Hydraulic Fracturing: A Critical Physical Geography Review

Abstract

Taking a critical physical geography approach, this article provides the first side-by-side review of the physical and social literature on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" as it is frequently referred to. We note the striking disparities between the physical science literature's description of the relatively manageable impacts of fracking and the almost apocalyptic tone taken in some popular press and critical social science literature. We argue that these disparities may be a result of the dramatic shift in the geography of energy production in the US. The rise of fracking has redistributed environmental injustices beyond traditional national sacrifice zones, such as Appalachia, and towards regions that in many cases are wealthier than Appalachia and have not recently borne the brunt of energy production, causing profound social, cultural, and economic shocks. Reviewing the physical and social science literature together suggests that we reconsider the fracking research agenda. Studies of the physical impacts of hydraulic fracturing should be expanded to address communities' concerns about habitat fragmentation and the impacts of the myriad truck trips required to service fracking wells, neither of which currently are given much attention. Social science research on fracking could benefit from an increase in comparative work, assessing the relative economic and social impacts in regions where energy production is ramping up in relation to regions where it is declining.

A critical physical geography of urban soil contamination

“…Echoing interventions in physical geography calling for the integration of insights from human geography (Tadaki et al, 2012;Wilcock et al, 2013), recent CPG contributions (cf Carey, 2010;Doyle et al, 2013;Lave and Lutz, 2014;Simon, 2014;Tadaki et al, 2014) respond to perennial calls in geography and other disciplines for an integrated science that takes seriously the interrelations between the social and the biophysical. Furthermore, CPG has the potential to move beyond the conventional ''impact model'' of human drivers of urban biogeochemical change (cf Grimm et al, 2008;Kaye et al, 2006;Pickett et al, 2011) by explicitly addressing the distal social processes mediating proximal soil disturbance, recognizing that ''socio-biophysical landscapes are as much the product of unequal power relations, histories of colonialism, and racial and gender disparities as they are of hydrology, ecology, and climate change'' (Lave et al, 2014, p. 3).…”

Introduction: energy and the geographical traditions

“…Furthermore, geographers have been at the forefront of innovative interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks, which are not only improving our understanding of energy, but also providing new concepts and methods by which to advance our understanding of Earth's complexity. Examples of this include critical physical geography (Lave and Lutz, 2014) and political-industrial ecology (see Baka, Chapter 34 in this volume).…”

“…Dozier and Outcalt, 1979); climate change (e.g. Harvey, 1988); critical physical geography (Lave and Lutz, 2014); and the use of spatial analysis and other quantitative methods (e.g. Haynes et al, 1983;Upchurch et al, 2009).…”

Quiet voices in the fracking debate: Ambivalence, nonmobilization, and individual action in two extractive communities (Saskatchewan and Pennsylvania)

“…This literature has focused on the social, environmental, and economic impacts [11,25,40,48], the regulatory environment [12,39,53,57,58], and the mobilization and framing efforts of anti-fracking movements [22,29,35,46,51,52,59]. By now both the positive and negative health, environmental, social, and economic impacts of fracking are well documented, and we know that, in some places, collective campaigns have realized changes to regulations and local bans on fracking.…”