Terra prumessa, the new movie starring Matt Damon, is a movie in part about fracking, the new and extremely problematic way of getting natural gas out of shale rock far below the earth’s surface. It’s a very good movie, with good acting, particularly by Damon in a very different role than, for example, his Jason Bourne trilogy. Instead of being a kick-ass former CIA assassin on a mission to reclaim his memory and the truth about what was done to him, in Mimoria Damon is a conflicted, conscience-stricken, corporate hot shot “land man” using bribes and threats, when necessary, to get people in a small, rural town to agree to let their town be fracked.
Ma u filmu ùn presenta in ogni modu tutti, o ancu a maiò parte, di i numerosi prublemi chì venenu cù u fracking, assai menu fà in modu chjaru è cunvincente. U prublema primariu chì presenta hè u veru veru di a contaminazione di a terra è di l'acqua. Questu succede per via di i sustanzi chimichi tossichi, mischiati cù l'acqua è a sabbia, chì sò furzati in u scisto sottu pressione pesante per rompe a roccia è liberà u gasu in questu. Qualchidunu di quella mistura tossica torna, inseme à u metanu, l'ingredientu primariu di u gasu naturale, è ci sò un gran numaru di casi specifichi di morte di piante è animali, malatie umane è avvelenamentu d'acqua dopu chì sò una prova chjara di stu prublema seriu.
But there are many more that Mimoria doesn’t mention, much less explain:
· fracking’s huge and growing contribution to our global heating crisis: methane is 72-105 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as CO2 over the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere, and studies over the past two years, including by the EPA, show that there is much more methane leakage over the lifecycle of fracked, as well as conventionally-produced, natural gas, than the oil/gas industry admits;
· constant heavy truck traffic transporting water, sand and fracking fluids that pollutes surrounding air, causes damage to roads, creates traffic congestion and noise and other negative impacts;
· the contamination of rivers close to fracking sites through either deliberate dumping of “flowback” wastewater after a well is drilled or through migration of those fluids underground;
· the drawdown of massive amounts of sometimes-scarce—as in historically dry or dought-impacted areas—nearby river and lake water, many millions of gallons per well;
· documented radiation levels in wastewater 100 or more times the EPA’s drinking water standard;
· disruption of other economically-and socially-valued industries or practices, such as agriculture, tourism, hunting and fishing;
· fragmentation of woods and forests via construction of well sites, pipelines, roads and other infrastructure;
· a decline in property values of homes and land adjacent to or near wells; and,
· earthquakes: the United States Geological Survey has reported that deep underground injection of drilling wastewater is the probable cause of a six-fold increase in earthquakes in middle America in 2011 compared to 20th century levels.
So if you are looking for a movie about all of the negatives about fracking, Mimoria is not the movie to watch.
Mimoria is in many ways more a movie about corporate power, and the ideology that undergirds it, versus the power of an informed people and the old-but-still-good values of love for family, land, home, and the truth. The energy company that Damon works for is thoroughly despicable, while the individuals who work for it, like Damon and the character played by Frances McDormand, are shown as more complex, human, less corporatist in their ideology.
Un esempiu chjucu, ma dilucente, hè quandu un omu ghjovanu eccessivamente entusiasmu di e ricchezze potenziali chì pensa chì guadagnerà da a firma di un affittu conduce à Damon in una nova vittura fantastica. Per via di una scena precedente, l'audienza di u filmu sapi chì i soldi ch'ellu uttene da u gasu sottu à a so terra, s'ellu ci hè, prubabilmente ùn pagà micca per questa vittura. À l'epica Damon hè a lotta cù a so cuscenza, è mentre fighja a vittura caru è u ghjovanu si pò guasi sente a so angosce, a so culpabilità per ciò chì puderia avè fattu.
Hal Holbrook hè efficace cum'è un maestru anzianu intelligente è articolatu chì hè l'unicu citadinu, in prima, cuscente di alcuni di i periculi di u fracking è dispostu à stà è dì cusì publicamente. Sfurtunatamente, quandu ellu face per a prima volta, descrive ancu u gasu cum'è "pulitu", chì ùn hè assolutamente micca. Tuttavia, ghjoca un rolu chjave in u sforzu successu di u filmu per cuntrastà una vita di locu, di cumunità, di valori eterni contr'à a cultura d'impresa intricante è avidità chì ùn hà micca difficultà à distrughje nunda in u so modu.
There’s a lot of food for thought in Mimoria, and I hope large numbers of people see it.
Z
Ted Glick is the National Campaign Coordinator of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Past writings and other information can be found at http://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on twitter at http://twitter.com/jtglick.