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Delhi : Air we go againYet again Delhi is inching closer to that time of year when it becomes virtually inhabitable because of the abysmal quality of its air. India's national capital’s air quality turned 'poor' on October 20 due largely to smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring states. The density of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter that goes deep into the lungs, is already double the acceptance limit. And to make matter worse, Winter is coming.What is the status of Air Quality in Delhi this year?The national capital's air quality turned "poor" on Sunday, Oct. 20, as wind direction changed to northwesterly, increasing the contribution of smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring states to the pollution in the city.Westerly and northwesterly winds bring dust from western regions and smoke caused by burning of crop residue in the neighbouring Punjab and Haryana to Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).After fluctuating between "poor" and "very poor" for over a week, the city's air quality had improved to "moderate" category on Saturday, mainly due to a storm in Delhi that dispersed pollutants and rainfall in neighbouring areas that subdued the effect of stubble burning. However on Sunday, pollution levels in Delhi shot up by around 100 points at air quality index (AQI), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.The AQI, which was 161 on Saturday, rose to 258 by Sunday afternoon. Higher the AQI of an area, the higher the pollution level. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.The Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast and research service, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said, "The overall air quality of Delhi is back in the poor category. The surface and boundary layer wind direction is northwesterly now." "An increase in stubble burning in the northern part of India has been observed. The circulation pattern is supportive for efficient biomass plume transport to Delhi," it said in a report.The SAFAR report said the share of smoke from stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 concentration was 13 per cent on Sunday, the highest in over a week. It was zero on Saturday and is likely to increase to 19 per cent on Monday. "A considerable increase in biomass share in pollution contribution is expected over the next two-three days. AQI is forecast to deteriorate to very poor category by Monday," SAFAR said.Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department, said strong surface winds clocking 15-20 kilometers per hour blew across Delhi, which is favourable for dispersion of pollutants. "But the direction will completely change to northwesterly October 21 onwards," he said. “Towards the end of October, wind patterns change into north-westerly, meaning air enters Delhi from Punjab and Haryana, carrying the pollution of stubble burning,” Shrivastava told IndiaSpend. “And because at this time of the year winds are lighter and there is no rainfall activity, the pollution does not disperse.”Note: PM 2.5 is a pollutant about 30 times finer than a human hair. It can be inhaled deep into the lungs and can cause heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and respiratory diseases. The extent of PM 2.5 pollution is considered the best indicator of health risks from air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.Why does Delhi suffer from pollution?Several studies have cited various reasons for Delhi’s dipping air quality.For instance, a widely cited study by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, released in January 2016, suggested that vehicular emissions mainly from trucks were one of the largest and most consistent sources of pollution in the city. The study also pointed out that coal and fly ash contribute to 30% of PM 10 – particulate matter of size up to 10 microns – in the city in the summer. These come from coal-fired power plants as well as from tandoors.Soil and road dust contributed 26% to PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the summer. The study says: “The silt load on some of the Delhi’s road is very high and silt can become airborne with the movement of vehicles. The estimated PM10 emission from road dust is over 65 tons per day. Similarly soil from the open fields gets airborne in summer.”In 2012, independent research group Urban Emissions pointed out in a study that the transport sector was one of the highest sources of all emissions. “Most of these, except for some light duty vehicles, operate on diesel,” the study said. It added that though Delhi’s buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws switched to CNG in the early 2000s, the benefits of this shift had been lost “due to an increase in the sales of diesel based passenger vehicles”.A study released in August 2018 by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and Automotive Research Institute of India found that in the winter Delhi contributes no more than 36% to PM 2.5 or fine-particulate matter pollution. In the summer, it contributes only 26% of PM 2.5. The remaining sources of this pollution come from areas surrounding the National Capital Region, the study said.The air quality in Delhi sees a steep decline three times in a year, said officials in the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. The first dip, between October and November, comes during the burning of crop residue in fields in Punjab and Haryana, a phenomenon that has occurred since the 1980s. As the fields burn, winds blowing southwards push the smoke in the direction of Delhi.The second dip takes place between December and January, when cold weather conditions cause a variation in the mixing height of the air. This is the height