4 Replies to “Fracking (Rimland)”

  1. I liked how you addressed multiple factors that have led to the current rise in production of natural gas before going back and discussing its origins and early usage. It anchored the focus of the narrative in the present and the comparisons to oil usage gave me a good frame of reference. I would have liked to know if natural gas occurs in places other than in shale rock, or if that is just the location where techniques for extracting natural gas has increased the greatest in recent history. I am also curious about when the shift from viewing natural gas as a waste product from oil drilling to being an independent product. I also enjoyed the use of charts to explain the transition from coal to natural gas and its general rise in prevalence as an energy source. Lastly, I know that natural gas is still a non-renewable resource so I ended wondering if/when the deposits will run out.

  2. The technological and social history from the 19th century was well approached and felt very thorough. The information here such as the purpose of natural gas and fossil fuels was interesting and provided a necessary base for the rest of the slidecast. You also did a good job in discussing the alternative sources of energy that were originally considered for the country’s main source of energy such as Nuclear power.

    The process of fracking is very well explained as well as the circumstances of the country at the time which led to the rise of fracking. While you do a good job explaining that fracking is the least environmentally destructive of fossil fuels, it would have been nice to have some quantitative statistics to support this fact.

  3. David, fantastic job on this project. I liked how you started off by discussing what exactly natural gas is. This was a very appropriate way of introducing your project. Next, the photos you used were very helpful in understanding the topic. For example, your photo of the steam turbine and explanation of how it works helped me understand part of the history behind where fracking comes from. Also, the graph you included that showed our imports vs production of oil was very interesting. I had no idea that there was such a drastic decrease in domestic production of oil in the 70s. I also enjoyed how you included how the gas shortage in the 70s and environmental impacts of coal were leading motivators to find alternative energy or natural gas. This led into how you perfectly explained what exactly fracking is and how it works. It was cool how you seemed to praise fracking, but also acknowledged that fracking has its own environmental footprint which can be minimized by carbon sequestration. Overall, your project was extremely professionally made. It would have been cool to see a video clip of how fracking works, but your photos were very well thought out and almost explained the presentation on their own. Great work David.

  4. I have always heard the term fracking and I knew what it was at the very minimum level but I never knew exactly how it actually worked. Your images that explained fracking were extremely helpful in helping me change that. They were very clear images that really helped me grasp a clearer picture of what fracking actually is.

    I like how you explained various reasons why fracking is becoming more popular and I think you did a very nice job at setting up your argument that it is the best option for the environment right now. You listed a wide variety of pros and cons that really allowed me to see both sides of the argument and again, grasp what fracking actually means.

    My only suggestion would have been to add more about policies both internationally or within America but I understand that might have been hard to do since the project was so short. Other than that, really amazing jobs and your pictures were outstanding.

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