There are many areas globally that are experiencing unprecedented droughts due to global warming and climate change, and this is a worry for all and a threat to life on our planet. While many individuals, governments and industries are encouraging us all to save water where we can, what about fracking and animal agriculture?
What do Fracking and Animal Agriculture Have in Common?
What fracking and animal agriculture have in common is the fact that they are two of the major sources of industrial water use and abuse.
Let us look at the animal agriculture industry:
Approximately 80% of the water usage in most countries is taken up by agriculture; the majority of this is used by animal agriculture, either in the form of drinking water, the “virtual†water that they consume in the form of water used to grow their feed, and water needed to keep factory farm facilities and slaughterhouses clean.
The real cost of the litre of milk that you love drinking could be as much as the equivalent of the amount of water you use to shower for an entire month. That beef that you love eating? Enjoy it because every 500 grams that you eat took around 9,000 litres of water to produce.
And now for the fracking industry:
Fracking not only poses a threat to freshwater supplies but also threatens water quality. The fracking process itself requires that hundreds of millions of litres of freshwater be injected into the ground along with a number of toxic “fracking fluid†chemicals I order to push natural gas pockets to the surface.
NO matter how much the oil companies say that water is not wasted, once this water has mixed with fracking fluid and contaminated with heavy metals contained in the shale and bedrock, it can never be reused. This water is then disposed of in underground waste wells or aquifers together with any other water deemed unsuitable for human consumption. The problem is that these wells often leak that toxic water, compromising nearby watersheds. Accidental pumping of fracking water into aquifers that contained potable water has also been recorded, resulting in billions of litres of freshwater being contaminated.
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