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| Filmmaker/activist
Josh Fox takes a break from banjo playing, watching other members of his Grassroots Solutions Tour address the audience at Plattsburgh State. |
© 2015 Luke T. Bush
PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY – 3/8/15
During Josh Fox’s Grassroots Solutions event at Plattsburgh
State I had a question on my mind. I had
the chance after the event wrapped up to pose it to the filmmaker/activist.
A skeptical friend referred me to a reddit comment that claimed one key scene in in the documentary Gasland
was deceptive: a homeowner opens his kitchen sink tap and lights up the
contaminated water with a cigarette lighter, producing a burst of flame.
This startling effect was evidence that nearby fracking had polluted the
ground water with methane, making it both unhealthy and inflammable. But critics claimed that it didn’t mean that
fracking was the culprit: methane occurs naturally, leaking into water sources.
Josh told me to check out his short film, The Sky is Pink, [ https://vimeo.com/44367635 ] which
addresses the subject.
"The oil and gas industry are trying to create doubt,” he
said. “The film [Gasland] has been
scientifically proven and validated over and over again." The fact is hydraulic fracking can cause the
migration of methane into the water supply.
Josh added: “Duke University proved scientifically that it
is seventeen times more likely to have influx of methane in your groundwater if
you're within a thousand feet of a [gas drilling site]."
The Sky Is Pink explains the concept of He said/She said
journalism. To be "objective"
a reporter has to present both sides of an issue, even though the opposing side
is completely wrong, spreading disinformation.
This pseudo-debate can serve a smear campaign, putting doubt in the
public’s mind.
1 comment:
Please read Naomi Oreskes, "The Merchants of Doubt" and/or see the movie.
Read Steve Coll's excellent biography of the transnational corpse, ExxonMobil, "Private Empire".
Hundreds of thousands of people still die in the US every year of smoking related illness. Uncounted millions now die every year all around the world from the same causes.
Millions are already migrating and dieing every year from climate change related causes.
Meanwhile, the same seeding of doubt paralyzes humanity by providing an excuse an excuse for inaction, except, of course, for the massive and highly destructive extraction of wealth wherever possible.
Greed for profit, the sole motive of the corpses, is driving us, and at least half of the species on Grandmother Earth, toward extinction.
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