{"id":610,"date":"2016-04-10T05:23:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T05:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/frackfreesa.org.za\/?p=610"},"modified":"2016-04-12T04:59:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T04:59:52","slug":"the-high-cost-of-cheap-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frackfreesa.org.za\/index.php\/2016\/04\/10\/the-high-cost-of-cheap-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"The High Cost of Cheap Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Barbee is in town this week<\/h1>\n

Frack Free SA has arranged screenings of the fascinating film High Cost of Cheap Gas across the KZN Midlands and Eastern Cape and Jeff will be in attendance to answer all your questions.<\/p>\n

The High Cost of Cheap Gas<\/strong> is a story about how the lessons learned in Colorado\u2019s west can help inform smart decisions about how to control hydraulic fracturing as it starts to roll out across the world. \u00a0Presented and directed by Colorado native Jeffrey Barbee, he and Producer Mira Dutschke travel around the world in search of the real facts behind this controversial business. From secret drilling operations in Africa\u2019s best protected parks to new information about how fracking affects unborn children in Parachute Colorado this is a hard look at an industry that is globalizing. Distributed through the Basalt-based not-for-profit foundation\u00a0Alliance Earth<\/a>, this film shares the hard lessons learned from gas drilling in Colarado’s arid west with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Mooi River\u00a0<\/strong>Monday 11 April\u00a017h00 – 18h30\u00a0Mooi River Farmers Hall\u00a0Tony Le Roux\u00a0033 263 1404 tonymrfa@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Greytown\u00a0<\/strong>Tuesday 12 April\u00a014h30 – 16h00\u00a0Town Hall Greytown Bell Street\u00a0Theresa Edwards 060 672 7240\u00a0Theresa.Edwards@umvoti.gov.za<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

UKZN – Pietermaritzburg\u00a0<\/strong>Wednesday 13 April\u00a013h00 – 14h30\u00a0Colin Webb Hall, Main Campus, King Edward Avenue\u00a0Adrian Nel 072 643 8114\u00a0\u00a0nela@ukzn.ac.za<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Earth Festival – Pietermaritzburg\u00a0<\/strong>Thursday\u00a014 April\u00a010h30 – 12h00\u00a0KZN Botanical Garden Pandora\u00a0Long 072 692 8124 pandoralog@mweb.co.za<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Matatiele\u00a0<\/strong>Friday 15 April\u00a011h00 – 13h00 School Children\u00a018h00 -20h00 Community\u00a0King Edward School, Main Street\u00a0Nicky McLeod 082 782 6067 nicky@envirosco.za<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Kokstad<\/strong> Saturday 16 April 10h30 Piet Bosman Community Cinema, Kokstad Piet Bosman\u00a0071 036 1408 \u00a0pietbosman@gmail.com<\/p>\n

Director Jeffrey Barbee is a journalist from Aspen Colorado, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/strong> \u00a0He works for Global Post,\u00a0LinkTV.org<\/a>\u00a0the UK Guardian and Reuters. His environmental reporting also appears in the New York Times, NOS Tv Holland, Smithsonian Magazine, RTL News, PBS, Time Magazine, Newsweek and Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Producer Mira Dutschke has a masters degree in Human Rights Law and 10 years international research experience.<\/strong> Currently she is producing media investigating human rights and environmental issues.\u00a0She is a also a part-time lecturer at the University of Cape Town, teaching human rights and advocacy for the Masters in Child and Maternal Health.<\/p>\n

\"Mira<\/p>\n

You are encouraged to ask Jeff questions about the film and fracking when you meet him. \u00a0We asked him why he decided to make a film on\u00a0fracking:<\/p>\n

Jeff:<\/strong> \u00a0Originally I come from Colorado\u2019s far west, where we have been faced the oil and gas industry drilling for the last 20 years.<\/strong> \u00a0When I started hearing about gas drilling here in southern Africa many of the same arguments were being used, almost like they were lifted out of the same phrasebook that was used on my community 20 years ago. \u00a0In Colorado we have some of the highest rates of birth defects in the USA now, and many researchers believe gas development is responsible for them. \u00a0We also have witnessed the collapse of our farming community, our land prices and the housing market. \u00a0The successive booms in drilling have brought in hard drugs, the sex trade and crime to an area that was devoid \u00a0of these problems. \u00a0Now that the good gas is all drilled the community is left with the mess. \u00a0Mira and I made this film because we felt it would be a grave injustice if we did not share this knowledge with the people around the world who are facing gas drilling, so they could make better decisions, informed by the experience of a similar community in the USA.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

South Africa is very lucky in that \u00a0there is a long history of conservation here. \u00a0<\/strong>People from all walks of life believe that environmental protections are very important, not just for the sake of our health but because they love their Karoo, they enjoy bird watching, hiking in the Kruger, having a picnic by the Limpopo next to a hippo pool, or any one of thousands of ways to experience this beautiful country. Throughout the world there is a rising understanding of the need to move our economies more in-line with preserving the biosphere that gives us life. \u00a0I think Southern African should be very proud that here people are already global leaders because they have stood up and fought, and we need to make sure that that narrative is shared, through art, through film, and through real success stories that happen here every day.<\/p>\n

\"Karoo<\/p>\n

A very surprising thing we found from scientists that we met from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and many others; these massive gas projects are leaking between an average of 7-8% of all the gas they produce straight into the atmosphere,<\/strong> negating the effects of burning natural gas instead of coal to control global warming. \u00a0It seems impossible to stop these leaks.<\/p>\n

The other main points we make are:<\/p>\n