Hydrofracking in the USA

[stefan62.livejournal.com]

The other week I watched "Gasland," which freaked me out more than any documentary has before (I'm almost 50 years old), and since then I've read an awful lot about natural gas drilling, particularly in the northeastern USA. It really does look like the drinking water supply for NYC, Philly, Pittsburgh is under severe threat.

There's been precious little media attention being paid to this topic (perhaps because of Big Gas influence on media and in DC; for example, corporate sponsorship of NPR). However, this week Ian Urbina has published three terrific articles on the environmental effects of fracking in the New York Times, and I urge everyone to read them.

Part 1: http://is.gd/1pHgQN
Part 2: http://is.gd/hLNqD4
Part 3: http://is.gd/wr66wd

I urge everyone to see "Gasland." The trailer is on youtube
See also this clearinghouse for Marcellus Shale drilling
And today's edition of Democracy Now

If you're moved to, please help raise public awareness about what fracking is doing to the environment. Thank you.

Comments

Re: Mod note

[ron_newman]

And I tend to agree, unless there is some organization starting up locally to deal with this issue (and maybe there should be)

A place for open community discussion?

[turil.livejournal.com]

If this is not the place for local folks to come together to talk to eachother about everything that concerns them (like a normal, friendly gathering of neighbors), then I wonder if it would be good to create a community that is designed for that kind of open discussion. I, for one, really appreciate being able to have more meaningful discussions with local folks, but haven't found a good place to do that. The old IndyMedia site was halfway decent place for that, but no one hangs around there anymore, and it was still pretty event-focused, rather than discussion focused. And everything else is too niche topic for real open-ended discourse. I'd start a community for "Somerville Discourse" or somesuch, but, well, you know that I'd have a pile of snark folks bashing it automatically. And that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. :-)

Or maybe this community is already what we need, and we just need the Moderators to encourage that kind of free discussion.

What do you think?