at which air turbulence can disperse pollutants suspended in the air. Without vertical mixing through convection, the pollutants get trapped at surface level, leading to smog.The third dip in Delhi’s air quality occurs during the summer, between April and June, when dust storms lead to the level of particulate matter shooting up beyond prescribed limits.When does this year seem doomed?Air apocalypse is coming to Delhi, shouted one attention grabbing headline in a leading national daily. That exaggerates the extent of the problem, but not by much.State governments of Punjab and Haryana are providing 50 to 80 per cent subsidy to farmers and cooperative societies to buy modern farm equipment for in-situ management of paddy straw and running a massive awareness campaign against stubble burning.Despite a ban on stubble burning in the two states, farmers continue to defy it amid lack of financial incentives.The period between October 15 and November 15 is considered critical as maximum number of stubble burning incidents take place in this span in Punjab and adjoining states and is one of the main reasons for the alarming spike in pollution in Delhi-NCR.According to CPCB data, more than 3,000 stubble burning incidents have occurred in Punjab and Haryana since the harvesting of paddy crop started around September 25. During the corresponding period last year, the count was around 2,600. Field burning is up by 45% in Punjab over the last 20 days compared with the same period last year.Haryana has registered a slight drop but officials expect the numbers to go up in the next 15-20 days. Officials said many more fires will blaze next week in Haryana when the crop matures in the districts of Sirsa, Hisar and Faridabad where half of burning incidents were reported last year.In 2018, there were more than 108,000 stubble burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. This was a 47% decline compared to 2016, The Print reported on September 9, using data from different sources. These states burn about 20 million tons of paddy straw in October and November each year – about 2 million truckloads of paddy straw at 10 tons per truck. 2019 seems set to reverse the gains.And this is sad. So far, the periodicity of the smog period is getting shorter — it is starting later and ending earlier. Data from air quality stations that have been operational for the past eight years or so, for which there is comparative data, show a downward trend — close to 25 per cent decline in the past three years, as compared to the previous three-year period.Increased burning will coincide exactly with the reversal of wind direction this year. But this happens every year. So, why is 2019 expected to be worse than 2018? Farmers say they have no choice but to burn away the harvest residue because they have a very small window to prepare the fields after the extended monsoon season delayed the harvest of kharif, or summer-sown, crops.Where are the distractions in fighting pollution?Like clockwork, the approach of winter in Delhi brings steadily worsening pollution levels in the city. It also heralds elaborate, sometimes hare-brained schemes to fix the problem.In 2017, the Indian capital tried showering the city with water from helicopters; but the aircraft were unable to fly in smog. When authorities used “smog cannons” to blast polluted streets with mist, air quality in those areas declined.In October last year, environmental officials in the city rolled out a cutting-edge weapon in their war on pollution: more than 50 outdoor air purifiers at intersections on major roads. Tests in Mumbai showed the devices cut air pollution by about one-third, but only in the surrounding 20 metres. The units in Delhi were more powerful, but experts were sceptical. “It is like trying to air condition a room with the roof off,” said Alistair Lewis, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of York. “There is very little evidence they make a difference to concentrations of pollution.” To the surprise of nobody, the initiative didn’t reduce pollution significantly.The outdoor purifiers are “a distraction”, says Anumita Roychowdhury, an executive director at the Delhi-based centre for science and environment. “We are saying, focus on the real action of cutting pollution at the source .” In the past two years, central and state governments, as well as the Supreme Court, have pushed through a range of policies to curb the dust, fumes and carcinogenic smoke that blanket the city year-round and grows more acute during winter months.And who can forget the anti-smog guns that blazed in 2017 and were never seen again?They looked like something from a science fiction film: the industrial monoliths from "Blade Runner," or perhaps the Martian pods in "War of the Worlds." But in reality, these giant towers loomed over the skyline of Delhi in 2017 with noble intentions. "The Smog Project," designed by Dubai-based architecture firm Znera Space, was an ambitious attempt to clean the air in one of the world's most-polluted cities. The Smog Project was shortlisted for a World Architecture Festival 2018 award in the "Experimental Future Project" category, for "proposals that challenge conventional thinking."The Project comprises a vast array of 328 feet-high air filtration pods, each capable of producing more than 353 million cubic feet of clean air per day, serving an area of 100 hectares, say its designers.Inflows at the base of a tower suck in air and pass it through five stages of filtration - including charcoal-activated carbon, negative ion generators and electrostatically-charged plasma - to trap airborne particles. Air is forced upwards where it passes through a photo-catalyst filter to sterilize bacteria and viruses, before being released into the atmosphere.Towers would be powered by solar hydrogen cells