BC's Fracking Industry: Exploring Environmental Dangers and Health Risks

BC’s fracking industry operates in the northeast corner of the province, far from the biggest population centres. Yet its impacts are felt by everyone here and around the world. That’s because the gas these companies are after is methane, which heats the planet even faster than other fossil fuels.

Because of the shape of the methane molecule, it traps 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide, the climate pollution most of us are familiar with. Though it only lasts in the atmosphere for a few decades, the gas packs a powerful punch while it’s there. In fact, it’s responsible for a quarter of the global heating we’re currently experiencing.

Methane spills into the air from the moment fracking companies shatter the shale beds that contain it deep underground. After drilling a well, they pump freshwater, silica sand and a toxic chemical cocktail down at high pressures to break open the rock and release the gas.

Fracking for methane gas in northeastern BC produces a fifth of the province’s carbon pollution. That total will rise if new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants are built to export the fossil fuel to Asia. It is an extremely potent greenhouse gas that must stay in the ground if the world is to limit global warming to “safe” levels.

Climate disasters are already wiping entire communities off the map. In 2021 alone, a never before seen heat wave killed nearly 600 British Columbians. Lytton burned to the ground after smashing temperature records, and unprecedented rains swamped a huge swath of rural Abbotsford. Burning fossil fuels puts our families and communities at risk.