Dear Sir/Madam: I'm writing to you who control our government now -- that is, the big corporations of the world. Let's not pretend it is otherwise. Thanks to a system in which money buys elections, nearly all of our politicians are in your employ. Thanks for wrecking everything. If I were a Millennial, this might not surprise me or even be worthy of mention. They have … [Read more...]
Maddow gives air time to Koch brothers fracking advocate
Editors note: This piece ran last year on Eric Francis's Planet Waves website and it remains an important touchstone concerning how the main stream media continues to act as the lapdog to Big Oil and Big Energy in general. After reading this piece, ask yourself, how much has changed in the major media relative to critical reporting on the facts concerning fossil fuels … [Read more...]
Could fracking finally kill off rural America?
Gasland 2, the sequel to Josh Fox's documentary about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, introduces a frightening image. It's not another money shot of tap water on fire, though the water well hose lit up by the owner of a multimillion dollar home in Parker County, Texas is a wonder. Nor is the most frightening image an internal gas industry memo … [Read more...]
Fracking movie “Promised Land” is a gusher
After I saw Matt Damon and John Krasinski's new fracking drama Promised Land, I couldn't help but compare it to the slew of trite pieces trotted out during the previews. There was the typical wedding family hijinks RomCom; the take-no-prisoners gangster-fest; the scorched-earth-meets-futuristic-savior piece; and some picture about a lovable psychotic redeemed by a … [Read more...]
With America distracted by oil bubble, peak oil patiently waits
Mohandas Gandhi may or may not have said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." But it's become a truism among activists that, after years of playing to an empty house, it's actually a sign of progress when the rotten tomatoes start to fly. For a long time, people in the peak oil community complained that both government and … [Read more...]