natural gas… clean enough to drink?

In the spirit of Blog Action Day 2009… in support of dismantling global warming and working toward another world FREE of pollution, criminalization, exploitation, and incarceration… Green Guerrillas checking in with our four cents…

With New York State on the fast track to following Pennsylvania’s lead in joining the national boom in favor of natural gas drilling (31 states strong), Green Guerrillas is working with other activists locally, regionally, and nationally to raise public awareness and get as many folks involved in this issue as possible.

The issue of natural gas development is too large and complex for a single post… so we will offer as much background as we can put together over the new few weeks to try to bring everyone up to speed… or at least incite ya’ll to look out for yourselves, and the futures of your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

So what’s the big deal about natural gas drilling, you ask?  Isn’t it a “transition fuel” that will lead the country out of its economic crisis by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and help green America?

natural gas efficiency

*Original Graphic credit: Elk River Public Utility District; updated by American Public Gas Association based on 2008 EIA data

According to a fairly recent series on NPR…

“If we were to convert half of our existing vehicle fleet [to natural gas], we would eliminate a little over half our oil imports,” Hefner contends. He and other natural gas advocates have been supported in recent months by environmental organizations.

“There’s a huge capacity of natural gas that is lying idle,” says Timothy Wirth, a former Democratic senator from Colorado who now heads the United Nations Foundation. “That makes absolutely no sense at all when what we’re trying to do is clean up the atmosphere.”

Natural gas is still a fossil fuel, and when burned it does produce greenhouse gases. Environmentalists working for the use of renewable energy sources nonetheless see natural gas as a transition fuel. One idea is to build mini-power generating stations, each connected to the natural gas pipeline infrastructure. A station attached to a hospital or a shopping mall could produce heat as well as electrical power, cutting energy costs dramatically.

Sounds good, right?

Well, the other side of the story… tells the unraveling tale of contamination (benzene, a carcinogen) in groundwater and nearby streams in Colorado,¹ rural water wells in Wyoming reeking of fuel vapors,² and nearby drinking water advisories in the Monongahela watershed in Pennsylvania.³ If all continues as planned by multinational corporations like Halliburton, the drinking water supplied to millions in NYC (presently unfiltered), other parts of New York, Philadelphia, and a large part of Pennsylvania will be forever tainted with the tasty toxicity of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale.

There is so much more to share… but just realize this: natural gas drilling is a direct result of our collective over-consumption of fossil fuels.  Resource extraction is not a new phenomenon, of course.  It is just hitting a few of us closer to home and Green Guerrillas are working to “clean up” our own backyards!  We are familiar with the destruction caused by coal-fired power plants on Black Mesa, in Arizona… we made a short video about it two years ago:

But now we are faced with the same cancer-causing catastrophe coming our way… so that we can all continue to consume nonrenewable energy resources at our current levels.

What exactly?

So we will pause it here with one last question… is natural gas clean enough to drink?

Pennsylvania says natgas drilling risks inevitable

Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:57pm EDT

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pennsylvania’s top environmental official said on Friday that a natural gas drilling boom would inevitably result in some environmental damage including possible contamination of water supplies.

Responding to concerns that drilling in some areas has caused toxic chemicals to pollute drinking water, John Hanger said the value of the gas underlying Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states outweighed damage drilling may cause.

“You can’t do a large amount of drilling and have zero impact,” Hanger, acting secretary of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, told Reuters. “There’s going to be a lot of good that comes from drilling in Pennsylvania, but there are also going to be some problems.”

Hanger said he could not confirm or deny reports that water in the northeast Pennsylvania township of Dimock — where many producing wells are located — is being contaminated by chemicals from a process called hydrofracturing, or “fracking,” in which chemicals are forced deep into the rock mixed with water and sand.

He acknowledged that some of the chemicals could be dangerous to human health but said that risk has to be weighed against the benefits that will come from the exploitation of what he called the “enormous” gas reserves contained in the Marcellus Shale.

