Emmy Award winning "Split Estate" to air this weekend on Planet Green

For more information including air dates, click HERE.

SPLIT ESTATE documentary wins Emmy Award, special rebroadcast upcoming on Planet Green

SPLIT ESTATE wins an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research."

Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a "National Sacrifice Zone."

This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems -- the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a "good neighbor."

Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.

Watch the trailer for the documentary, and don't miss a special airing October 16 at 10 p.m. on Planet Green.

Meet the Split Estate activists, and take a look at a slideshow on drilling for oil.

Press release as published on PLANET GREEN'S website. 

GASLAND's Josh Fox to receive LennonOno Grant for Peace

On October 9th, John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday.  His widow, Yoko Ono, will celebrate by bestowing the 2010 Lennon Ono Grant for Peace to four individuals who have been selected "based on their courage and commitment to peace, truth and human rights."

The LennonOne Grant for Peace was created to honor...John Lennon's dedication to peace and commitment to the preservation of human rights.  Created in 2002, this biennial award has always been given to two recipients.  On this special anniversary, however, Yoko Ono will present this award to four recipients:  Josh Fox for his documentary GASLAND; author, poet & activist Alice Walker; author Michael Pollan; and activist/advocate Barbara Kowalcyk.  For more information, click HERE.

Journalist documenting dangers of hydraulic fracturing wins prestigious George Polk Award for Environmental Reporting

The 2009 George Polk Awards for journalism were announced today and the award for Environmental Reporting will go to Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica. Mr. Lustgarten "documented the deadly side effects of hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas-drilling process involving water — laden with carcinogenic contaminants — being shot underground to blast away at gas-bearing rock. His articles turned hydraulic fracturing into a national story and shifted the focus of the coverage from local business issues to safety concerns.

He traveled to five states where hydraulic fracturing is taking place and interviewed affected residents, doctors, scientists and rig workers. Mr. Lustgarten also pored over scientific papers and massive government reports, identifying a pattern of water contamination and raising questions about the science and safety of such drilling. Finding that pollution-reducing measures often are ignored and are not even required by many states, his series shed light on a new topic that could become a major issue as the country strives to develop more efficient ways to produce energy." [Press release]

View an interview on Democracy Now by clicking  HERE.

Read Mr. Lustgarten's extensive reporting @ ProPublica by clicking HERE. 

Congratulations to Mr. Lustgarten for bringing much deserved attention to this issue!