laid out in a hexagonal network of "sky bridges" between units - a nod probably to British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who drafted the urban grid plans for an area of New Delhi in the early 20th century. The intention was for the network's power needs to be self-sustaining.As well as providing clean air, the repository of carbon particles captured could go on to find use in graphene, concrete, fertilizer, ink and water distillation, claim the designers. (India has already seen innovations in this area, with Bangalore-based Graviky Labs producing Air Ink from collected carbon particles.)Interestingly, the pollution levels did not drop at the tested sites despite the fact that the water spraying from the device, which cost around Rs 20 lakh per unit, was largely centre around the air quality monitoring station. The device literally sprayed water on the monitoring station but nothing got cooler or cleaner. It will not be missed this year.Who should not be villainized?The Punjab government has allocated $160 million for a subsidy scheme offering to cover up to 80% of a mulching and seed drilling machine, called “happy seeder machines”, that farmers can mount on tractors to dispose of the paddy stalks and straw without burning them.But, as often happens in India, good intentions, according to farmers, have been hampered, by poor implementation. Reuters spoke to 50 farmers in Punjab and Haryana states, two of the states bordering Delhi, and found that only 20% of used the machines. Bureaucrats believe the fault lies with the farmers, and subsidies alone are not the answer. “It’s the mindset, and behaviour that needs to be changed,” said Ashwani Kumar, an official at the federal agriculture ministry.The farmer is not foolish. Under the subsidy scheme, individual farmers can claim back 50% of the cost of “happy seeders” while a group of growers, or farmers’ cooperatives, are entitled to reclaim 80% of the cost. The downside for farmers is that the need to pay upfront, and to claim the subsidies, they say they have to submit three sets of applications, six separate forms, receipts for buying the machines and clearances from half a dozen local government offices. And once all the papers are submitted, everything depends on how fast the bureaucrats process the claim.Farmer Ramesh Singh said he had thought about not torching his land this year because he didn’t want to break the law. But in the end the effort to purchase machines that cost upwards of 350,000 Indian rupees ($4,915) and the paperwork required to claim the subsidy proved too much. “Last year, I promised myself I wouldn’t set the rice paddy residue on fire to clear my field for planting winter crops,” said Singh. “But as the new sowing season drew closer, I started running out of time and I reluctantly set the farm waste on fire to prepare the field for wheat planting.”The Punjab government has belatedly asked the Centre for financial help to offer farmers an incentive of Rs 100 per quintal for not burning crop residue. Due to the short window between the harvesting of paddy and the sowing of wheat, farmers clear their fields for sowing by setting fire to the leftover post-harvest paddy straw.After harvesting rice in late September, farmers have to plant wheat and rapeseed by mid- or late-October, as any delay will result in lower crop yields. And they say the time between clearing the land and the sowing season is too short for them to be worrying about Delhi’s pollution.What about the three-fourth of the problem?The smoke from the Punjab and Haryana fields accounts for nearly one-quarter of Delhi’s winter air pollution, and as it is a quicker fix than cleaning up industry or improving public transport to reduce the traffic in a city of 20 million people, authorities have prioritised stamping out the practice of burning crop stubble.The National Green Tribunal (NGT), the main environmental court of India, has banned crop residue burning, but the ban is rarely enforced. Delhi did have its best air quality in nine years in September, with PM 2.5 averaging 40, but the improvement was largely down to heavy rains and strong winds clearing the atmosphere, rather than people changing their ways.The ‘Odd-Even’ rule – that allows odd- and even-numbered vehicles on the roads of Delhi on alternate days – will come into force from November 4, for about two weeks. It will yet again lead to complaints of how unfair the government is. Delhi government is also considering staggered office hours to reduce traffic congestion.The residents of Delhi should not forget to address the three-fourth of the problem as they complain about the one-fourth. They can begin with proper disposal of garbage at home. That too is eventually burnt.How does Delhi compare to other cities?It's hard to compare because air quality in Delhi is very well monitored compared to other Indian cities.The city now has 38 separate air quality testing stations, whereas some smaller cities have just a handful of sometimes quite old stations. That being said, one report this year which looked at official Indian government data and WHO figures to compare 2016 with 2018 said there were declines in the amount of PM2.5 particles in other Indian cities - not just in Delhi.It also pointed out that some industrial areas outside Delhi still had very high concentrations of both PM2.5 and PM10. Both the local authorities in Delhi and the national government have pledged to take more steps to tackle India's toxic air, including aiming to reduce both PM2.5 and PM10 levels by between 20% and 30% by 2024.Should Delhi act alone to fight pollution?Experts say the impact of industrial and agricultural activities in other states on the quality of Delhi’s air cannot be ignored. “If you try to control the city’s pollution in isolation, it is