Gasland – the townhall meeting

In this case you will have the opportunity to:

  • Search for relevant information
  • Question the credibility and reliability of different sources
  • Discuss to develop arguments
  • Write an argumentative presentation
  • Discuss environmental issues in general and draw comparisons between different countries, based on your knowledge and experience.

Exercises

1. What do you think are the biggest issues facing our environment? Why?

2. What does the phrase ”think globally, act locally”, tell you?

3. What are the consequences of fracking?

4. What kind of evidence do we get that fracking is bad?

Town hall meeting – the case

You will be divided into groups of three. You are all members of the small Wyoming town, Jackson, which has been chosen for ”fracking”. You have invited the governor of your state to your town hall to try to convince him that he should not allow fracking in your county.

In the group:

Based on the film and on the texts linked below discuss how you best can convince the governor to change his/her mind.

Step-by-step

  1. Watch the film (First class)
  2. Read texts. (Revisit the film, if needed) (Second class)
  3. List arguments and evidence. Draft argument. (Make sure to have 3-5 strong arguments that you can base on evidence) HAND IN DRAFTS AS A POST! (Third class)
  4. Individually write a manuscript for your speech. Help each other out! (Fourth class) Submit manuscript.
  5. TOWN HALL MEETING. Come prepared and dressed for the occasion! You are the one who can save you community from disaster! (Sixth class)

Devil’s Advocate (optional)

You are a representative of Halliburton. You have come to the town hall to hold a speech where you try to convince the citizens of this community of the benefits of fracking and gas.

As above, but you must find your own evidence. This is a VERY difficult task.

Gasland (2010):

The texts

Here you will find texts that will give you all the information you need to protect your community and convince politicians and law-makers. This text gives information on how you can take action. This text gives you information on the dangerous side-effects of fracking. Together they give you all the information you need to develop a convincing argument.

 

18 reaktioner till “Gasland – the townhall meeting”

  1. Scenen som fastnade mest var när han svimma av sista gången. Då han såg massa skumma saker. Bland annat hans tjejkompis i en vikingadräkt. Han fick även agera bowlingklot flera gånger i den scenen. Anledningen till att den scenen fastnade mest var för att den var konstig och förvirrande, men samtidigt lite rolig.

    Jag tror att filmen har etiketten ”noir” för att den var väldigt mystisk och speciell från början till slut. Det kändes som det var någon variant av deckare eller thriller med inslag av komedi. Det som gjorde den till en ”existensiell film” var mystiken och det mörka bakom det roliga. Det är ganska mörkt och konstigt hur lätt de tar förlusten av deras vän. Eller hur de skär av en persons tå enbart för pengar. Det fanns många scener i filmen som jag kan tänka mig har en djupare mening. Man hade nog behövt se den flera gånger för att verkligen förstå vad.

    Gilla

    1. ”Man hade nog behövt se den flera gånger för att verkligen förstå vad.”.. Du måste nog se vart du kommenterar flera gånger så att du verkligen förstår vart.. 😀

      Gilla

  2. -Each time they drill a wall they need between 1 -7 million gallons of water and each time they go back and frack and existing one they need an additional 1-7 million gallons of water and they can do that up to 18 times to each wall

    450,000 * 18 * 1 – 7,000,000 gallons of water = 40 000 000 000 000 (40 trillion gallons of water)
    In addition to that this water will never come back to the earth since its molecules are no longer consist of H2O

    According to families, their water was normal until they begun thrilling walls and everybody got sick because the chemicals mixed in the water they’ve been drinking.

    Here we’ve some other evidence: Dp visited a family that’ve been suffering this issue, and when a member of the family asked ’ if the water is save for his mother to drink? They reply Yes ! To verify that he tried to get a glass of water and told them to drink but they wouldn’t drink it.

    The water begin turn color and it started taste like metallic, imagine what it would like to have a water that you can’t drink can’t take a shower with it!!
    Animals like, cats and horses begun losing hair which is quit scary, and water from the tap became flammable which is unusual phenomenon.

    In live water comes after oxygen and before everything else, You do not necessarily need a diesel to fill your car when you don’t have a water to drink. The government should care civilians more then they help those who are selfish ( the oil companies)

    The oil companies admit that water is toxic, but not risk. How that is possible toxic and not risk?

