help remove smog from lingering in the air. At that time, there were very few winds therefore, smog was still in the air polluting it.