“Some of these chemicals are things you couldn’t drink. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We have processes that go on in our lives all the time that involve these chemicals, and we run a certain amount of risk because of the benefits.”

He pledged that officials would respond diligently to any complaints about polluted water resulting from the drilling. “We are absolutely focused on protecting our water,” he said.

Energy companies such as Cabot Oil and Gas, which operates in the Dimock area, say the chemicals used in fracking fluid are heavily diluted and pose no threat to health. They also say the fluid is injected a mile or more underground, thousands of feet below the level of drinking water aquifers.

Residents in Dimock say their water has caused sickness and at times has become discolored and foul-smelling since drilling started.

Responding to concerns about gas drilling, DEP officials on Friday published a list of fracking chemicals on the agency’s website for the first time, under the heading “Summary of Hydraulic Fracture Solutions.” (here)

Hanger said the Marcellus reserve contains at least 350 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or enough to supply the entire U.S. demand for 10 to 15 years without relying on the output of any other state, Canada or Mexico.

He predicted development of the field, which is in a very early stage, would bring billions of dollars to the state and create tens of thousands of jobs. Natural gas would also benefit the environment, he because is cleaner burning than oil or coal.

¹ Does Natural Gas Drilling Endanger Water Supplies? Business Week, 11.11.08

² EPA: Chemicals Found in Wyoming Drinking Water Might be From Fracking, Pro Publica, 08.25.09

³ Delaware River Drinking Water Threatened, Weekly Press, 09.23.09

peace + endless war = columbus

With all the talk of peace prizes in the media and the reality of endless wars, we are reminded of the legacy of columbus… domination of other peoples, domination of the environment, and domination of other belief systems through domination by patriarchy…

As Guerrilla Griots, we make our own media by analyzing important social, political, economic, and environmental issues which affect our lives.  Our work involves connecting the dots between 500-year-old issues of prejudice, inequality, oppression, and discrimination with the increased use of policing, exploitation, resource extraction, and incarceration nationwide and abroad.  We recognize the life-threatening role of columbus’ legacy in our lives, and its potential to further endanger ALL life on the planet for at least Seven Generations to come unless challenged and abolished.

So we start with ourselves and our families and our actions.  It is days and times like these that we are reminded that the “New World Order” is really just the same old %#@!  We pay homage to our ancestors who came before us, and before columbus… by using our resources to learn, to grow, to challenge, and to change…

check us out on changents.com

Because we know that we can change the world for ourselves and future generations… transforming the legacy of columbus all the while… we are getting involved in local/regional issues around natural gas drilling, and helping to organize the United States Social Forum II scheduled for late June 2010 in Detroit.

we will keep you posted…

BLESSINGS!

green homes and split estates

Green Guerrillas spent the weekend learning about cool and catastrophe.

Let’s start with the good news first… the cool! 

We always look forward to gleaning inspiration in the beauty, bounty, and sustainability of our local area… our homelands.  This past weekend we joined in with thousands of others all across Turtle Island to participate in the 14th Annual Solar Tour sponsored by American Solar Energy Society.

From ASES:

In addition to highlighting solar options available, an increasing focus of the tour is on energy-saving techniques and sustainability through building design, energy efficient appliances, and use of green materials during remodeling. Tours also provide helpful, real-world examples of costs and how to save money with federal, state, and local incentives.

Ultimately the tour inspires people across the nation to make sustainable energy choices that help lower costs, support energy independence, protect against power outages, and reduce carbon emissions. Be part of the renewable energy revolution.

The Solar Tour happens the first Saturday in October every year in conjunction with National Energy Awareness Month, and is coordinated by various agencies, businesses, activists, and organizations.  For those of you interested in staying in the solar loop and finding out about activities in our area, check out the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.  Guerrilla Griots has been checking out the Solar Tour since 2002, and Green Guerrillas featured green cribs in Tompkins County (New York State) in our second film, Food Clothes Shelter Community.

Now… on the un-cool part of so-called clean energy.

