Review of Gasland (2010) by Diana T — 30 Mar 2011

Well, I fell asleep in this movie toward the end. The movie needs Apple's stabilization in places where the camera is too jumpy resulting in film impossible to watch. I closed my eyes in some of the jumpy places and just listened to the dialogue.

If someone comes and asks you if they can give you $100,000 for the mineral rights to your land with your house on it, and then pumps poisonous chemicals into your drinking water, you would think the owner of the land would say, "I should have known this deal was too good to be true.".

I was surprised some of these folks are still living on land with poisoned air and water. I guess it really is like a frog in a pot of cold water that is being heated on the stove so gradually, that the frog does not jump out of the pot, as it is slowly brought to a boil.

One lady said, however, that the water was poisoned and turned black overnight, after the drilling for gas started.

Back in the late 70's my husband and I drove around Colorado and we did not see any gas wells. This movie looks like the beautiful landscape there has wells everywhere. How trajic!!

I don't recall the newspapers reporting that Halliburten got a law passed that eliminated the effect of the clean air and clean water acts on drilling for gas.

Why was the population not informed of this?

My nephew's mother-in-law has a gas well on her property near her house. The last I heard she was having health problems. I wonder if there is a connection. She gets all her home gas usage, free from the company that gets gas from her land. She lives in southern Indiana.

Some of the sick people said they got $20,000 from the gas company for ruining their health. I don't think that is enough money to fix health problems for the rest of a person's life.

The guy said they were pumping formaldehyde into the ground to get the gas out, among the other many chemicals. Who would want to drink formaldehyde? Isn't that used in enbalming? Or preserving specimens? I don't recall what it was used for, but it wasn't healthy.

One of my friends who lives in Oklahoma is a geologist in the gas finding and drilling business. I wonder if he would mind if I suggested that he watch this film? Or maybe that would not be socially smart to do.

I went to law school for three semesters back in the mid 80's, and learned about a lot of abuses like this, that the government was allowing. It's enough to make you have a nervous breakdown, or at least blows your mind that people are so greedy and evil, as to do these things shown in the movie.

It was just amazing to see homeowners light the water on fire that was coming out of their kitchen sink tap.

You just have to watch this movie.