impossible,” said an official from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, who also called this an issue that the entire Indo-Gangetic belt has to deal with. This belt includes the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.Experts also say that the Centre needs to get stricter with regulation and monitoring. “We know that changes are happening from the bottom up because there is pressure,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhary of the Centre for Science and Environment. “The National Clean Air Program is still in its draft stage but it is supposed to target cities to meet certain goals on air quality. There needs to be a standard setting for polluting sources all over the country. So, the Centre needs to tighten standards and check monitoring. State governments have to work with local area sources. We need to work immensely on waste management. As winter approaches, people will burn garbage if there is no other alternative. The public is now more aware.”

Just an hour ago, I came back home after being stuck in traffic for about 50 minutes. Add to this the constant smoke from trucks going straight into my nose. The moment i read the question, all I could think about was my daily misery on returning from college. There by, I am highlighting the issues of Air Pollution and Traffic Congestion in India.Air Pollution in IndiaMost Indian cities are experiencing rapid urbanization and a majority of the countrys population is expected to live in cities within a span of next two decades. The rapid development in urban India has also resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of motor vehicles and in some cities this has doubled in the last decade. Which is the main source of air pollution and poor ambient air quality impacting millions of citizens.Here are few facts about air pollution in India:-1. In 2013, a report by Global Burden of Disease (GBD) said that outdoor air pollution was the 5th largest killer in India.Manan Vatsyayana / Getty Images2. Nearly one lakh premature deaths happen annually due to air pollution in India.Prakash Singh / Getty Images3. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study, Delhi has surpassed Beijing and is currently the most polluted city in the world. This puts its people at a dangerous risk of respiratory diseases.Prakash Singh / Getty Images4. The air that school children in Delhibreathe is four times more toxic than the required safety limit.Green Peace / Via greenpeace.org5. Approximately 30 million people including children in India suffer from Asthma.Traffic congestion and jamsTraffic jams are a part of our day to day life and because it has become a usual feature of Indian roads, people tend to speak about it with dearth of interest, even the higher authorities in our country view it as a puny issue. But in my view the mere ennui of many incidences like the ones mentioned above, should be enough to shake us out of our sleeps or in other words ‘need not care attitude’.Every single citizen of India, staying in towns, cities or even villages must have experienced the impact of this monster (traffic jam) in their life. In the morning while leaving for our offices, college or school we try to leave at least half an hour early to compensate the loss of time spent in the jams in order to reach our destinations on time. And it will not be any exaggeration to say that it is untrue that it has become an inevitable part of our lives, but we ourselves have made it an inseparable feature of our roads.Above is traffic jam in Delhi during peak hours.Ambulance stuck in a traffic jam.On a personal note, both air pollution and traffic in our country has made day to day life of people frustrating. I would anyday move to an European country for this reason.Source:Community Post: 6 Facts About Air Pollution In India That Will Literally Take Your Breath Awayhttps://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/09/delhi-india-air-pollution-environmental-injustice-car-taxTraffic jams in India: A criminal wastage of time, resourcesTraffic jams in India: A criminal wastage of time, resources

It will be many years before China has significant production of shale gas or oil from hydraulic fracturing (fracking). As of June 2014, China has drilled fewer than 100 wells compared with tens-of-thousands in the US. Although China has some of the largest shale reserves in the world and the government has set some very aggressive development targets, difficult geology along with other factors has made the industry cautious regarding China’s likely pace of shale gas development.The epicenter of China’s fracking industry is in the Sichuan basin. Geologically, it’s similar to North Dakota’s Bakkan formation, one of the leading areas for fracking in the US. I’m not aware of any public studies of how hydraulic fracturing will affect water quality in China, but the experience of North Dakota may be a good example of what China will face in the years ahead.For Sichuan, the biggest threats are going to be accidental spills and poor well construction. It would seem that the only way China's lax environmental enforcement would really benefit the industry would be in any post-accident cleanup efforts, and not the actual fracking process itself.Even without the development of the fracking industry, water pollution is already serious problem in China. According to one recent report in the People’s Daily (Link: China's river pollution 'a threat to people's lives'), “up to 40 percent of China’s rivers were seriously polluted” and “20 percent were so polluted their water quality was rated too toxic even to come into contact with.”Fracking in China:The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that China has the largestshale gas reserves in the world and the third largest reserves of shale oil.Estimates