Politicizing the Environmental Debate, 2000–2017 251
groundwork for developing the kind of housing
that is now in demand, is essential if we want
to restore the economy to health. In the mid-to-
late 20th century, the growth of the suburbs pro-
pelled America’s economy. Growth of walkable
neighborhoods in cities and suburbs and play
a similar role in the decades to come, sparking
growth in the broader economy—but only if we
start preparing today.Source: Christopher B. Leinberger, “Here Comes the
Neighborhood,” The Atlantic, June 2010, pp. 59-61.cost per home. A mile of sewer line costs about
the same to build whether it is on the metropoli-
tan fringe or in a densely built inner suburb, but
the line serves many more people in the inner
suburb. And households in walkable urban areas
use considerably less energy, in some instances
at least a third less. High-density living even
appears to spur faster rates of innovation; in a
knowledge economy, ideas come faster and can
be developed more quickly when more people
can meet and mix easily.
But mot immediately, investment in rail,
bike, and walking infrastructure, laying the
Document 172: Donald Gilliland Reviews Josh Fox’s
“Gasland” (2010)Josh Fox’s documentary “Gasland,” about ruined water wells and flammable water awakened people to the
issue of the dangers of the growing use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to obtain oil and gas. Fracking,
which involves injecting large quantities of liquids under high pressure in order to release oil and gas, has
enabled energy companies to extract oil and gas that would otherwise be unobtainable and, in contrast to just
a few years earlier, brought the United States close to energy independence. The commercial application of the
technique, begun in 1950, made it possible to obtain good flows of oil and gas from shale, tight oil and gas wells,
and coal seams, but its opponents point to it as the cause of contaminated surface and underground water and
earthquakes.Tap water isn’t supposed to catch fire.
It does in Dimock.
The documentary “Gasland”... begins and
ends in Dimock, a rural area of Susquehanna
County, Pa., where kitchen sinks began to spit
methane and catch fire after Cabot Oil & Gas
Co. started drilling wells nearby.
Josh Fox, the director of “Gasland,” chroni-
cles his search to discover what gas drilling in the
Marcellus Shale might do to his beloved Dela-
ware River watershed should he and his neigh-
bors sign the leases they received in the mail.
That search takes him first to Dimock and then
across the United States, where he meets people
struggling with unexpected consequences of gas
drilling in multiple states. The film won a prize
for documentaries at this year’s Sundance Film
Festival.
The movie is not perfect (more on that in a
moment), but the people it profiles are refresh-
ingly real.
One homeowner clearly enjoys the thrill of
igniting the water coming out of his tap: he holds
a lighter to the faucet, there’s a sudden “whump”
of blue flame, and he jumps back, brushing his
arm. He laughs and says, “I smell hair!”
A young rancher living in a smog of pet-
rol fumes emanating from the wells around his
home worries about the health of his cattle and
the quality of the meat he’s sending to American
tables.
One burly old cowboy whose water went
bad growls that the gas company’s word isn’t
worth spit.
“Gasland” is an activist film, but its primary
subjects aren’t activists. They’re real people.