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Fracking in the vast shale fields of the Vaca Muerta region in Argentina promised energy independence and shared wealth. Instead, it has imposed threats to local ecosystems and drove up prices while residents largely are left out of the financial boon, The Guardian reports.
SEI Senior Scientist Laura Forni studies the threats of fracking in Vaca Muerta and spoke to The Guardian about her findings.
A battery of pumping trucks is lined up behind pools of water to be used for hydraulic fracturing in Vaca Muerta, Argentina.
The expansion of fracking-based hydrocarbon development has accelerated at an unprecedented rate in Vaca Muerta, posing significant threats to local livelihoods and the environment.
Laura Forni, SEI Senior Scientist
The Vaca Muerta region of Argentina sits atop one of the world’s largest deposits of fuel gas. For the past 10 years, oil companies have seized upon these resources with an ever-growing fracking effort as part of the country’s goal to turn from a gas importer to a source of gas for the rest of the world.
The fracking boom was sold to Argentinians as a means of bringing prosperity and “energy sovereignty.” Instead, it fuels a surge of workers to small communities and pumps up prices of goods and services, The Guardian reports. And wells continue to crop up on farmland, in neighborhoods and next to critical bodies of water.
Laura Forni, along with SEI Scientists Marina Mautner and Romina Diaz-Gomez, have worked with the agricultural sciences department at Argentina’s National University of Comahue to identify these wells and map their proximity to rivers, farms, neighborhoods and cities. Their work has even turned into a virtual reality experience that allows users to see the vast local presence of the fracking industry.
Forni spoke to The Guardian about their work, which reveals the vulnerability of local livelihoods and ecosystems to impacts of fracking.
Media coverage / SEI's partnership with a university in Argentina allows people to explore the intersections of fracking and local water supply with virtual reality.
SEI working paper / This paper draws from a literature review and spatial data to better understand the industry’s impact on the watershed and on long-term water security.
Perspective / As we decarbonize our energy system, we must also address the harmful public health and environmental impacts of oil and gas extraction.
Other publication / The 2021 report reveals that countries' fossil fuel production plans remain dangerously out of sync with the limits consistent with the Paris Agreement.
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