Ƙasar Alkawari, 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 Kasashen Alkawari 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.
Amma fim din ba ya gabatar da duka, ko ma mafi yawa, daga cikin matsalolin da ke tattare da fracking, da yawa ya rage yin hakan ta hanya mai gamsarwa. Matsalolin farko da yake gabatarwa ita ce ta ainihi ta gurɓacewar ƙasa da ruwa. Hakan na faruwa ne sakamakon wasu sinadarai masu guba, gauraye da ruwa da yashi, wadanda aka tilastawa gangarawa cikin ramin karkashin matsin lamba don karya dutsen da sakin iskar da ke cikinsa. Wasu daga cikin wannan cakuda mai guba suna dawowa, tare da methane, babban sinadari na iskar gas, kuma akwai adadi mai yawa na takamaiman lokuta na mutuwar shuka da dabbobi, cututtukan ɗan adam da gubar ruwa daga baya waɗanda ke tabbatar da wannan babbar matsala.
But there are many more that Kasashen Alkawari 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, Kasashen Alkawari is not the movie to watch.
Kasashen Alkawari 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.
Ɗayan ƙarami amma babban misali shine lokacin da matashi ya yi farin ciki sosai game da yuwuwar arziƙin da yake tunanin zai samu daga sanya hannu kan yarjejeniyar haya har zuwa Damon a cikin sabuwar mota mai ban sha'awa. Saboda wani abin da ya faru a baya, masu kallon fim ɗin sun san cewa kuɗin da zai samu daga iskar gas ɗin da ke ƙarƙashin ƙasarsa, idan akwai, tabbas ba zai biya kuɗin wannan motar ba. A lokacin Damon yana fama da lamirinsa, kuma yayin da yake kallon motar mai tsada da saurayi za ku iya jin haushinsa, laifinsa akan abin da ya yi.
Hal Holbrook yana da tasiri a matsayin babban malami mai wayo kuma mai fayyace wanda shine kawai ɗan birni, da farko, yana sane da wasu haɗarin fracking kuma yana shirye ya tashi ya faɗi haka a bainar jama'a. Abin takaici, lokacin da ya yi haka a karon farko, ya kuma bayyana iskar gas a matsayin "tsabta," wanda sam ba haka yake ba. Amma duk da haka, yana taka muhimmiyar rawa a nasarar da fim ɗin ke yi na yin tir da rayuwar wuri, ta al’umma, da ɗabi’u na har abada a kan makirci da al’adun kamfanoni waɗanda ba su da wahalar lalata wani abu a hanyarsa.
There’s a lot of food for thought in Kasashen Alkawari, 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.