What the frack?

According to Investopedia.com, Fracking/ Hydraulic fracturing “refers to the procedure of creating fractures in rocks and rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open. The larger fissures allow more oil and gas to flow out of the formation and into the wellbore, from where it can be extracted.”

The purpose of fracking is to gain more natural gases like oil from below the earth’s surface. The process has been known to use large amounts of water and can result in the death/ sickness of plants/ animals and even human beings. I’ve been following the news on Shell’s fracking plans for the Karoo for a while and have noticed that there are two sides to this story.

1.     Shell’s story

Shell promises that the process will not use as much water as people/ the media think. They vow that no animals/ human/ plants or any other breathing creature will be harmed in the process. What they are offering is a richer South Africa with a big risk involved.

2.     The green story

Organisations like the Treasure the Karoo action group and many people who believe in the sustainability and life of our Earth has come forward against Shell saying that they are the big bad man who wants to get rich and doesn’t care if a few animals and people die in the process.

Here’s my opinion as one of the youth of South Africa. Shell cannot promise that nothing will go wrong. Numerous stories have been published and movies have been made about the negative effects of hydraulic fracturing. The green organizations cannot offer our starving youth’s who have nothing a better South Africa. Either way we lose if we leave our future in the incapable hands of these organizations and even the Government.

Let’s decide what we want and work towards a common goal. This is what we should be good at. We are after all the nation that stood together against apartheid. Have we simply forgotten what it means to stand up for something we believe in or don’t we believe in anything anymore?