for technically recoverable gas reserves are in the range of 1,115 trillion cubic feet, or roughly equal to the US and Canada combined. In 2012, China’s National Energy Administration set an aggressive shale gas output target of 7.7 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) by 2020, (FYI: current US shale gas production is 25-30 billion cfd), but this was slashed by half in mid 2014 after early exploration efforts proved challenging.Areas for DevelopmentChina has shale gas and shale oil potential in seven prospective basins. Half of the technically recoverable resources lie in the Sichuan basin. The region has plenty of water, an existing pipeline network, and well-developed gas markets. Geologically, it’s similar to North Dakota’s Bakkan formation - both formations were all deposited on the floor of ancient seas. The formations are thermally mature or over-mature, which means the hydrocarbons have been cooked beyond the oil stage and are now likely to yield mostly gas and condensates.Despite these similarities, the geology is much more complex than North Dakota’s Bakken or Texas’s Eagle Ford and Permian. The basin is heavily faulted and seismically active in places (the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people and the 2013 earthquake killed nearly 200 people). Much of the basin has already been ruled out because it is too faulted, too mountainous, or contains too much deadly hydrogen sulfide gas (it is costly to remove and quite dangerous – in 2003 a sour gas well blew out in Luojiazai gas field, killing 233 people). Only the southwest corner is believed to meet the criteria for shale development.The formations are thousands of feet below the surface, and up to three miles in some places, which makes them hard to tap. A shale gas well in China can run $12 million to $15 million, or double the cost of a typical well in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale basin.PetroChina’s first horizontal shale well took 11 months to drill, compared to 2 weeks in North America, and production was disappointing. As of June 2014, China has drilled fewer than 100 wells compared with tens-of-thousands in the US. In 2012, China only extracted 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas, mostly from test wells in central China. In contrast, the US produced 24 trillion cubic feet.PetroChina engineers in the Sichuan Basin observed: “the Sichuan Basin’s considerable structural complexity, with extensive folding and faulting, appears to be a significant risk for shale development.” And a BP official recently noted: “It will be a long time before China could commercialize its shale resources in a large way.” (Source: US Energy Information Agency)Assuming significant geologic and operational issues can be solved, the Sichuan may become China’s premier shale gas basin, capable of providing several billion cfd of supply within 20 years.Another big prospect is the Tarim Basin in Xijiang, which could hold a third of China’s unconventional resources. Halliburton and STP have formed a joint venture to develop it, but they need to address the biggest challenge: water. Aquifers which underlie the lightly populated region could provide frac water. Halliburton has pumps that can fracture with less water, but ramp up will still be 5 to 10-years.It took almost 20 years to perfect the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to develop North American deposits. Even with the advantage of being able to learn from successful producers, it will be some years in the future before significant commercial production appears in China.Environmental impact – Looking at the US and North Dakota:As far as I know, there haven’t been any public environmental impact studies on fracking in China. The best place to study would be the United States. The US leads the world in hydraulic fracturing, and many of the environmental concerns there focus on the potential for groundwater contamination, the amount of water used in the process, concerns about the safety of the chemicals used in the process, and even fears fracking could cause earthquakes.Concern about ground water contamination is focused primarily on areas where fracking has been developing shallow natural gas and oil rock formations. In North Dakota, our best comp for Sichuan, oil-bearing formations are deep underground, generally over 10,000 feet beneath the surface. There are approximately 8,000 feet (1.5 miles) of rock separating the oil extraction process from drinking water supplies. Deposits in Sichuan are generally even deeper than North Dakota.Source: http://www.swc.nd.gov/4dlink9/4dcgi/getcontentpdf/pb-2419/fact%20sheet.pdfIn September 2014, the Department of Energy released a study on fracking in Pennsylvania. After monitoring drilling sites during the fracking process and for 18 months afterward, researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used stayed about 5,000 feet below drinking water supplies, were unlikely to migrate upward through the rock, and found no evidence that fluids from the drilling process contaminated drinking water supplies. (Landmark Fracking Study Finds No Water Pollution)However, this just one study of six wells at one site. Other locations could show different results due to variations in geology or drilling practices. In addition, the major source of pollution isn’t chemicals migrating through rock; it’s faulty well construction.Most importantly, the study does not address the primary pollution concerns: surface spills of chemicals, wastewater damaged drinking water supplies, methane gas leaks, and the high use of water.In January 2015, almost 3 million gallons of fracking brine from a western North Dakota pipeline spilled into a creek that feeds the Missouri River, the largest spill of its kind in the state's history. Fracking