Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/23/2019
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location
Trust Arts Education Center
Categories
Journalist and poet Eliza Grisold discusses the “resource curse,” particularly when it involves fracking.
Hydraulic fracturing — commonly known as fracking — is a method of creating a well by fracturing rock with a pressurized liquid. This is used primarily to access natural reserves of natural gas or petroleum that may not be easily extracted by other methods. Fracking has been used since the 1950’s but became more common in the 1990’s. The method is controversial because of the suspected environmental and health consequences.
The phrase “resource curse” describes the phenomenon where people who live on land richest in natural resources are the poorest. It’s typically used for developing nations, but it exists in the United States, too.
Using seven years’ worth of immersive journalism, research and anecdotes from her newest book, Eliza Griswold discusses the human impact and social costs of natural resource development. She touches on corporate greed, the disenfranchisement of rural Americans and the neglect of environmental activists and the federal government.
Present as part of the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, a project co-produced by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust that brings together internationally-renowned academics, artists and intellectual innovators.
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