Guerrilla Griots are preparing for a “rumble in the jungle” as we join with others regionally to keep our families/friends, our animals, our air/water/soil quality, and all other life in our homelands safe from the environmental destruction that is headed our way as a result of natural gas exploration and extraction. Green Guerrillas took a break from the solar tour on Saturday to check out the film Split Estate in Elmira Heights to find out what happened in communities out west when gas drilling came to town:

Guerrilla Griots have joined in with other activists and organizers in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to raise awareness and expose the irreversible damage done to human and animal health, and air, soil, and water quality when high-pressure, horizontal hydraulic fracturing is used to extract gas from shale located deep within Mother Earth.

Here is a lil more information…

From Pro Publica:

The push to find clean domestic energy has zeroed the country in on one resource it has plenty of: natural gas. Vast deposits large enough to supply the country for decades have become the focus of a drilling boom stretching across 31 states. But water contamination has also been reported in more than a thousand cases where that drilling is taking place, raising questions about the primary drilling method being used to get to the gas.

That drilling technique, called hydraulic fracturing, shoots large amounts of water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release the gas. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared the process to be safe despite warnings from several of its own scientists that it is not. The gas companies are exempt from federal laws protecting the nation’s water supplies, and are allowed to conceal the identities of their chemicals as trade secrets. Together these things have made it difficult for scientists and investigators to determine the exact cause of the contamination that is occurring in water supplies.

That’s why lawmakers in Congress and in several states are pushing for deeper study of the impact of drilling and for closer oversight of the gas industry. The U.S. House and Senate are considering legislation to reverse the federal exemptions, and New York state is considering a partial ban on drilling anywhere near New York City’s watershed. The industry — in the form of millions of dollars spent on lobbying, a slew of court cases, and a robust public relations campaign — is pushing back.

So… we are gearing up for a massive organizing campaign as we seek to protect our air, our water, and our homelands for seven generations to come.  We will keep ya’ll posted on the latest developments and what you can do to help.

Peace!

green guerrillas eco cinema summer 2009

Did you know that some studies suggest that over the course of our lives “most people spend only 4% – 5% of their time outdoors?”

YIKES!

So, Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective figured that — just in case this sad statistic applies to us (what exactly?) — we would defy these odds during Summer 2009 by engaging with our local landscape to improve our cinematography skills.  Here’s what we came up with:

Let us know what you think!

road trips… rap up!

rollin' in our bus...

all aboard!

Green Guerrillas are back from a couple of recent road trips in our biodiesel/veggie oil bus… we screened a pre-release version of our latest film (Green Guerrillas Blockumentary v.2.5: Green Grease Guzzlers is HOT off the “presses”) at the 2009 Northeast Climate Confluence and Philadelphia’s Scribe Video Center hosted us for its August 8th edition of Street Movies!

So… first trip first!

On August 1st, we headed out to Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community to join with other youth/activists of color to build, grow, and expand our collective efforts to organize and strategize around both personal and community efforts to promote environmental balance, while resisting false, corporate-sponsored solutions to climate change.

got shelter?

takin' care of business!

Green Guerrillas were members of the Confluence’s collective of organizers from Providence, Boston, New York City, Albany, and elsewhere throughout the Northeast.  So while we were certainly empowered by the process of helping to pull together dynamic workshops, strategy sessions, and panel discussions… we had even more fun setting up tents; playing flashlight tag; washing dishes (with Taina); cooking dinner with local/organic meat, dairy, vegetables; dancing under the stars to the sounds of Taina y La Bande Rebelde; and, sitting around the campfire talking with our Elders late in to the night!

checkin' out scribe video center

Then, on Friday, August 7th we headed down to Philadelphia for a weekend of cinema under the stars!

For the second year in a row, Street Movies! highlighted Green Guerrillas shorts for the residents surrounding Clark Park in the Southwest section of the City.  We met up with family and friends… hung out with Louis, Valerie, and Boone at Scribe Video Center… enjoyed tasty meals at our favorite Halal eatery on Walnut Street… and even had a few minutes to search for sustainable style!

