One of the hippest and most amusing videos you’ll watch this year might also be the most important.
In a new star-studded anti-fracking spot released today, Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono, the forces behind Artists Against Fracking, hooked up with über-talented filmmaker/producer/musician/progressive impresario Sarah Sophie Flicker and convened some of their fabulous friends to put pressure on Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York state.
Directed by Sophie Flicker, Maximilla Lukacs, and Tennessee Thomas, “Don’t Frack My Mother” features Liv Tyler, Alexa Chung, Fred Armisen, Adrian Grenier, Penn Badgley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Susan Sarandon, Molly Crabapple, Natasha Lyonne and many other celebs who all urge lawmakers to “Keep fracking out of New York.”
As readers of this blog are likely well aware, the science shows—from industry’s own documents—that fracking poses a potential threat to our drinking water, our air and our land. It has not yet been proven safe, despite the industry’s making every effort to do so, and the practice has, in fact, caused many health risks in states like Pennsylvania where it has been going on for years.
By design, hydrofracking causes miniature underground explosions—fracturing rocks and consequently releasing gas, along with radioactive and other carcinogenic and highly toxic substances from deep within the earth. These carcinogens, along with radioactive materials and the toxic sludge known as frack fluid, can contaminate aquifers and spoil water supplies.
What to do? After watching, share this video, sign this petition and call, tweet and otherwise politely pester Governor Cuomo to outlaw fracking in his state. After that, implore your national reps to support the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act. The legislation aims to repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act and would require the energy industry to disclose the chemicals it pumps underground in the hydraulic fracturing process, information that has been heretofore protected as trade secrets.