    Some may argue that Hydraulic fracturing is harmless and save and also good interms of American economy, How dare you talk about economy when our people / animal are suffering and getting diseases because of lack of clean water? It really sounds ridiculous to me!

    IF THIS BUSINESS IS CLEAR, they would’ve have interviewed by the Josh when He invited them for an interview but that didn’t happened and they denied.

    Gilla

  3. Fracking what can I do to prevent you from accepting their offer?

    First of all do you know what chemicals they use in the event of fracking?
    perhaps no but I can be wrong, but I don’t think no one knows whats in it.
    Not even the workers that spent like 10 to 12 hours working with them nasty chemicals.

    One thing that I know of is that it can ruin your life if you accept their offer.
    For example do you wanna grow a third arm? Im sure that I don’t wanna grow a third arm or a third leg.

    All that I know of is that I wouldn’t accept the terms of use.

    During the fracking process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the well and contaminate nearby groundwater. The contaminated water is used for drinking water in local communities. There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near fracking areas as well as cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.

    One thing that I saw in the film was that animals that tried to drink from a small river that was close to a ”Fracking” area died from the water poisoning.
One girl from one of the clips saved the dead animals do that scientists could see what caused their deaths, they did it but It took pretty long for them to see what caused their death.

    Argument 1:
    Fracking can be the cause of plenty of things.
    One thing is that there are plenty of chemicals and the chemicals that they use is not that good for the nature let alone us humans and animals.

    Philip

    Gilla

  4. As we all aware of water comes after oxygen and before everything else, You do not necessarily need a diesel to fill your car when you don’t have a clean water to drink or to cook a food. Fracturing is drilling down the earth and to do that you need the mixature of many chemical and a trillions of water. That chemicals will contaminate our water and can cause diseases.

    Each time they drill a wall they need between 1 -7 million gallons of water and each time they go back and frack and existing one they need an additional 1-7 million gallons of water and they can do that up to 18 times to each wall

    450,000 * 18 * 1 – 7,000,000 gallons of water = 40 000 000 000 000 (40 trillion gallons of water)
    In addition to that this water will never come back to the earth since its molecules are no longer consist of H2O

    According to families, their water was normal until they begun thrilling walls and everybody got sick because the chemicals mixed in the water they’ve been drinking.

    Here we’ve some other evidence: Dp visited a family that’ve been suffering this issue, and when a member of the family asked ’ if the water is save for his mother to drink? They reply Yes ! To verify that he tried to get a glass of water and told them to drink but they wouldn’t drink it.

    The water begin turn color and it started taste like metallic, imagine what it would like to have a water that you can’t drink can’t take a shower with it!!
    Animals like, cats and horses begun losing hair which is quit scary, and water from the tap became flammable which is unusual phenomenon.

    . The government should care civilians more then they help those who are selfish ( the oil companies)

    The oil companies admit that water is toxic, but not risk. How that is possible toxic and not risk?

    Some may argue that Hydraulic fracturing is harmless and save and also good interms of American economy, How dare you talk about economy when our people / animal are suffering and getting diseases because of lack of clean water? It really sounds ridiculous to me!

    IF THIS BUSINESS IS CLEAR, they would’ve have interviewed by the Josh when He invited them for an interview but that didn’t happened and they denied.

    To make long story short fracturing is not worth for what they are arguing that it’s cheaper to buy the oil from overseas. the consequences of fracturing can leave our society many diseases and even damage the trust we’ve to the American government.The government should care civilians more then they help those who are selfish ( the oil companies)

    Gilla

  5. Introduction.

    Argument 1: Fracking can cause environmental changes.

    Argument 2: It doesn’t only disturb the environment.

    Argument 3: It can cause numerous different diseases.

    Ending.

    Gilla

  6. Argument 1: Fracking can cause earthquakes, even where there isn’t usually earthquakes.

    Argument 2: It doesn’t just irritate nature yet additionally the general population who live close-by the fracking locales.

    Argument 3: People who have been affected have various distinctive infections, for example, disease or even birth deserts among kids.

    Gilla

  7. Fracking

    As we all know that our health is the most important thing in life, without good health we can’t work, we can’t spend quality time with family and friends. The most devastated thing is it doesn’t just affect us, it affects our children, our pets and most importantly the earth.

