JEFFREY BARBEE

FRANCE | 2014 | 56’

The environmental problems caused by fracking in America have been well analysed but what’s less known are gas industries’ plans for extension in other countries. This report, filmed in Botswana, South Africa, Alaska and North America, reveals how fracking is quietly destroying protected places on the planet, including Africa’s national parks. In Kalahari desert, fracking operations take place across the migration routes of Africa’s elephants, threatening their survival. Plans for allowing fracking in Karoo in South Africa, a region of natural beauty and with scarce water, have been condemned as “completely irresponsible”. 

Jeffrey Barbee is a photojournalist and award-winning film producer and director. He works for Global Post, presents the US national TV show Earth Focus for LinkTV and writes and photographs for the Guardian UK. His work also appears in the New York Times, the BBC, NOS Tv Holland, Smithsonian Magazine, RTL News, PBS, CBS, Al Jazeera, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and others. His 2012 film “Creating a Climate For Change” won best environmental film at the film festival of Colorado. He is the Director of Alliance Earth, a worldwide not-for-profit environmental and scientific reporting initiative and is a board member of the Mezimbite Forest Centre.