Sustainability Pioneers' It Takes a Village is a story about community power. Documentary filmmaker Kirsi Jansa visits two communities, Butler in Pennsylvania and Balcombe in the UK. In Balcombe oil and gas industry wants to drill and frack, and in Butler the shale gas development is in full swing. In both places some local have visions for a different kind of a future.

Methane Emissions killing the atmosphere, and frac-well injection of biocides killing 'Deep Life'. How Long Is This New Bridge To Doom Town?

Sandra Steingraber is an acclaimed ecologist, cancer survivor, and author of "Living Downsteam" and "Raising Elijah". She gave a fascinating account of extremoophileapos; bacteria that feed in the hydrocarbon rich shale layer which are responsible for fouling up the works when the shale is fracked. Biocides are one constituent of fracking fluid that poses an unacceptible risk to our health. What is the ecological relationships of the subterranean biota to the rest of life on the planet? No one knows.

Full 41 minutes presentation here

Published on Mar 1, 2014

Infographic, cumulative natural gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania, January 2005-April 2012.

The animation illustrates Pennsylvania's relatively recent transition from conventional vertical wells (black diamonds) to horizontal wells (red diamonds), drilled mostly in sections of the Marcellus, Utica, and Geneseo/Burket shale formations located in the northeast and southwest portions of the state. The animation also shows that as horizontal drilling increased, the number of vertical wells—which are typically less productive—fell, resulting in an overall decline in the state's new well count. For the full Today in Energy article, visit here.

Published on May 23, 2012

Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close a key rural town in his company's expansion plans. Promised Land explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge. The issue is fracking, the place is rural America.

Gregory has written for Esquire, The New York Times, Texas
Monthly and the Austin American Statesman. His documentary href="http://www.haynesvillemovie.com" target="_blank">Haynesville: A Nation's Hunt for an Energy Future has now become an important part of the national energy debate. wings
around the country, Kallenberg is making waves that reach from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.

Click on image to order video from Amazon.

Recording of a Common Cause webinar on political spending by the natural gas industry. The industry has spent $750 million to convince Congress to ignore the dangers of fracking. Participants include James Browning, Josh Fox, David Levdansky and Helen Slottje.

Instructional, how it is done...After being made available on YouTube it was re-classified as "private" by the company.

We are leaving a link to it on EarthSayers in the event the company changes its mind and makes it available once again.

In order to maximize the production potential for a natural gas well, the shale formation must be hydraulically fractured. This video outlines and demonstrates the hydraulic fracturing process in Chesapeake Energy natural gas operations. For more information on fracking, visit www.hydraulicfracturing.com.

Here is a news/personal story about spills from a Chesapeak Energy drilling site and contamination of private and public natural resources.

Here is our January 1, 2013 article on Fracking in our blog, Sustainability Adovate. 

Trailer for GASLAND - (2010) Directed by Josh Fox. Winner of Special Jury Prize - Best US Documentary Feature - Sundance 2010. Screening at Cannes 2010. This addresses hydraulic fracturing a.k.a. fracking, a highly contentious, high risk energy alternative. 

A criticism of  Gasland is a video by the folks at ANGA - American Natural Gas Alliance - who argue that Gasland is "flawed." 

You are going to have to form your own opinion after listening to a wide range of voices of sustainability, but especially the citizens who are experience fracking first hand in their fields and communities.