Pizza and Gas

Not that kind.

We went out to a Pizzeria in Sjöbo last night and over heard some American sounding English from the guys at the table next to us. We said hi, and asked where they are from. They said they were Canadian, working in Sjöbo every other two weeks. Doing what we inquired? Drilling for gas for Shell.

I got curious about this. Apparently Shell has been exploring southern Sweden for gas drilling, doing the first exploration last November.

Then my google reader caught my attention with this interview on NPR with Josh Fox on today's Fresh Air about his documentary GASLAND that just was recognized at The Sundance Film festival. It documents communities in the USA that have been heavily polluted by gas drilling. It shows water that can be lit on fire, and communities and environments becoming toxic in the wake of gas drilling.

Scary.

One of the things I love most about my home here in Sweden is the water, it sooo good straight out of the tap. In Florida our water smelled like chlorine and we had to buy drinking water. The source of our water is Vombsjön, a large lake that provides drinking water to all of Malmö and most of southern Sweden. It is right where Shell is drilling.

The gas is not just drilled up, it is released by a process called hydraulic fracturing or fracking, that breaks up bed rock and releases gas bubbles by injecting 5 to 7 million gallons of water into the earth in combination with diesel and numerous toxic chemicals that are industry secrets (as governments do not even have laws that require disclosure of what is being injected into the aquifer). The water in areas where fracking is practiced is effervescent, it bubbles, even in streams, and is full of toxic heavy metals like cadmium, as well as benzene, methane, propane. It does not take a mistake for these things to get into the water, it is not like an oil spill that may happen....these toxins are intrinsic to the normal process. It is guaranteed to happen. That is 5 to 7 million gallons of polluted water that has to go somewhere, and toxins directly injected into the water source. People report things like cats and horses losing all their hair after fracking starts in their areas.

From Gasland:

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

I found the group Heaven or sHell is organized to oppose the drilling. Something to look into.

Here is another interview with Josh Fox on PBS with more clips from his film Gasland, which will be shown June 21st on HBO. I hope it is coming soon to Skåne.