Art Of Rhetoric Analysis

Imbued with continuous fabrications, Gasland by Josh Fox is a less reliable argument on hydraulic fracking compared to FrackNation by Phelim McAleer. Hydraulic fracturing, is a technique used by the oil and gas industry to extract natural gas from rock thousands of feet underground. The process includes pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals underground. Gasland is filled with multiple concerns and warnings of the breakdown of the chemicals causing harm to our environment. Josh Fox relies heavily on repetition of facts in his film by giving statements and no information to back them up. In Gasland pathos is used frequently to catch the audiences soft spot, making them feel guilty about what fracking is doing to the environment.

The documentary Truthland which was narrated by Shelly Depue is a response to the movie Gasland Directed by Josh Fox’s. Shelly Depue is a mom, grandmother, science teacher and a farmer in Susquehanna Pennsylvania. In the movie, Shelly starts by talking about how the movie Gasland is based on unreal facts. In the short movie shelly main determination is to get some answers for her family and her community and prove that producing natural gas is safe. She starts her journey to go around the United States and meet Professionals and ask them questions about fracking. First, she explains that natural gas existed in water long time before Fracking began and is naturally safe. “Looks flaming faucet that Josh showed might be a bit misleading so what was the truth, the real truth,” said Shelly, and she compares the movie

Fracknation is documentary directed by Phelim McAleer. In Fracknation the directed talk more about the pro about fracking. Fracknation come after Gasland, unlike Phelim in Gasland Josh Fox talk about how fracking is contaminating people's drinking water, how it could hurt them in the long run.

Each film presented ways to demonstrate how fracking has affected people in their daily routine. Fracking is defined as a way for engineers to pump water into the ground to then release natural gas.After this water is created, it is known as produced water which then has a possibility to pollute surrounding areas. (McAleer, 2013) Although both FrackNation and Gasland show people in their hometowns, FrackNation by Phelim McAleer is able to create an unyielding argument by using logos.

Few issues have recently gotten as much attention as the energy extraction activities involving a controversial procedure called "fracking." As reports of drinking water becoming tainted with fracking fluid flood the news, both oil and gas companies as well as environmental groups are presenting competing "facts" about the effects of drilling on ground water.

The mantra of the gas industry is there has never been a proven instance of well water contamination caused by the fracking process, which so far remains true. Most of the problems documented in "Gasland" including in Dimock resulted from the drilling, not the fracking procedure. But that does not mean fracking fluids pose no threat to our water supplies. They contain some chemicals that are harmful even in very tiny amounts. The fluid that comes back up out of the ground is saturated with salts, is sometimes radioactive and often contains harmful heavy metals like arsenic. Carl Kirby, a geologist at Bucknell who does not appear in the film, says the prospect of fracking fluids migrating up through thousands of feet of rock to contaminate water wells is “unlikely but not impossible.”The history of what’s gone wrong thus far in Pennsylvania suggests accident and human error pose as much risk as the fracking process, an angle Fox does not explore. Several weeks ago, a truck full of fracking brine overturned at an intersection about eight miles from my family home. The spill was contained by local volunteer firemen, county emergency responders and the drilling company, and it did not contaminate the small

These findings are confronting and display the obvious harm that fracking has caused. Fox visits the McClure family who had made the claim they are able to light their water on fire, and that it was due to the hydraulic fracturing. Fox conducts an informal interview with the family where they discuss the effects the hydraulic fracturing had on the family’s water. The audience is then shown a clip of the water being lit on fire, this is thought provoking for the audience to see and it positions them to blame the hydraulic fracturing for this incident because there is no other possible thing to be responsible. However after the release of the documentary Anthony Watts, internet journalist for Whatsupwiththat.com did his research;

Citing the documentary “Gasland”, the article brings to account instances in the past where people who lived close to fracking sites had experienced sickness and foul-smelling water. The documentary had then influenced New York State’s decision to ban fracking. By citing this documentary, the article makes the reader to not fully accept the given conclusion. Without going into great detail, the article mentions a couple of environmental groups questioning of the legitimacy of the study, considering that the study uses data generated by oil and gas companies. This also brings to question the limitations of the data used. The article reads unbiasedly towards both sides of the fracking industry, it recognizes the conclusions of the EPA study but still lets the reader know that there is still a lot that has not been explored in the topic.