Several folks checked out our Bus when we poked our heads in at the Anarchist People of Color Conference, and after the screening Saturday night.

Now that we are F I N A L L Y  F I N I S H E D  with Blockumentary v.2.5… yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay… look out for the trailer… stay tuned!

GGs in philly

v.2.5 COMPLETE and coming soon…

it is with GREAT ENTHUSIASM that guerrilla griots human rights media arts center announces the COMPLETION of our latest film project…

Green Guerrillas Blockumentary v.2.5: Green Grease Guzzlers

check out the trailer

premiering soon… stay tuned!

lions… and tigers… and… worms?

getting our hands dirty!

who's afraid of the big bad bambi?

Green Guerrillas are ona roll… we are DOING IT by getting outside, mastering our new HD equipment, building our outdoor awareness skills, growing together as a unified collective, increasing our critical environmental and social consciousness, deepening our love and respect for Our Mother, the Earth, and… and…

… and all in a few short weeks!

hangin' together

HDelicious!

We are in the midst of several experiments this Summer… trying out a larger crew for size; getting our hands in the dirt and testing our peripheral vision; remembering what it is like to be creative in the great outdoors sans technology (yikes!); and, learning manual controls so that our next film project will mirror both the passion and quality of a cinematography masterpiece like Baraka: A World Beyond Words.  We have HIGH EXPECTATIONS… give thanks!

So these first few weeks have involved venturing out of our media arts studio and into the streets of Ithaca and its surrounding beauty.  We have had the good fortune to have an awesome photographer on our team this season, so we have been able to capture our story in a more compelling way for the first time…

health = wellth

Anyways… from zooming in on the ducks and wild berries near Six Mile Creek; to playing “Eagle Eye” in a wild flower preserve to re-awaken our overall sense of awareness too often dampened by video games and text messages (watch yo’ mouth!); to watching films like Do The Right Thing (Happy 20th Spike),  Sentenced Home, and Children of Men; to fishing at an off-grid homestead; to learning about the history of our local woods before European contact and hugging 300-year-old trees…

our 300 year old comrades

we are equipping ourselves to film and photograph our next project by first understanding the power of ORENDA–what the Haudenosaunee call the life force or chi of Mother Earth.

According to the official website of the Haudenosaunee:

Orenda is connected to The Great Law of Peace.  The Great Law is the founding constitution of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.  It is an oral tradition, codified in a series of wampum belts now held by the Onondaga Nation.  It defines the functions of the Grand Council and how the native nations can resolve disputes between themselves and maintain peace.

The hardest part of the Great Law is to understand the meaning of the concept of peace.  Peace is not simply the absence of war.  In the Iroquoian mind, peace is a state of mind….  Each individual has a base spiritual power.  As you go through life as Haudenosaunee, experience different things, learn more, comprehend more and tap into other forms of spiritual power, your own spirit grows as well.  The old timers called it orenda.  Everyone is thought to have it to some degree.  It effects how we do things.  Good minds have strong orenda. So the ultimate power of the Great Law rests in how well the individual person develops their sense of self…

good minds have STRONG orenda

We GIVE THANKS that we have the unique opportunity to expand our connection to the natural world as we further develop our sense of self… and look forward to growing our orenda along the way.  How about you?

Here’s to Good Minds!

summer #4 begins…

defying the odds? hell yeah!

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

- Dr. Seuss

Green Guerrillas checking in at the start of our F O U R T H Summer… who would have thought that in June 2004 — when it was decided to finally go “full steam ahead” on this project — that in such a short time we would accomplish so much!  GIVE THANKS!

With SIX graduations under our belt…. brand new HD camera equipment (thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor), a new connection to folks out in the mid-west living sustainably, and our largest crew for one season ever (8 teens (we just picked up 2 more this week!), 4 used-to-be-youth), we are on our way toward our next amazing project!