    Fracking can even affect your life too, if we let these companies choose money over the citizen health. My thesis is that we should “stop fracking overall because we are losing more than we are gaining from the process.”

    Did you know that During the fracking process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the well and contaminate nearby groundwater. The contaminated water is used for drinking water in local communities.
    A single well can produce more than a million gallons of wastewater, that contain radioactive elements. That could harm us people and the environment. More than 90 percent of the water used in fracking well never returns to the surface.

    a resident of Bloomer, Wisconsin. Within nine months of the construction of frac sand mine, about a half-mile from her home, she developed a sore throat and raspy voice and was eventually diagnosed with environment-caused asthma. She hasn’t opened her windows since 2012. Just know that this woman didn’t deserve to be in this condition, and fracking will continue hurting our people, environment and the earth if we don’t make a stop to fracking.

    the Oklahoma Geological Survey, a state agency, released a statement saying that is it ”very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those is central and north-central Oklahoma, are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells.” Currently 72 trillion gallons of water is needed to run current gas wells, imagine that just 2 billion gallons of water if equivalent to 40 million bathtub’s of water

    Gilla

  8. Hello there u social rejects u guys doing good? Well me and my family is in a big crisis right now ever since that fracking thing that has been happening for a while, we can even light our water on fire LMFAO XD.. We were all sitting down drinking coffee and having a good time when randomly we got hit by an earthquake and that is when it all started, it felt like it was a beginning to the end

    Gilla

  9. Ladies and gentlemen I’m here today to tell you that something we all have been fearing the most has come to life right now, it’s trying to seperate or destroy our community. In a matter of seconds life has taken a turn for the worse,*/

    potential ending (for later): Ladies and gentlemen I am here to tell you all that you can sit down because I will not allow it to happen, not in my town, not in my lifetime!

    Gilla

  10. Ladies and gentlemen I’m here today to tell you about a serious problem, frackin. Fracking is quickly seperating and destroying this community we’ve built upon friendship. In a matter of days life has taken a turn for the worse don’t belive what they’ve been telling you, you’re slowly killing us by taking away our only source of life, water.

    We must stand up for one another against the fracking in our community. I mean for god sake Marcus who lives up the hill you guys know Marcus he’s the chairman of this community; his cat just died. Can we please have a moment of silence for Marcus’s cat! … Unfortunatly the doctor announced that his cat had consumed contaminated water with dangerous, life threathing chemicals and sadly passed away last Monday, leaving Marcus sad and depressed due to fracking. Nature’s dying and so are we.

    I’d like to finish off by saying that at the end of the we all have families that we care for. Don’t be that guy.

    Gilla

  11. Despite what some people may try tell you, fracking is fantastic for you, your family, and you town.
    * Write proper thesis

    The first way that fracking will personally help you is that fracking tremendously helps the economy of your local area. Fracking can produce hundreds of jobs and produces extremely large amounts of money. It also, obviously produces large amounts oil and natural gas lowering the prices. This is fantastic in a world where petrol prices are growing higher and higher every year.
    *The price of oil is 20% lower than what it would be otherwise
    *As a result, natural gas is at least 80% cheaper here than the rest of the world ‒ and in some cases, it’s as much as 620% cheaper
    *American energy independence is possible for the first time in history.
    *Link to thesis

    But I understand it isn’t all about the money. I understand that many of you are worried about the damage that fracking will do to the environment. Unfortunately solar and wind power are relatively expensive and are not alway reliable. Which means until the technology improves we will have to use fossil fuels for our power generation. Coal release an extremely large amount of carbon dioxide when burnt meaning it is heavily contributing to global warming. Meanwhile natural gas that is obtained through the process of fracking burn much cleaner releasing less than half of the carbon dioxide that coal releases. Fracking is a smart process that allows us to obtain oil and gas that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to get giving us a much larger amount of a clean burning fuel.
    *Link to thesis

    The last point I would like to make is that many people are overhyping the dangers of fracking and that you, your family, and your town are not at risk. Many opponents of fracking say that we are pushing millions of litres of deadly chemicals into your drinking water – but – The liquid we use is 99.5% percent water and this water gets directly pushed kilometres underground. Do you think that this could possibly murder an entire town?
    *Write something about earthquakes
    *Link to thesis

    *Reiterate arguments
    *Broad concluding statement

    Gilla

  12. As we all aware of water comes after oxygen and before everything else, You do not necessarily need a diesel to fill your car when you don’t have a clean water to drink or to cook a food. Fracturing is drilling down the earth and to do that you need the mixature of many chemical and a trillions of water. That chemicals will contaminate our water and can cause diseases.

