Fracking at UNC: Josh Fox wants Colorado to take action

            On November 15 filmmaker and activist Josh Fox came to UNC to talk about fracking, the subject of his documentary "Gasland." Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is  a way to extract natural energy from under the ground. This is important to the UNC community because the board of directors accepted money to allow fracking under the campus last year.

            Fox found himself in a similar situation, though on a smaller scale, in 2008. He was offered money to allow fracking on the land his family home sits on. He decided to decline and didn’t think too much of it until the topic came up repeatedly while he was going door-to-door campaigning for President Obama. People were nervous about the dangers of fracking and wanted to know the candidates’ stances on it.

            Fox decided to make a short film to show his neighbors, encouraging them not to accept the offers of money that were pouring in from the fracking industry. While in the process, he saw sick kids and pets and realized the issue was bigger than he’d imagined.

            “There was something deep and desperately wrong with this,” Fox says. The short film for his neighbors became “Gasland,” the documentary that has won awards and earned Fox constant vigilance from the oil and gas industry.

            Fox told students that the danger of the situation, from sickness to water catching on fire, is covered up by politicians on both sides who see the financial benefits.

            “I watched expert after expert lie to Congress and say it was safe,” says Fox. He encouraged the audience to take a stand against fracking, which he thinks is possible and important since Colorado is a decisive state, recently having made a major impact on the outcome of the presidential election.

            “The social contract has been completely fractured and mauled, shredded, by the oil and gas industry,” says Fox of the claims that fracking is safe and offers of money that is sometimes accepted out of need.

            Fox suggested the audience fight against fracking at UNC, even if it means civil disobedience. “Tell this university in no uncertain terms that what they’ve done is totally unacceptable,” he says.

            Local research biologist Shane Davis, who joined Fox on stage after the talk, agrees that fracking must be stopped in Colorado. “Someday they will put a fence around Weld County, I guarantee it, it’s a disaster site,” says Davis of the future if fracking isn’t stopped soon. Davis runs the website Fractivist.

            Junior voice major Janette Ruiz was in the audience, and said she learned a lot from the talk. “I knew that it wasn’t exactly safe, but a lot of this information still baffled me,” Ruiz says of the dangers Fox warned about.