I am not a sheep, I have my own mind
I have had enough of being told what and how to think
Whilst we are still allowed the remnants of free speech, I will speak out.
I also reserve the right to discuss less controversial matters should I feel the urge.
'A green campaign group made a series of misleading claims about the health and environmental impacts of fracking, according to a damning draft ruling by the advertising watchdog.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) failed to substantiate claims that fracking could cause cancer, contaminate water supplies, increase asthma rates and send house prices plummeting, the Advertising Standards Authority says.'
Oddly I can't find where the BBC are reporting this ruling, maybe because they don't plan on doing so or even just correcting anyone who makes similar unsubstantiated claims in the future.
Further to this recent article, I have receivd these two comments that may be of interest to anyone interested in the truth rather than eco-lies.
Anonymous said...
I can't see any way of getting an early viewing outside of N
America. The DVD is US$22 inc shipping, but is limited to US addresses,
ships on/after 7th Feb and is probably Zone 1; so all in all pretty
useless for European customers.
The only fast-track way I can see
is for someone in the US to record the broadcast and then upload to,
say, Vimeo (better quality than YouTube), but that's piracy and I do not
condone such.
As one of the investors and thereby Executive producers, I am
happy to tell you you can order the CD from the website
www.fracknation.com for $19.95 deliveries will start from the 7th
February.
The way that fracking has been turned into a hated process by the illiberal left made me suspicious, it's almost as though they don't want a new cheap energy source to be found in the West that would reduce our dependence on supporters of Islamist terrorism and a Russian autocracy. So this story interests me...
Hot Air reports this:
'Full disclosure: I’m a friend of filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, producers of the new documentary Fracknation.
I’ve been looking forward to this effort for some time, interviewing
Phelim and Ann during the last couple of years as they prepared for and
produced the film. Outside of friendship — and Ann and Phelim are a
truly lovely and delightful couple — I wanted to get the other side of
the fracking dispute represented in the cinematic arena, especially
after Gasland and now Promised Land.
And make no mistake — this documentary succeeds in rebutting Josh Fox, the producer/director/writer of the documentary Gasland
that touched off much of the anti-fracking activism. Phelim steps
through a number of Fox’s claims inside and outside of the documentary,
systematically undermining each of them. He includes a clip of his
in-person challenge to Fox, which Fox tried to suppress, and another
with a state official that cozied up to Fox — whose lawyer hilariously
demands the film of the interview immediately afterward. (It’s amazing
how little some lawyers know about the First Amendment.) Instead of
speaking with Hollywood actors and the UAE (which provided some funding
for Promised Land), Phelim speaks with the farmers in the
supposedly-blighted areas of Pennsylvania, New York, and the Delaware
Rivery Valley, as well as experts on fracking, water science, and
environmental agencies.
The best part, however, comes near the end. One couple in the area
have been particularly effective activists, giving interviews, appearing
in Gasland, and protesting about their contaminated water
supply. The EPA even came to Dimock based on their complaints to test
the water supply specifically in their wells, which they claimed were
contaminated by the fracking that had taken place in the region. When
Phelim asks to interview them for Fracknation and to get the
results of the test, they get belligerent enough to call a policeman
(who turns out to be one of the most reasonable of all the people in the
film) as well as threaten to pull a gun on Phelim. Only through a FOIA
request does Phelim find out why — the EPA didn’t find anything wrong
with the water, and they were smart enough to tape the meeting in which
they told the couple the results.
Fracknation delivers a powerful debunking of the scare
campaign against fracking and domestic natural-gas production. But
don’t take my word for it — here’s Variety on the impact of Fracknation:
Those nursing the suspicion that Hollywood
politics are awash in knee-jerk liberalism may well have their cynicism
validated by “FrackNation,” a counterargument to the outcry over the
natural-gas retrieval process known as “fracking” recently explored in
Gus Van Sant’s feature “Promised Land.” But the more thoughtful and
politics-oriented auds targeted by this well-reasoned film from helmers
Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinney and Magdalena Segieda will find plenty to
chew over, including the possibility that perhaps all is not as simple
as it seems in the world of nonrenewable energy.
Irish journalist McAleer narrates and serves as host to this briskly
paced, low-budget and mischievous pic, presented as a rebuttal to Josh
Fox’s Oscar-nominated “Gasland,” a docu that has been instrumental in
building political resistance to a process seen by different factions as
a godsend and an antidote to Big Oil. Fox is clearly depicted as the
villain in “FrackNation,” from a “Gasland” post-screening Q&A where
Fox refuses to answer McAleer’s simple questions, to a scene at Los
Angeles’ Hammer Museum where Fox literally flees the camera.
McAleer makes a good case against Fox’s movie. From the farmers of
the Delaware River Basin, for whom fracking hysteria has meant a loss of
crucial income, to experts like James Delingpole, who somehow makes a
fairly reasoned case that the anti-fracking people are the tools of
Russian President Vladimir Putin (for whom the natural-gas market
provides political leverage), most of the voices entertained here make a
good deal of sense. But the filmmakers might have done well to address
the animosity so many Americans feel toward the energy business in
general.
And what did the New York Times think? You’d probably guess … and you’d be wrong:
Narrated by Mr. McAleer, whose previous documentaries have
also argued against environmental concerns, “FrackNation” is no
tossed-off, pro-business pamphlet. Methodically researched and assembled
(and financed by thousands of small donations from an online campaign), the film picks at Mr. Fox’s assertions and omissions with dogged persistence. Much of what it reveals is provocative, like a confrontation with Mr. Fox about the presence of methane in the water supply decades before fracking began.
What’s clear is that Mr. McAleer knows his way around the Freedom of
Information Act and has done his legwork. Besides talking to carefully
selected scientists and water experts, he visits pro-fracking residents of
Dimock Township, Pa., who are annoyed that their community is being
characterized as a toxic wasteland. And he’s not above taking a
sentimental detour to Poland to commiserate with a pensioner who can’t
pay her energy bills, or reveling in the odd gotcha moment, like
accusing a public official of “inappropriate ties” to Mr. Fox.
More than anything, “FrackNation” underscores the sheer complexity of
a process that offers a financial lifeline to struggling farmers.
Whether it also brings death to their water supply is something we won’t
find out by listening to only half of the debate.
Fracknation will air on Tuesday evening on Mark Cuban’s AXs cable television channel at 9 pm ET.
It’s a brilliant effort by Phelim and Ann, and it’s appropriate for all
ages. The only violence in the film comes, unsurprisingly, from people
who don’t want to have Phelim asking inconvenient questions.'
Anyone know how I can watch this in the UK sooner rather than later, after it airs on Tuesday?
ChrisM said...