But first things first… we have planned an E A S Y entry into Green Guerrillas Blockumentary v.3 HD by using the next six weeks to become more aware of our natural world, to expand our comfort zone to include the great outdoors, to build our skills as cinematographers, and to finally FINISH our last film (v.2.5… which is only s e c o n d s away from completion).

So… our first weeks will involve getting outside.  We are using Wilderness Awareness School’s Coyote’s Guide for outdoor activities that are both engaging and fun!  We are also planning to go fishing, interview a local forester, camp out at Kanatsiohareke, and capture sights and sounds from our surrounding community using the latest in industry-standard high definition media equipment.

And… of course we will continue to prioritize our political education by watching and analyzing films and videos which broaden our ability to connect the dots between pollution and prisons… sustainability and social change.

Stay tuned for updates, pictures, and videos!

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE

Green Guerrillas Bus Shoot

Green Guerrillas have been hard at work since the Winter Solstice working on our backlog of 2008 interviews and other footage (all available now on our You Tube Channel) and a new film, Green Guerrillas Blockumentary v.2.5 on alternative and sustainable transportation.

Watch Out World... here we come!

Well… we are finally emerging from MONTHS of editing (yikes!), and are ready to ride the Summer Solstice wave downhill toward exciting activities and opportunities ahead!

We celebrated Juneteenth by participating in the Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness: Healing the Legacy of the Boarding Schools 1879-2009.  On May 16th 2009, White Bison began a 40-day, 6800 mile cross-country journey to present and former Indian Boarding School sites.  The goal of the journey is to promote awareness, dialogue and forgiveness among Native peoples for the historical trauma of the Indian Boarding School Era which began in 1879.  The Journey concludes on June 24th at the Musuem of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

We also celebrated the first Green Guerrillas high school graduation since the start of our program in 2006.  We have five more to go before June ends.  CONGRATS to all our graduates and their families.

GG Graduate

The party continued on Saturday, as a small cadre of Guerrilla Griots shared in a community-building Solstice ceremony with our Indigenous brothers inside the prison walls.  We participated in traditional dancing and drumming, shared powerful stories from our communities, and encouraged each other to look ahead to the future as empowered people.

Prison Industrial Complex

Speaking of the future… Green Guerrillas will conclude our week-long celebration of the Summer Solstice with more exciting activities (including the three graduations we mentioned earlier).  First, thanks to the generous support of an Anonymous Donor, we will start receiving/unpacking HD equipment in preparation for filming and photographing our next big project.  Second, we will be taking some of our new HD equipment on the road to Chicago, Illinois… where we will hook up with the caretakers of the Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living…

Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living

learning more about their vision and the inspiration for their healing work in the Savannah of Pembroke Township.  While at Black Oaks, we intend to offer our first “sneak preview” pre-release of our v.2.5.  We look forward to premiering our latest work in the near future… stay tuned for details… we will keep you posted!

Green Guerrilla(s) Griots “MediaCamp” at Pyramid Lake

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

May 28 – 31 Green Guerrilla(s) Griots conducted its second bootcamp training—a four-day intensive media making workshop—at the Pyramid Lake Reservation outside of Reno, Nevada for the Emerging Indigenous Leadership Institute (EILI).  EILI is a program of the Indigenous People’s Council on Biocolonialism.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

Making Good Strong Leaders… EILI is a five-month leadership development program for a young Indigenous people (ages 18-30) from the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe Tribes in Northern Nevada.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

EILI cultivates a new generation of leadership committed to the protection and perpetuation of the rights, culture, and lifeways of Indigenous peoples.

EILI is founded on the principle of Indigenous-centered education and creates the opportunity for young Indigenous peoples to ground themselves in their own Indigenous knowledge systems, and utilize their culture as the foundation for learning and knowing.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

S.T.A.M.P. was both excited and honored to support EILI students (for a second year)  in their creative efforts to define themselves and their futures!  Four powerful, personal documentaries were produced which highlighted the importance of land, language, and culture in the Indigenous communities from which these new leaders emerged.