Find out what the oil and gas industry doesn’t want you to know—with author and investigative journalist Justin Nobel.
Do fossil fuels make you angry? Do you want BIG OIL to take responsibility for its role in contaminating our soil, our waterways, our health, and our collective future? If so, please join us for this riveting discussion between author Justin Nobel and award-winning journalist (and Ossining resident) Rene Ebersole.
Justin will share excerpts of his new book, Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It and how he uncovered dirty secrets of the oil and gas industry. Petroleum-238 began as an investigation with Rolling Stone magazine that examined the radioactivity brought to the surface in oil and gas production and the various pathways of contamination posed to the industry’s workers, the public and communities, and the environment. The magazine story was published in January 2020 and won an award for longform writing with the National Association of Science Writers. Petroleum-238 grew out of this story.
Justin and Rene will dialogue on stage before taking your questions. Copies of his book will be on hand for purchase and signing.
This event is free, but we encourage you to RSVP ahead of time for planning purposes.
Nobel relies on oilfield workers, community activists, a century of academic research, and a trove of never-before released industry and government documents to lay out a series of game-changing reveals into the world’s most powerful industry. None have been more deceived than the industry’s own workers, who are suffering mysterious health maladies and dying from unexplainable cancers.
This book is an impressive work of investigative science journalism with surprising moments of literary beauty, and a welcome breakdown of the false wall corporations and politicians often set between industry workers and environmentalists. In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Petroleum-238 is both a landmark work of environmental writing and an urgent call to action.
Why it Matters for Upstate New York Upstate New York may be far from fracking but it still relies on the fuels whose extraction contaminates the people of oil and gas country. And although few people are aware the oilfield’s radioactivity is invariably brought to them, via the nation’s natural gas distribution system. Industry documents convey that radioactivity builds up in natural gas pipelines and also compressor stations, forming mineral deposits and sludges that can require the same handling as low-level radioactive waste. Workers who must clean this equipment face exposure risks, and exemptions mean this dangerous waste stream is not well analyzed or tracked. Elevated radioactive emissions may be expected at oil refineries, natural gas processing plants and compressor stations. The knowledge and documents laid out in this book provide a powerful new suite of tools for holding the industry accountable, both in oil and gas country, and places far beyond.