Terra Prometida, 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 Terra prometida 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.
Pero a película de ningún xeito presenta todos, nin sequera a maioría, dos moitos problemas que supón o fracking, e moito menos facelo de forma clara e convincente. O principal problema que si presenta é o moi real da contaminación da terra e da auga. Isto ocorre como resultado dos produtos químicos tóxicos, mesturados con auga e area, que son forzados a baixar no xisto baixo unha forte presión para romper a rocha e liberar o gas que hai dentro. Parte desa mestura tóxica aparece de novo, xunto co metano, o ingrediente principal do gas natural, e hai un gran número de casos específicos de mortes de plantas e animais, enfermidades humanas e intoxicación por auga despois que son unha proba clara deste grave problema.
But there are many more that Terra prometida 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, Terra prometida is not the movie to watch.
Terra prometida 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 exemplo pequeno pero revelador é cando un mozo moi entusiasmado coas riquezas potenciais que cre que obterá ao asinar un contrato de arrendamento vai ata Damon nun coche novo e elegante. Por mor dunha escena anterior, o público do cine sabe que o diñeiro que obterá do gas baixo a súa terra, se o hai, probablemente non pagará por este coche. Nese momento Damon está loitando coa súa conciencia, e mentres mira o coche caro e o mozo case podes sentir a súa angustia, a súa culpa polo que puido facer.
Hal Holbrook é eficaz como un profesor de idade intelixente e articulado que é o único pobo, ao principio, consciente dos perigos do fracking e disposto a poñerse de pé e dicilo publicamente. Desafortunadamente, cando o fai por primeira vez, tamén describe o gas como "limpo", o que absolutamente non o é. Non obstante, desempeña un papel fundamental no esforzo exitoso da película por contrapoñer unha vida de lugar, de comunidade, de valores eternos contra a cultura corporativa maquinaria e impulsada pola codicia que non ten dificultades para destruír nada no seu camiño.
There’s a lot of food for thought in Terra prometida, 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.