    Each time they drill a wall they need between 1 -7 million gallons of water and each time they go back and frack and existing one they need an additional 1-7 million gallons of water and they can do that up to 18 times to each wall

    450,000 * 18 * 1 – 7,000,000 gallons of water = 40 000 000 000 000 (40 trillion gallons of water)
    In addition to that this water will never come back to the earth since its molecules are no longer consist of H2O

    According to families, their water was normal until they begun thrilling walls and everybody got sick because the chemicals mixed in the water they’ve been drinking.

    Here we’ve some other evidence: Dp visited a family that’ve been suffering this issue, and when a member of the family asked ’ if the water is save for his mother to drink? They reply Yes ! To verify that he tried to get a glass of water and told them to drink but they wouldn’t drink it.

    The water begin turn color and it started taste like metallic, imagine what it would like to have a water that you can’t drink can’t take a shower with it!!
    Animals like, cats and horses begun losing hair which is quit scary, and water from the tap became flammable which is unusual phenomenon.

    . The government should care civilians more then they help those who are selfish ( the oil companies)

    The oil companies admit that water is toxic, but not risk. How that is possible toxic and not risk?

    Some may argue that Hydraulic fracturing is harmless and save and also good interms of American economy, How dare you talk about economy when our people / animal are suffering and getting diseases because of lack of clean water? It really sounds ridiculous to me!

    IF THIS BUSINESS IS CLEAR, they would’ve have interviewed by the Josh when He invited them for an interview but that didn’t happened and they denied.

    To make long story short fracturing is not worth for what they are arguing that it’s cheaper to buy the oil from overseas. the consequences of fracturing can leave our society many diseases and even damage the trust we’ve to the American government.The government should care civilians more then they help those who are selfish ( the oil companies)

    hjkfggnf

    Gilla

  13. *Introduction*

    Arguments:

    – 600 chemicals in fracking fluid including toxins such as: lead, uranium, hydrochloric acid

    – drinking water gets contaminated and there are over 1,000 documented cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to it

    – mothers who live near fracking sites are 30 percent more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects

    – leaking gas from the fracking process increases global warming

    *Ending*

    Gilla

  14. Some arguments about fracking process.

    During the fracking, some of bad chemical which is not good for humans is leaching out of the well and they contaminate nearby groundwater. Then the contaminate water is used for drinking water in local communities.

    * 360 billion: gallons of chemicals needed to run current gas wells, which is it cost too much money for trucks which they transfer them.

    More than 90% of the water used in fracking well never returens to the surface.
    Since that water permanently removed from the natural water cycle and we don’t want to look up 20 years from now and say, oops, we used up all our water!

    Gilla

  15. Ladies and gentlemen I’m here today to tell you about a serious problem, frackin. Fracking is quickly seperating and destroying this community that’s built upon friendship. In a matter of days life has taken a turn for the worse don’t belive what they’ve been telling you, you’re slowly killing us by taking away our only source of life, water.

    We must stand up for one another against the fracking in our community. I mean for god sake Marcus who lives up the hill you guys know Marcus he’s the chairman of this community; his cat just died. Can we please have a moment of silence for Marcus’s cat! … The doctor announced that his cat had consumed contaminated water with life threathing chemicals and sadly passed away due to it last Monday, leaving Marcus in a sad and depressed state due to fracking. Nature’s dying and so are we.
    According to altnernet.org 8 million gallons of water is being used per fracking. Humans use an estimate of 80 gallons per day, 8 million gallons could last one human up to 100 000 days which is about 272 years.

    To finish off i’d like to say that at the end of the we all have families that we care and love for, why waste our energy to mess it all up. It is important to know that people lost their lives due to this.
    (V2)

    Gilla

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