Courtesy: International WOW Company (Click for Slideshow)

What may be the highest-profile of the eco-conscious nominees is Gasland, directed by Josh Fox, a sobering look at the risks posed by natural gas drilling, or fracking, in the continental United States. The film has gained much of its exposure from having garnered the attention and ire of gas companies, and Fox has been busy attempting to refute many of the industry’s claims of inaccuracies. The filmmaker has also been touring the country – and the world – to hold screenings of “Gasland” for grassroots environmental organizations while simultaneously campaigning for moratoriums on gas extraction. If his film is a call to action, then Fox isn’t waiting around for anyone else to heed that call. He’s out on the front lines himself.
In many ways, “Gasland” came about precisely because of Fox’s close proximity to the fracking issue. The film begins with Fox receiving a letter in the mail from a drilling company, containing an offer to purchase his property in Milanville, Pennsylvania for gas exploration. That’s when he begins his investigation into the widespread harnessing of gas reserves everywhere from his neighborhood in northeastern Pennsylvania all the way to Eden, Wyoming and Weld County, Colorado in an expansion taking place under the much-maligned 2005 federal energy bill.
The alarming effects uncovered over the course of Fox’s journey include kitchen faucets that burst into flames due to contaminated water, concerned citizens with headaches tied to gas and chemical exposure, and public officials fully willing to embrace natural gas as an alternative to dirtier fossil fuels, despite its serious consequences. Anxious to take flight from a landscape of drilling wells at one point on his cross-country trip,