Monday, August 30, 2010 2

The Accidental Detective

When film director Josh Fox got letters from energy companies offering him almost $100,000 to drill for natural gas on his land, he became a natural-gas detective.

By:
Josh Fox

In the spring of 2008, when 38-year-old theater and film director JOSH FOX got letters from energy companies offering him almost $100,000 to drill for natural gas on his rural Pennsylvania land, he decided to look into the possible side effects himself. "Am I gonna become a natural-gas detective?" he asked. "I guess so." That decision led this engaging, banjo-playing filmmaker on an everyman's investigative journey from Dimock, Pennsylvania—where people living near wells reported dizzying headaches and suddenly hairless pets—to states like Wyoming and New Mexico, where the boom is biggest and the health scares are even worse. The resulting documentary, Gasland, produced by Fox's International WOW Company, is by turns horrifying and hilarious; it took the Special Jury Prize at Sundance last January and is slated for big-screen rollout this month.

Durban shirt by O'Neill ($50; oneill.com); Roundabout Crew by SmartWool ($85; smartwool.com); Swag jacket ($99) and Matador jeans ($60) by Quiksilver (quiksilver.com); 'Ohana Lace-Up shoe by OluKai ($90; olukai.com)

More at Outside

Comments

2
Joshua H. Sparber CSEP

Although I don't believe in fracking as a way out of the gas wars, gazing at the opposite process side of the house, the engineering that has gone into this is really abominable. This needs six sigma analysis, where even one casualty or illness is quite frankly way too many. They are jumping into production to win brownie points with certain parts of the electorate. What they really need to do is their everlovin’ homework. New national headline, "America on Suicide Alert, No One Paying Attention". If no one is paying attention, ultimately we'll all foot the bill.

Flag This
Joshua H. Sparber CSEP

Although I don't believe in fracking as a way out of the gas wars, gazing at the opposite process side of the house, the engineering that has gone into this is really abominable. This needs six sigma analysis, where even one casualty or illness is quite frankly way too many. They are jumping into production to win brownie points with certain parts of the electorate. What they really need to do is their everlovin’ homework. New national headline, "America on Suicide Alert, No One Paying Attention". If no one is paying attention, ultimately we'll all foot the bill.

Flag This

Post Comment

Current Issue Outside Magazine

Subscribe and get a great deal! 2 FREE Buyer's Guides plus a FREE GoLite Sport Bottle. Monthly delivery of Outside - your ultimate resource for today's active lifestyle. All that and BIG SAVINGS!

Free Newsletter

Get our e-mail dispatch, with Outside articles & online exclusives, delivered to your inbox each week.

Ask a Question

Our gear experts await your outdoor-gear-related questions. Go ahead, ask them anything.

* We might edit your question for length or clarity. If it's not about gear, we'll just ignore it.