The Sky is Pink- Short doc on fracking by Josh Fox

[octoberlib]

http://vimeo.com/44367635

"I wouldn't blame a person for leasing if he's one mortgage payment away from foreclosure, and the lease can fix that," says Fox. "But these companies are exploitative. The government's not helping by providing a way out. These same people could lease their land for solar, we're one line change away in the solar power laws, to allow this. Instead, they're turning PA into Nigeria as we speak."

Meaning: The fracking business is expanding faster than its affects can be studied. "The impacts of fracking go far beyond methane migration," says Fox. "Chemical migration has been confirmed by the industry. That's not surprising -- we're talking about wells up to three miles deep, with one inch of cement keeping the chemicals inside. We've seen industry documents saying 5% of wells fail immediately, and 50% to 60% fail over a 30-year period. And they have known about this problem for decades. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection did the same thing, they had video of cracking cement. they didn't publish for 16 months until Rendell said, you should do something

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/03/01/_they_re_the_birthers_of_fracking_a_conversation_with_josh_fox.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. Doesn't it bug the hell out of you when these new, untested technologies get implemented?

Fracking comes off the shelf, and in -- what -- two years? -- it's everywhere. You would think that EPA would have evaluated it at least once or the fracking industry would have taken at least 5 or 10 years to develop it before popping up these fields everywhere.

And what the hell! Who wants natural gas? Okay, it burns clean and has far fewer carbon emissions than, say, that sludgy black shit they want to pump down the XL pipeline. But screw 'em! We never really meant it when we said we wanted natural gas instead of coal or oil.

Why don't they get it? We don't want any energy development of any kind. None.

Coal? Filthy! High carbon emissions.

Oil? Ditto.

Natural gas? Fracking scares me.

Nuclear? Zero carbon emissions, but damn! It's nuclear!! Enough said.

Wind? Those blades kill birds and they make noise.

Solar? Do you know how many toxic chemicals are used in manufacturing solar cells? It's a nightmare!

So, screw 'em. They come up with something new, and we'll protest it. Every time.

Because that's what we do.

[mmonk]

2. I thought it was great at debunking the debunkers (so to speak).