ENVIRONMENT
Use our great activity evaluate the environmental effects of extracting natural gas.
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit.

Map by National Geographic
Discussion Ideas
- Why is methane leaking from oil and natural gas drilling sites?
- According to Nat Geo News, “gas flares burn off excess natural gas at oil wells and other energy sites.” Specifically, “[f]laring often occurs because oil producers don’t have the pipelines or the market for the gas that sometimes comes up along with oil; it can also happen for safety, to avoid an explosive buildup of methane during emergencies or maintenance, for example.” Learn more about natural gas with our encyclopedic entry here.
- Why aren’t the world’s worst gas leaks as well-reported as the world’s worst oil spills?
- Unlike petroleum, methane is invisible and odorless. In addition, methane emissions have a less drastic impact on the environment than carbon emissions from oil or coal.
- Consult Step 5 of our activity “Evaluating Natural Gas.” Adapt the questions there:
- How does drilling for natural gas affect the land?
- According to the activity, “Land in the area needs to be cleared for the drilling pad. There is a lot of impact on the land during the drilling process with all of the equipment that needs to be present. In addition, there typically are a lot of wells in any given drilling area. But after the wells are drilled and fractured, there is only a small drilling pad area left on the land. Most of the effects of natural gas drilling happen under the ground.”
- How can drilling for natural gas affect an aquifer?
- According to the activity, “Drilling for natural gas can affect the aquifer because water is needed to fracture the wells. The aquifer can be contaminated if there is a casing failure or if the water storage pool on the surface leaks.”
- Can you predict when a leak will happen in the casing or in the water storage pool?
- According to the activity, “there are tests that can be run to determine if the casing will leak, but the tests are not 100% accurate; nothing can predict the future with absolute certainty.”
- How does drilling for natural gas affect the land?
Teachers’ Toolkit
Nat Geo: The World Is Hemorrhaging Methane, and Now We Can See Where
Nat Geo: What is Natural Gas?
Nat Geo: Evaluating Natural Gas: What are the environmental effects of extracting natural gas?