We are deep in an over population hole and have to get out, stop digging and then start fixing.
Oil and Gas, extracted from the earth and replaced with water, either directly by pumping water in or by breaking the substrate with high pressure water, 'fracking', increases the intensity of earthquakes.
Oil and gas are much more compressible than water. Earthquakes will become much stronger as the tectonic plates meet with a diminished amount of oil or gas to absorb the shocks. The removal can create more earthquakes as the holding structure is weakened. 'Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, the lithosphere'.
Think of these substances as fluids to absorb shocks. Just like on your car. Hard shock absorbers are an integral part of a vehicle's suspension. A shock absorber is designed to absorb or dampen compression and rebound of collisions between two solid units. The less absorption available simply means the harder the impact and the further the ensuing result will travel. If what I am saying is correct you will see stronger earthquakes, reaching out much further from the epicentre. Think of it in terms of your car's tires hitting a pothole. With a proper shock absorber in place you feel a bump but without them you feel a jolt from the bottom of your spine to the top of you head.
Oil insulates better than water. A side effect will be that the earth's inner heat will have an easier time reaching the surface. Warming the planet. Small as that might be look at it like a drop of boiling water dropped into a lake. If you have a sensitive enough meter you could judge the effect of the extra heat all through the lake. Minor in the scope of things but it takes drops to fill a pail.
All due to Over Population!
Why do we do it? Profit!
Profit can only be made if you are able to sell a product for more than the cost. The cost should include the damage done to the environment. It should be in the form of a tax, not on the entire population but three part, in the case of fracking and oil extraction to those companies engaged in that product, in the case of manufacturers who rely on the materials from the above and the sales outlet selling the product. Not the general public! They pay for it in the long run but it should be an actual user based cost.
Safe Oil?
Tar sands, like in Canada, do not affect the tectonic plates and can be extracted using high pressure steam. Like a large deep pond. Species are clever enough to relocate without human intervention. We, humans, are not God, we can do a little sculpting but we can't do major change. You know, like losing the entire prehistoric animal population that we study frequently. We should be glad they're no longer among us. Maybe if they were we could count the people of the world in the thousands instead of the billions and the good planet Earth would be safe. Some days you just have to grow up and face facts.
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