What can you do to raise awareness about natural gas speculation? The answer is simple: make a zombie movie. That’s exactly what a concerned group of folks in Ithaca, New York, just did. The film

Frac Attack: Dawn of the Watershed, written and co-directed by Shira Golding, is a “short, environmental zombie thriller” with an important message. The fi lm calls attention to the dangers

of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” This controversial drilling technique is being used to extract natural gas trapped in deep underground rock formations. It involves pumping millions of gallons of water tainted

with a chemical concoction at extraordinarily high pressure into the ground. This fractures the hard rock, releasing the natural gas. But what happens to that noxious solution and the wastewater that results?

In Frac Attack, this dangerous and foul smelling fracking solution ends up contaminating the drinking water. Those who drink it are transformed into mindless zombies who have a craving for human flesh!

Anna, the film’s main character, bands together with a small group of survivors, and together they hatch a plan. If they can lure the zombies into some clean water, they will be healed and the community will be

restored to its once-vibrant condition. According to Golding, the movie is really about breaking out of the “zombie mentality” which has us going back again and again to nonrenewable sources of energy.

Frac Attack challenges us to think seriously about the lengths to which we go and the

risks we seem willing to accept in order to extract the ever-dwindling reserves of fossil fuel. We know our current model of energy extraction and consumption isn’t sustainable. Should we risk poisoning our drinking water to continue down this dead-end street? The film presses us for an answer. Energy speculators stand to make a lot of money from extracting the natural gas buried right beneath our feet. In fact, the drilling has already begun in many locations within Lycoming County and surrounding

regions. Communities and land owners are now considering whether to sign leasing agreements with companies that will use the fracking process to drill into the Marcellus Shale formation. The decisions being made are going to have a lasting impact. “There is only one earth,” Frac Attack

reminds us, “and we are all in this together.” The collaborative effort of 70 volunteers on a budget of only $300 resulted in this provocative film, the winner of the 2009 Tompkins County “Sign of Sustainability

Award.” Frac Attack can be seen in either an R or a PG-13 version at fracattackthemovie. com. The site is also a valuable resource for those who’d like to learn more about the potential dangers of fracking and

some ways to take action to protect our environment from natural gas drilling.