(This week, in connection with the launch of our campaign Fracking Gone Wrong: Finding a Better Way, we’ve invited some of the movement’s most prominent advocates to guest blog  Today's guest blogger is Josh Fox, an Oscar-nominated director whose award-winning documentary GASLAND has helped ignite a national outcry against the dangers of the controversial gas drilling technique known as fracking. His hometown in Pennsylvania is directly in the path of a gas drilling rush sweeping the Northeast. Since releasing the film, Fox has traveled across the country and around the world screening the film and inspiring audiences to join the fight against fracking. GASLAND is being shown on HBO and is also available on DVD. If you haven’t already seen it, it truly is a must-watch film.)

Summertime is just around the corner. What's one of your favorite summer memories of your hometown of Milanville, PA?
Josh Fox: Running up and down Calkins Creek over and over again all day. Looking under rocks for the crayfish that are hiding under there. Waiting for the trout to emerge from a pool of cloudy water, just to spy on them.

The symmetry is just eerie.

Exactly one year after the BP disaster in the Gulf, natural gas drilling company Chesapeake admitted that a well it was hydraulically fracturing (or “fracking”) for natural gas went out of control in LeRoy, Pennsylvania late Tuesday, spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of frack fluid over containment walls, through fields, farms – even where cattle continue to graze – and into a stream.

(For those new to the issue, hydraulic fracturing is a controversial gas extraction technique in which companies blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to break up the rock and force out the gas. Lots more info on fracking is here.)

As of publication time, the well was still leaking.

(This week, in connection with the launch of our campaign Fracking Gone Wrong: Finding a Better Way, we’ve invited some of the movement’s most prominent advocates to guest blog. Today's guest blogger is Sharon Wilson, aka TXsharon, a blogger and an organizer with Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project. Earthjustice has worked for years alongside EARTHWORKS OGAP in Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and other drilling states.)

Howdy, I am Sharon Wilson but most people know me as TXsharon, author of the blog, Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS that focuses on drilling issues locally, statewide, nationally and even globally. My involvement started when I noticed alarming things happening to the countryside near my property in Wise County, Texas—a smelly pit here, a smoking rig there, and leaky pipes and hoses that ended up in flowing creeks. I wrote letters to the paper, talked to neighbors and blogged as a guest until I finally started my own blog.

In 2008, my friend Don Young, founder of Fort Worth Can Do!, and I called EARTHWORKS’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project for help in reining in the out of control and largely unregulated drilling in North Texas. Shortly after an initial tour and meetings with key OGAP staff, we founded Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project (see industry’s reaction HERE). In January 2010, I became the part-time Texas organizer.

Over the years, I have collected stories and documentation of the havoc that uncontrolled and virtually unregulated drilling and fracking are wreaking on the health and safety of the people of North Texas. I chose four of those stories, developed them into case studies and presented them in October 2010 to the EPA in North Carolina. In December, I traveled a long way from Texas and presented them in Washington, D.C.

Fracking rig in Pennsylvania. Photo by Chris Jordan/Earthjustice

[This week, in honor of the launch of Earthjustice's campaign Fracking Gone Wrong: Finding a Better Way, we've invited some of the movement's most prominent advocates to guest blog.

Our first guest blogger is Mark Ruffalo, an Oscar-nominated actor who is fighting to protect water. He lives in New York's Catskill Mountains—directly in the path of a gas drilling rush sweeping the Northeast. In February, he traveled to Washington, D.C. to educate members of Congress on the dangers of the gas drilling technique known as fracking.]

Congratulations on your Academy Award nomination. What's the story behind the blue pin you wore at the awards?
Mark Ruffalo: The blue pin I was wearing was for Water Defense. It is an organization that I am involved with that aims to celebrate the sanctity of our water and at the same time to educate people on where it is under attack by energy extraction and industrialization. As our energy extraction methods are becoming more desperate, clean water will be sacrificed more and more.

You've helped make fracktivism sexy. Why'd you join the fight?
Mark: I was moved to step into the fight against hydraulic fracturing when I went to Dimock, PA and saw how their wells had been destroyed. I saw how crass and arrogant the companies who destroyed them acted toward their victims—refusing to take responsibility for the wrongs they had done. I saw that the local and state and federal government agencies that have been put in place to keep these kinds of things from happening were either apathetic or corrupt. I felt it was the right thing to stand up and say ‘No.’ I had seen something so clearly wrong and knew I would be less of a man if I didn't fight for what I know is right.

How many glasses of water do you drink a day?
Mark: Many. I don't really drink much else other than water. Except for a beer or two or something a little stiffer at the end of a day.

How about your favorite form of water-based recreation?
Mark: My favorite water based recreation is a tie between my new found love of fly fishing. Or my old love of surfing.

Advice for the aspiring fracktivist?
Mark: We haven't been carried this far to be dropped. If you are losing hope then you are not doing enough. There are very few things in life that you get to be part of that are bigger than you. Fighting for the health of our air and water, fighting against those who would gladly pollute our natural resources simply to make a buck is worth a great deal. You can measure your decency as a human being today by not being complicit in the destruction of our fellow human beings and their health.

Well put. (More tips can be found here.) Favorite movie of all-time?
Mark: My favorite movie of all time is On The Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando

Good choice. You’ve been compared to a young Brando. In the spirit of melding art and advocacy, will you compose a haiku on why people should join the fight against fracking?

Mark:
Walk into the day
Make it known that you are here
Stand for your water!

Come out and speak up
Water is under attack
The fish and frogs watch

There is no waiting
He who hesitates is lost
The stream is dying

That’s three haikus—very generous! Thanks so much for your time and for your work on this issue! And readers, don't forget to check out our campaign page!

Links:
Water Defense