Gasland, as the documentary
about Wal-Mart, shows how money and personal interest generally come before
common good. Both of them portray the human egotism in the attempt of getting
richer and richer over people's health and lives. What makes Gasland more
frightening than Wal-Mart's situation is that, while the latter is a private
institution, the whole gas situation permeates the state's responsibility in
giving their citizens at least a basic right such as having clean water in
their homes, fit for human consumption.
Even though natural gas is
a popular and praised fuel resource nowadays, it doesn't mean that it needs to
be extracted regardless the effects it will cause. Besides the harmful
consequences to the people in the areas the gas has been extracted, the animals
which live in the area are also affected, altering the whole ecosystem.
The fact that the
government seemed simply to ignore the problems faced by the affected people – forcing
them even to collect proof and have supporting data to demonstrate that the
water was really unfit for consumption – shows how big companies that promise
to improve the economy are always ahead of “ordinary” people who try to live
their lives in a fair way.
Finally, despite the
documentary was monotonous (mainly due to the narrator/director’s voice and way
of speaking), themes like these should be brought to our attention more
frequently. Also, it had some great parts, such as when they set fire to the
water coming from the taps.
Although the movie is focused on the USA problem, not being directly related to any other country (indirectly we may think of it in the economy influence), it's a likely problem to emerge here too. The government support large companies to increase the PIB. However, there is no real concern in the environmental and social situation, how it can be affected by these companies. Citizens should be aware and speak out against such exploitation in the natural reserves regardless the effect proportionate with it.
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