Welcome to the New Blog of Friends in Unity with Nature! We are slowly transferring data from our website to this blog for up-to-date information, easier maintenance and the ability to interact. Our look will improve as we go along, so stay tuned . . . .
For now, here are our upcoming programs:
Screening of the Academy Award Nominated Documentary
GASLAND Followed by Q & A
When: Friday, April 8, 7-9 pm
Where: 15th Street Quaker Meetinghouse 15 Rutherford Place (15th St. between 2nd and 3rd Aves. in Manhattan)
Presented by:
Friends in Unity with Nature • United for Action • The Quaker Arts Committee • Neighborhood Energy Network • Tri-State Food Not Lawns • Sane Energy Project*
The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudi Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination.
A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND.
The movie GASLAND has also been sweeping the country, alerting citizens everywhere to the true price of natural gas, and mobilizing them in defense of the land that they love. If you haven’t seen it, now’s your chance. If you have, it’s a great way to come together with others who are equally concerned for the beauty, health and integrity of our natural environment.
Q & A
After the film, a question and answer period will address the repercussions of fracking in New York City’s watershed and the proposed natural gas storage and transmission pipe line entering Manhattan at the Gansevoort peninsula. An opportunity to take action and discuss sustainable alternatives will be offered to attenders.
*Sane Energy Project℠ is an advocacy coalition composed of the following volunteer groups: Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, NYH2O, CDOG, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, No Gas Pipeline, Sierra Club and United for Action.
The program is free and open to the public. Donations for the upkeep of the Meetinghouse are gratefully accepted.
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Screening of DIRT! The Movie (with a special interlude for young children)
When: Thursday, April 14, 7-9 pm
Where: 15th Street Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place (on15th St. between 2nd and 3rd Aves.)
Co-sponsored by Friends in Unity with Nature and the Quaker Arts Committee
DIRT! The Movie—80 minutes; directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow—takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.
The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, "dirt is very much alive." Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. "Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt."
DIRT! the Movie--narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis--brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.
DIRT! the Movie is simply a movie about dirt. The real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. The movie teaches us: "When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked." But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT the Movie is a call to action.
"The only remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is connecting them to it again."
What we've destroyed, we can heal.
Q & A will follow the movie. The movie is free—or pay what you wish as a donation for the use of the Meetinghouse.
