+
upworthy
Heroes

A new documentary will show what it's like to have your life turned upside down by fracking.

I can't even imagine.

Imagine you're home.

You may not be there right now — maybe you're out running errands, or at a friend's house, or on vacation (lucky you), or wherever. But just imagine that you're at home, wherever home may be.


Maybe you live in a quaint farmhouse. How cute! Image via Thinkstock.


Maybe you live in Brooklyn. Image via Thinkstock.

625 feet away from your home (and your family) is a fracking well.

That's 0.12 mile, or less than two football fields. And that's measuring from the center of the pad — the actual well itself, not counting the width of the pad. Within a minute (yeah, a minute!), you could walk right up to the well pad's edge (although the security guards wouldn't let you, even if it's on your property).

Imagine a fracking well just 1.74 football fields from your house. Image via Thinkstock.

And by the way, a few hundred feet in the other direction is another fracking well.

What even is a fracking well? Why do you care?

You care because the well has totally changed your life. It's loud, it's lit up sobrightly at night, there are dozens of huge trucks coming and going on your little road every day.

And worst of all, ever since they started fracking near your home, your well water has smelled horrible and has been giving you headaches. You're worried about what your water's been contaminated with and what it might do to your health — or worse, your kids.

Maybe you've never had this experience — but way too many others have.

Chances are, this scenario (thankfully) won't sound too familiar to you. But it's frighteningly familiar for many people in rural areas — and it's becoming more common, too. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shale gas production in the U.S. has increased drastically even just from 2010. An estimated 12 billion cubic feet of dry shale gas were produced each day in the U.S. in 2010. In 2015, that number had increased to nearly 40 billion.

That's where the documentary film "In the Hills and Hollows" comes in. This film, created by Keely Kernan, will document the effects of the natural gas boom on the lives of residents and communities in West Virginia.

It includes interviews with folks who have had to endure the exact scenario I described:

Clips from "In the Hills and Hollows."

Along with a look at some of the other stories from people on the ground:

Kernan is raising money to help fund completion of the film. Check out her fundraising video here:

What's so important about this documentary?

I had a chance to ask the filmmaker just that. Here's what she said:

"We live in a world where we are often disconnected from fundamental aspects of our lives, such as the sources of our water and energy. 'In the Hills and Hollows' explores the lives of residents who live at ground zero of today's energy.

"We ... are often disconnected from ... the sources of our water and energy. 'In the Hills and Hollows' explores the lives of residents who live at ground zero of today's energy."

Ultimately, I hope that the film inspires an important conversation about what is at risk and what type of future we want — not only as citizens of West Virginia but of the country, and of the world. I also hope that the film helps people feel connected to the stories being shared and that it helps give residents a voice."

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

Keep ReadingShow less

A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

Keep ReadingShow less

A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

Keep ReadingShow less