Article 4

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/biocapacity-and-ecological-footprint/

Is Your State Consuming More Than Nature Can Provide?

Our never-ending appetite for food, water, and energy is driving the environment into the ground.

By Jane J. Lee, National Geographic

PUBLISHED July 14, 2015

Get too far into financial debt and creditors come calling. Fall into debt with nature and the consequences can be even more distressing: Hotter temperatures, shrinking farmland, and dried up reservoirs are only a few of the problems we're grappling with as a result of overtaxing the environment.

Data from a new report by the Global Footprint Network looks at which American states are running into the red with Mother Nature through such activities as burning fossil fuels, overfishing, and chopping down forests.

Our analysis looks at each state's ecological capacity—the ability of its environment to provide the resources that the state's residents use everyday, per capita. The numbers take into account how many acres of forest, pasture, cropland, and ocean each state controls. This is what's known as biocapacity. We then compare that to each state's demand for those resources—its ecological footprint.

Ecological creditors are states that use less than their environment can provide. They're staying within nature's budget. Ecological debtors demand more than nature can provide.

Biggest Ecological Debtors

Biocapacity deficit in global acres per person

Maryland - 21.8

Delaware - 20

Connecticut - 19.5

New Jersey - 17.4

Virginia - 17.2

Does not include District of Columbia

NG STAFF SOURCE: Global Footprint NetwoRk

These five states have racked up the most ecological "debt" per person, with Maryland topping the list. Each person in this coastal state would need, on average, 21.8 more acres of land and water to meet their consumption needs. The report goes on to say that Maryland is trying to pay down its debt by conserving wetlands and reducing energy consumption.

Biggest Ecological Creditors

Biocapacity surplus in global acres per person

Alaska - 491.7

South Dakota - 55

Montana - 38.2

Wyoming - 19.4

Nebraska - 17.8

NG STAFF SOURCE: Global Footprint Network

Alaska, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska are in the black with Mother Nature. Alaska far outstrips any state in the U.S. when it comes to surplus ecological capacity, with residents leaving 490 available resource acres on the table.

Article 5

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2015/07/150723-fracking-questions-answered/

Fracking, Quakes, and Drinking Water: Your Questions Answered

We answer reader questions about the controversial method of extracting oil and gas known as hydraulic fracturing.

Hydraulic fracturing, combined with horizontal drilling, has opened up new reserves of natural gas and oil, particularly in states such as North Dakota, site of the pictured rig.

By Christina Nunez, National Geographic

PUBLISHED July 23, 2015

Does it really cause earthquakes? What about the impact on drinking water? These and other questions, including one about dinosaurs, surfaced when we asked what you want to know about fracking.

Some recognize the word as an expletive from the series Battlestar Galactica, but most know it as the more common version of frac—the industry term for hydraulic fracturing, the process used to extract oil and gas from the ground.

The controversial practice has revolutionized the oil and gas industry, leading to a U.S. energy boom. It’s also raised a lot of questions. Here are some of yours.

Quakes

User @Quimby

Reply to @NatGeoEnergy: What do you want to know about fracking? Is fracking believed to cause or trigger Earthquakes? Or is this just a theory? 3:04 AM - 9 Jul 2015

Unknowns still exist, but there's little doubt that fracking activity does cause earthquakes, an issue raised by several readers including Quimby, above, and Michuel Nite. While quakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing—the high-pressure injection of fluid and sand into rock, opening cracks that release oil and gas—more often, it's the underground injection of wastewater after fracking that is the culprit.

Last April, officials in Oklahoma—which saw a fivefold increase in quakes between 2013 and 2014—acknowledged the spike was likely caused by oil and gas industry's underground injections of wastewater. While Oklahoma has seen the most dramatic impact, as reader @Dawgnme notes, other states are seeing quakes from energy activity as well. The federal government has released a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon, punctuating the risks for energy-producing states including Texas, Ohio, and Arkansas.

So if the link is established, "Why no action?" asked Afiba Johnson on Twitter. It depends on how you define action. Oklahoma's oil and gas regulator has ordered the operators of more than 500 oil and gas wastewater disposal wells to prove that they are not injecting wastewater below a certain threshold believed to boost the risk of quakes. In Colorado last year, officials temporarily halted wastewater disposal at a well in the northeastern part of the state because of temblors. Oklahoma and other states are grappling with the desire to keep oil and gas revenues flowing while preventing major damage or injuries from man-made quakes, most of which have been relatively minor.