Cooley, Heather, and Kristina Donnelly. " Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources: Separating the Frack from the Fiction" . Oakland: n.p., 2012. Print.

Hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly known as fracking, is the process of releasing gasses trapped in rocks such as sandstones, limestones, and shales through methods such as pumping pressurized water into the rock. In doing so, the rock is broken apart and the release of gas is expedited (Brantley and Meyendorff, "Facts on Fracking"). As a reporter located in Pennsylvania, I aim to inform my viewers on the harmful effects associated with fracking, both environmental and personal, and how the short-term economic benefits of fracking should not overpower the health of people and the earth. In a recent study, it was revealed that fracking wastewater disposal sites were heavily concentrated in less affluent areas home to poor and minority residents

Gasland is a documentary directed by the American filmmaker Josh Fox in 2011 that focuses on how citizens are being affected by Shale formations known as hydraulic fracturing. The documentary had brought a good amount of attention to it and it can be considered as a key mobilizer for the anti-fracking movement in the United States. In addition, the documentary’s good use of pathos and logos had inspired people to learn and research the term “hydraulic fracturing”. It has been noted that the it contained some reliable ethos, because of the witness and the subcommittee. Unfortunately, the documentary at most is semi- authentic to lack of professionalism (ethos).

Bob Weinhold, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, has been investigating environmental health issues since 1996. He continues to expose the public to the consequences of environmental abuse. His article “The Future of Fracking,” analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their efforts made to regulate and improve the current state of toxic air emissions produced by hydraulic fracturing sites in the United States. Weinhold successfully presents technological and economic benefits of oil and natural gas drilling but counters these successes by considering the damage that current fracking sites and future fracking sites have on human and environmental health. The information he

In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.“Today’s methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it’s bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire,” says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What’s causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox’s investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox’s interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.

The menace---and lucrativeness---of the energy crisis in the United States combined with the egregious aftereffects correlated with natural gas extraction makes the subject of hydraulic fracturing a very high stakes issue. Given the topic, the implications of Josh Fox’s documentary, Gasland, are as high stakes as could be expected. According to Fox’s claims in Gasland, the price of not believing his accusations is too steep to ignore. After the documentary came out in 2010 (IMDb), the industry that Fox sought to condemn agreed that the cost was high, but the consequences for them were opposite: if the public believed Fox’s claims and mobilized against fracking, a multi-billion-dollar industry stood to collapse (Carroll). So how could a mere movie be so threatening? More importantly, where are the chinks in its armor?

According to the association press Hydraulic Fracturing has shown no signs of contamination in nearby water supplies.The Fracking process includes depositing chemical infused fluids into colossal man made chasms drilled thousands of feet below sea level. This process is used to extract natural gases and petroleum. Studies show that even in the most depthless holes that are in close proximity to the water table there were still no signs of contamination over time (Begos).Surprisingly, all the the harmful contaminants stayed within a mile of the water supply according to an experiment at Penn State University. One conundrum in association with hydraulic fracturing is making sure all companies are following chemical guidelines, because companies have a right to keep their "special formulas" a secret (Begos). Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to regulate what chemicals can be added, and in some minute cases there have been an increase in minatory substances found in tap water.On the contrary, the preponderance of the Fracking related issues are not due to the "Fracking Chemicals" but are caused by poor well construction (Begos). This shows that the issues we are having are a result of human error and not just the nature and hostility conjoined with Fracking corpora. Fracking Is by no means safe yet, but with strict regulations it could be. There have been a