Environmental Consequences Of Man – Activities - Exploration And Production Of Shale Gas (American Experience, Forecasts For Poland)

This article attempts to present ecological consequences of human activities in the context of exploration and future extraction of shale gas. This topic is at the present time very timely because of the implementation of the exploration wells in Pomerania and Lublin Region, the prevailing unrest in the areas of concessions, as well as the lack of scientific basis and sufficient legal – economics basis to enter into the production phase. The article dare the argument that the potential environmental damage from the extraction of shale gas using hydraulic fracturing are not explored enough to take the risk of industrial production. The paper used the method of literature analysis, case studies, statistical analysis based on GUS and PIG data, induction-deduction analysis, analysis-synthesis and comparisons analysis. Based on the U.S. experience, mentioned in the text, as well as current research on the introduction of other methods of extracting shale gas and recommendations of the European Union cannot be concluded that the production of unconventional gas in Poland will not cause adverse environmental and health effects.