FRACKING: PROS AND CONS

Gasland was an independent effort to make visible an environmental situation that worries not only the United States but also other countries around the world. This situation refers to the negative consequences that fracking has generated, not only the environmental consequences but also the economic and social ones in the communities.

The arguments in favour of fracking point to the revenues that efficiency in oil extraction can bring, the generation of employment and the energy self-sufficiency of countries that still do not have other sources of energy that reliably supply most of the population.

The arguments against fracking are related to the impact on drinking water sources and the health of people, animals, vegetation, the soil and even the air where these extractions occur. The economic consequences are also a concern because it is a more expensive technique than conventional ones and is exposed to many costs due to the risks that would directly impact the communities' health and agricultural production systems.

All this panorama has led countries to make decisions based mainly on cost-benefit studies. In the case of the United States, there are still concerns about implementing this technique because the community continues suffering from environmental impacts. However, the subsoil use legislation favours land's economical use, as Josh Fox documented in GasLand.