I haven’t seen Josh Fox’s Gasland, but I have seen the video clip where he lights water coming out of a tap. Now, thanks to legal action taken by him and his lawyers fewer people will be able to see it. Why would he do that?
Gasland director hides full facts from Not Evil Just Wrong on Vimeo.
Note: Fox is so nervous about his misrepresentation that Vimeo has now been pressured to take the video down. However you can still see it here
Well it turns out that Fox was exaggerating. The tap that he filmed igniting had been doing that before gas extraction in that area. He was confronted on this point by film maker Phelim McAleer who then shot his own short online documentary on Fox’s deception. The documentary used a smidgin of Fox’s film and was posted on YouTube.
But you can’t see it on YouTube now because they have taken it down in response to a claim by Fox that it breaches copyright.
That’s odd. You can still watch it in Vimeo (see above), and I can’t see that it breaches copyright. See what you think.
And if it does breach copyright, then why have Fox and YouTube allowed all these other excerpts from the film to remain on YouTube? And why is it still hosted on Vimeo?
My conclusion is that Fox’s film is not to be taken seriously. Nor is Fox.
I am not aquainted with this legal fiasco but I am well aquainted with both Josh Fox and the gas industry. Unfortunately your comments are both inaccurate and unresearched. Yes – sometimes methane does naturally occur in water – but rarely to the extent of being able to light it. The CSG industry is emerging as one of the greatest cons of all time with doubts about the claims by the industry of low emissions etc. Instead those in gas areas can expect their water to be depleted and contaminated, their health to compromised – all for the benefit of an industry that does not even pay royalties for five years from production. When Don Voelte of Woodside claims that his crowning achievement was to steer Woodside away from the CSG industry on environmental issues such as the no plans for the disposal of water and the number of holes required to be drilled, clearly the gas industry needs much closer examination and regulation and may in fact not be a suitable energy source to replace coal.
Comment by Rosemary Nankivell — June 7, 2011 @ 10:49 pm
Not my research Rosemary – the research presented in McAleer’s short piece. And it is official government research.
Comment by Graham — June 8, 2011 @ 6:42 am