brine is considered toxic; it is saltier than seawater and often contains other fracking fluids and petroleum. This spill eclipsed the previous record set last July when about 1 million gallons from a Crestwood Midstream Partners pipeline leaked into Lake Sakakawea. State officials are monitoring the cleanup and have given assurances that the leak does not threaten drinking water supplies.Link: Millions of gallons of saltwater leak into North Dakota creekThe New York Times reported in a November investigation that that 18.4 million gallons of oil and chemical substances have leaked into the North Dakotan air, water and soil between 2006 and October 2014.Link: Fracking brine leak in North Dakota reaches Missouri River, prompts state Democrats to call for more regulationRegarding water use, late last year the North Dakota State Water Commission released a report on fracking and water use. They found the industry accounted for about 4% of water consumption in the state, or 12,629 acre feet (4 billion gallons or 15.6 mln cubic meters). The average fracking process requires about 7 acre-feet of water (2.3 million gallons or 8,634 cubic meters). To put this in context, municipal water consumption was 22% of total use; the average North Dakotan uses about 0.1 acre feet of water/year; and one day of the average daily flow of the Missouri River at Bismarck is 45,480 acre-feet (ten trillion gallons/day).Even after all the documentaries and videos on YouTube of people holding lighters up against the stream of water coming out of the tap and watching as the trickle bursts into flame, it is still unclear how many people have been directly affected by fracking-related problems, as many people who may have been harmed have been silenced by the gas and oil industry under non-disclosure agreements. The NRDC has started cataloging cases where fracking is claimed to have caused contamination of drinking water:Link: Incidents where hydraulic fracturing is a suspected cause of drinking water contaminationThe Associated Press has also investigated the link between fracking and water contamination and found hundreds of complaints about well-water pollution in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Texas. Only a small percentage of the thousands of wells drilled throughout the country were found to be contaminated, and not all were necessarily connected to drilling — with so many potential sources of pollution, the exact cause can be difficult to determine.For example, ground water located above oil and gas fields can have very high natural levels methane and other contaminants caused by gas and oil seeping up toward the surface. Gas and oil seeping to the surface has been the fuel source for “eternal flames” which have been burning continuously for in some cases thousands of years around the world.Link: Page on listverse.comEven in the United States, the full environmental cost of fracking is still a subject of some debate. Both sides can point to research and studies to support their claims. Try reading an article from the NRDC followed by an article from “Energy In Depth” - a public outreach group launched by the Independent Petroleum Association of America - and you can see just how much both sides disagree about the science behind fracking, as well as the extent of research to back up their respective claims.Link: How Anti-Fracking Activists Deny Science: Water ContaminationFor Sichuan, the biggest threats are going to be accidental spills and poor well construction. It would seem the only way China's lax environmental enforcement would benefit the industry would be in cleanup efforts and not the actual fracking production itself.Environmental benefits for China from fracking?While can contribute to water pollution and water scarcity, it could have considerable benefits for air quality and CO2 emissions: developing shale gas will increase supplies of natural gas, reducing dependence on coal power, and helping to improve air quality. From 2007-2012, the United States cut carbon-dioxide emissions from generating energy by 450 mln tons, more than in any other country, due in large part to shifting away from dirty coal to cleaner natural gas. The importance of coal has tumbled since 1997, from almost half of electricity generation to just 37% by 2012. (Source: Economist Some fracking good news)China is the world’s largest consumer of coal. Today, coal provides not only 80% of China's electricity, but also the lion's share of its air pollutants, from soot to sulfur dioxide. Coal burning is the biggest contributor of air pollution in Beijing and surrounding area, according to a University of Leeds study sponsored by Greenpeace East Asia. Another study by Greenpeace estimates that in 2011 coal burning in China was responsible for 260,000 premature deaths; led to 320,000 children and 61,000 adults suffering from asthma; 36,000 babies being born with low weight; was responsible for 340,000 hospital visits; and 141 million days of sick leave. As a former resident of Beijing and a current resident of Shanghai, this issue is close to my heart.Link (UK's Guardian): China's coal emissions responsible for 'quarter of a million premature deaths'Fracking supporters believe natural gas is a cheap, effective way of weaning the world off of coal. Fracking opponents respond by saying the investment in fracking is simply undermining investment in renewable energy and delaying the eventual transition to clean renewable energy.In any event, it will be many years before China has significant production of shale gas or oil from hydraulic fracturing, assuming the industry ever gets off the ground.If you’re interested in learning more about shale oil and gas reserves around the world, the US EIA has a great report:http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/pdf/fullreport.pdf