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UID:Indybay-18676667
SEQUENCE:18756390
CREATED:20110408T062100Z
DESCRIPTION:\nFilm evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at  6:30 
 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the 
 film.\n\nGASLAND\nby Josh Fox\n\nWe may think of natural gas as a clean 
 burning fuel.  Gasland gives us the inside story of “clean.”  Natural 
 gas is not a clean energy, and if this is our bridge fuel, we aren’t 
 going far.  It’s another dirty fossil fuel that creates massive amounts 
 of toxic and radioactive waste for which industry has no plan.  They are 
 spreading this waste on our farmland, dumping it in streams and ditches and 
 burying it in fields.  The water use is simply not sustainable and our 
 surface and groundwater is being contaminated.  A scarcity of clean water 
 is one of the greatest problems in arid western states, so pumping millions 
 of gallons of water underground to retrieve natural gas is a huge concern, 
 not to mention water contamination.  The emissions make natural gas worse 
 for the climate than coal!  This film Gasland could be as significant as 
 Silent Spring.  It is surely one of the best eco-documentaries ever 
 made.\n\nRising demand for natural gas has drillers looking to less 
 easily-recoverable sources.  A new process called “hydraulic 
 fracturing” is being used by companies like Cabot Oil and Gas and 
 Chesapeake Energy to extract natural gas that is bound up in the rock of a 
 geologic formation called the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New 
 York and Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Ohio, and into eastern 
 Kentucky and Tennessee.  The natural gas drilling industry uses a new 
 technology called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” that causes 
 groundwater pollution and other grave environmental damage.   From 
 unregulated air pollution to poisoned wells to ear-splitting 
 round-the-clock noise to muddied streams to wildlife and fish kills, large 
 swaths of the United States are getting fracked.  “Fracking” injects 
 enormous quantities of water and a witches brew of toxic chemicals 
 including benzene and glycol ethers, under extremely high pressure to break 
 up the underground shale formation, releasing the natural gas from the 
 rock.  The gas is then pumped to the surface where it is processed, 
 compressed, and then piped away.  Some of the water and toxic chemicals 
 used to fracture the shale are pumped back to the surface, and stored in 
 open pits.  Thanks to the “Halliburton Loophole” passed in 2005 during 
 the Bush-Cheney administration, natural gas drilling is exempt from the 
 Safe Drinking Water Act.\n\nFracking is underground.  On ground level, this 
 incredible film highlights the nightmare scenario of what is really 
 happening to our lands.  It is as if America were taken over by evil 
 aliens, intent on sucking the earth dry, regardless of the consequences to 
 the planet — or to humanity.  It’s really happening and it’s worse 
 than anyone can imagine.  Josh Fox has filmed it all, venturing out into 
 the small towns of America and actually speaking to regular citizens who 
 are now paying the ultimate price for “clean” gas drilling with 
 permanent health effects, including brain damage, chronic respiratory 
 conditions, and many other serious conditions.  Their land is worthless, 
 their water undrinkable.  The now famous scene where the tap water actually 
 bursts into flame is just the tip of the iceburg.  The epidemic of fracking 
 now taking place in America is worse than any disease we’ve ever 
 encountered.  It destroys our water, our air, our animals, our vegetation 
 (including farm crops), our livestock, our health and our lives.  Fracking 
 is the destructive power of exploding nuclear power plants times 
 fifty.\n\nWheelchair accessible around the corner at  411  28th  
 Street\n\n$5 donations are accepted\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/04/07/18676667.php
SUMMARY:Gasland
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/04/07/18676667.php
DTSTART:20110428T023000Z
DTEND:20110428T043000Z
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