Gasland (doco)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gasland

Watched this last night. Pretty well-produced doco, it's one of the ones up for an oscar this year.
The content matter is insane Did anyone know about this stuff going on? First I've heard any of it.

Plot summary (which may constitute 'spoilers', but not sure if it counts for docos) to follow:

Basically, they discovered the US is a natural gas goldmine and so gas wells have started cropping up everywhere by the thousands.
They use a process called 'hydraulic fracturing', or 'fracking' to disturb the earth underground which frees up gas to make it easier for extraction. But, this process causes widespread contamination of the ground water supplies (ie: drinking water) for thousands upon thousands of households that are near these wells. In heaps of cases (this guy goes to a lot of households that can all do the same thing) - the people can actually light their tap water on fire as it's coming out of the tap WTF.

And the only reason all this is possible is because they lawyered their way into exemption from the Clean Water Act and lots of other relevant environmental laws, thanks to Cheney. They use all sorts of toxic chemicals and known carcinogens in the 'fracking fluid' which also contaminates the water, and they're not even legally obligated to disclose the chemicals they're using to anyone.

Pretty fucked up. They're just getting more and more blatant about fucking everyone over for money, I have no idea how enough of the population isn't waking up to this and keeping these fuckwits out of office. Makes me so mad :/

yeah, heard about it.

Haven't watched it yet.

They're planning on doing it near a dam that is used as sydney's main water supply, so i'm keen to find out all the facts (for and against)

Because that would involve some level of govt. regulation.

And regulation is one short step away from some marxist dystopia obviously :/

They already had regulation with the Clean Water Act. Cheney sneaked in like a paragraph later, attached to another bill, to exempt the energy industry from that, and heaps of other environmental laws so now they can pretty much do whatever they want. I just don't get how you can keep enough of 300 million people deluded enough to keep this going, in the age of information. This shit should be nation-wide massive news. Instead it's left to independent documentary makers these days to actually inform people of what's going on :/

Yeah I saw it at the NZFF last year. Great doco. Inside Job is still my favourite doco of 2010 though.

I guess people are just too apathetic/brainwashed by mainstream media/too comfortable in their ignorance to bother finding out about more corrupt, fucked up abuse of the planet.

Ya, really want to see this too. Haven't been able to find a decent torrent of it yet :/

This sort of whistle blowing shit is downright Unamerican, fuck you Yak! USA! USA! USA!

That's how they get away with it (the worst part is that's actually true).

There is pretty much NO reasons *for* it, apart from making more money for rich whitey.



Had read up a bit of stuff on this before I heard about it, fucking utter shambles.

I liked the bit where the told the story of the energy company official coming over and telling them the water perfectly safe to drink, but refusing to drink any.

Yeah, maybe for was the wrong word. Because I'm pretty much against fossil fuel use.

But,what I meant was a thorough factual assessment of the dangers/risks

Will be very interested to watch this.

IMO this kind of ground water contamination is going to become a HUGE issue as cheap LNG increasingly subsitutes costly oil and dirty coal.

in today's herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/energy/news/article.cfm?c_id=37&objectid=10705344

Just finished watching it... WTF

yeh I'd heard that this method was being used in Australia too and the locals were concerned etc... but nothing really followed through in my news sources.

will watch thx for the heads up

Yep seen it, and yep extremely fucked up.

It's a big emerging industry in Qld at the moment. One Cougar Energy owned trial plant's already been closed down due to safety concerns (trace amounts of benzene in local aquifers, although not enough to be harmful or to conclusively say it was sourced from the fracking). I'm also concerned about how the Qld govt seem to be promoting it as a viable new industry too.

EDIT: Cougar Energy, not Santos - http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article242818.ece

Watched it... extremely disturbing if true. While there' a lot of hear-say (enough to make it legitimate), I still longed for some scientific evidence that hydraulic fracturing could cause these sorts of problems. Although the place where they can light the tap water on fire it' pretty obvious that there's contamination.

Great documentary, just like some more scientific reports on stuff like this.

was that mains water or bore water?

bore water from areas with swamps often contain methane which is of course flammable and the articles on the doco seem to suggest it is the gas companies putting chemicals in the ground (rather than just inert compounds like water which is common in texas).

Guess I will have to watch it to see for myself but there already seems to be a lot of bullshit around it on the web.

The water catching on fire is attributed to the natural gas moreso than the chemicals, and it's a phenomenon they demonstrate all the over the US, from Wyoming to Pennsylvania rather than just in areas with specific topography. The common link between the fact in all cases the problems only started after gas wells were put in.

The most dmaning aspects are the complete of accountability the energy companies have, it's corrupt for someone with such a massive conflict of interest (Cheney) to be creating laws that absolve energy companies of any blame for events that are caused by their own activities. Completely unheard of in modern democracies.

damning*

Sounds interesting, have to make some time to watch it. Kinda shows that coporations just rule in some countries. And any American who questions stuff like this is instantly branded as being unpatriotic ... great world we live in

Heard of the Iraq war ?

Well yeah, seriously the conflicts of interest Cheney got away with are ridiculous.



Slight spolier here:




I especially like the hearing towards the end for the New York congressman's Fracking Act where another congressman gave a finger in the air speech and managed to link any attempt to regulate the energy industry with supporting terrorists.

I wanted to kill that guy...

Actually kill him.

Thought I would dig this up - Fracking is now linked with water pollution.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/6114405/Fracking-implicated-in-US-water-pollution

I'm shocked and amazed that the act of pumping chemicals into the ground leads to pollution. SHOCKED AND AMAZED.

Indeed kris, never saw that one coming tbh, when the oil companies told me it was safe I believed them! To doubt oil companies is nothing short of treason in America. (unless they have the word "British" linked with them)

Ah c'mon it couldn't happen here there are controls and safety! Best practice! And John Key says there's always experts who will tell you another story

Speaking of oil companies, we have just released another awesome doco - The Pipe. Definitely recommend it, screened on Maori TV a few months ago:

Wtf, thanks Pechora Im gonna check that doco out.

Sounds like it needs more Erin Brokovich imo.