NEW YORKERS AGAINST FRACKING: An Urgent Call To Action
A Concert Event Featuring: Medeski Martin & Wood, Natalie Merchant, Citizen Cope, The Felice Brothers, Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Dan Zanes, Ida, The Horse Flies, The Ahkwesasne Women Singers
Hosted by Mark Ruffalo & Melissa Leo
Tuesday, May 15 Albany, New York
Rally 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. West Capitol Lawn
Concert 7:00 p.m. The Egg: Center For Performing Arts
Ticket Information: 518 473-1845 / www.theegg.org
A Concert Event Featuring: Medeski Martin & Wood, Natalie Merchant, Citizen Cope, The Felice Brothers, Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Dan Zanes, Ida, The Horse Flies, The Ahkwesasne Women Singers
Hosted by Mark Ruffalo & Melissa Leo
Tuesday, May 15 Albany, New York
Rally 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. West Capitol Lawn
Concert 7:00 p.m. The Egg: Center For Performing Arts
Ticket Information: 518 473-1845 / www.theegg.org
Tuesday, May 15, a concerned group of New York-based artists will participate in a rally and multi-media concert event in Albany to educate the public on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and call on Governor Cuomo to ban the controversial natural gas drilling process in New York State. Musicians include: Medeski Martin & Wood, Natalie Merchant, Citizen Cope, The Felice Brothers, Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Dan Zanes, Ida, The Horse Flies, and The Ahkwesasne Women Singers. Academy Award nominated actor Mark Ruffalo and Academy Award winning actress Melissa Leo will be official hosts of the evening. All of the artists involved make New York State their home and are committed to keeping it fracking-free. The official rally will begin at 4:00 on The West Capitol Lawn and will be followed by the concert at The Egg: Center For Performing Arts at 7:00.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer, Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) will capture the musical performances, films, speeches and testimonials given by scientists, authors, economists, politicians and activists, on hydraulic fracturing.
This unique show is the brainchild of New Yorkers Against Fracking, a new coalition of diverse grassroots, state-wide organizations that have joined together with the common goal of banning hydrofracking in New York State. These organizations agree that this extreme gas drilling method will cause irreversible damage to the environment and public health.
Acclaimed ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. (Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis) will be on hand to share her experience and expertise on the issue. Steingraber is internationally recognized for her work uncovering and understanding the ways in which chemical contaminants in the air, water, and food endanger human health. An in demand public speaker and cancer survivor, she first gained recognition with her modern classic, Living Downstream, which was recently adapted to a biographical film of the same name. She used the prize money she received for her 2011 Heinz Award to help form New Yorkers Against Fracking.
Shale Gas Hydrofracking (Fracking) is a means of injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under enormous pressure into dense shale rock formations to release natural gas. This process has caused major environmental damage in the communities where it has been allowed to take place. Opponents of fracking cite leaks and accidents that ruin groundwater, contaminating it with carcinogens, neurotoxins, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and natural gas itself. They also point out that the drilling causes massive land scarring, air pollution, truck traffic, and miles and miles of pipeline construction.
“Fracking is wrong,” says Steingraber. “Sooner or later, steel and cement disintegrate. Sooner or later, gas wells open portals of contamination between drinking water aquifers and the toxic materials held in the bedrock below. Doing fracking ‘right’ simply means building time bombs with longer fuses. There are no places in New York and no children in New York that we are willing to sacrifice.”
“I'm terrified of what may happen to my home state if hydraulic fracturing begins,” says Natalie Merchant. “Significant parts of rural New York will be sacrificed for relatively short-term gain in exchange for long-term degradation and contamination. Our most critical resource: WATER, both on the surface and underground will be endangered.”
Presented by New Yorkers Against Fracking in Partnership with the Finger Lakes CleanWaters Initiative, Inc.
This concert is powered in part by the wind due to a Wind Energy Donation compliments of Community Energy.
www.NYAgainstFracking.org
www.FingerLakesCleanWaters.org
For more information, please contact Alex Levy or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer, Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) will capture the musical performances, films, speeches and testimonials given by scientists, authors, economists, politicians and activists, on hydraulic fracturing.
This unique show is the brainchild of New Yorkers Against Fracking, a new coalition of diverse grassroots, state-wide organizations that have joined together with the common goal of banning hydrofracking in New York State. These organizations agree that this extreme gas drilling method will cause irreversible damage to the environment and public health.
Acclaimed ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. (Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis) will be on hand to share her experience and expertise on the issue. Steingraber is internationally recognized for her work uncovering and understanding the ways in which chemical contaminants in the air, water, and food endanger human health. An in demand public speaker and cancer survivor, she first gained recognition with her modern classic, Living Downstream, which was recently adapted to a biographical film of the same name. She used the prize money she received for her 2011 Heinz Award to help form New Yorkers Against Fracking.
Shale Gas Hydrofracking (Fracking) is a means of injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under enormous pressure into dense shale rock formations to release natural gas. This process has caused major environmental damage in the communities where it has been allowed to take place. Opponents of fracking cite leaks and accidents that ruin groundwater, contaminating it with carcinogens, neurotoxins, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and natural gas itself. They also point out that the drilling causes massive land scarring, air pollution, truck traffic, and miles and miles of pipeline construction.
“Fracking is wrong,” says Steingraber. “Sooner or later, steel and cement disintegrate. Sooner or later, gas wells open portals of contamination between drinking water aquifers and the toxic materials held in the bedrock below. Doing fracking ‘right’ simply means building time bombs with longer fuses. There are no places in New York and no children in New York that we are willing to sacrifice.”
“I'm terrified of what may happen to my home state if hydraulic fracturing begins,” says Natalie Merchant. “Significant parts of rural New York will be sacrificed for relatively short-term gain in exchange for long-term degradation and contamination. Our most critical resource: WATER, both on the surface and underground will be endangered.”
Presented by New Yorkers Against Fracking in Partnership with the Finger Lakes CleanWaters Initiative, Inc.
This concert is powered in part by the wind due to a Wind Energy Donation compliments of Community Energy.
www.NYAgainstFracking.org
www.FingerLakesCleanWaters.org
For more information, please contact Alex Levy or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.
What an inspiring rally and concert! What energy!
ReplyDeleteWish everyone could have joined us there.
Barb, Stacia, Maureen & Heidi