Thursday, November 13, 2014

Anti-Fracking Film

 Received this email about a film showing tonight in Morris Library:

The Shawnee Sentinels and the Buckminster Fuller Future Organization will present "Land of Opportunity," an independently produced documentary on fracking for natural gas in Arkansas’ Fayetteville shale, will be shown for FREE at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, November 13 in Guyon Auditorium of Morris Library on the SIU Carbondale campus.

This film is highly relevant to the people of Southern Illinois as it focuses on the earthquake swarms that have been linked to gas exploration through high-pressure injection of liquid and wastewater disposal. The film also will discuss water contamination, property rights and conflicts of interest.

The film is the work of ArkansasFracking.org and Emily Lane, who will join us immediately following the film via Google Chat for a Question & Answer session. Emily writes: “Arkansas has historically promoted short-term economic gain over economic and environmental sustainability. We live under the boom and bust mentality, and consequently we have seen some profit while others suffer. Residents across the state are increasingly battling against the negative impacts of misguided ‘opportunity.’ We can do better.”

“Land of Opportunity” very much lays bare the future that Southern Illinois could be facing. The Fayetteville Shale sits in North Central Arkansas. It is home to 200,000 people, countless cattle farms and pristine, interwoven waterways, some of which supply their drinking water or irrigate their food. The Fayetteville Shale is also home to 4,500 natural gas wells, which are produced using the unconventional process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.


This documentary highlights the link between the fracking process and the Guy/Greenbrier Earthquake Swarm, a rash of 1300+ tremors in Northern Faulkner County that began in late 2010 and culminated in a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in February of 2011. The film explains what triggered the earthquakes, how state officials handled the situation, and what they knew from the beginning.

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