Bedrock Rights: A New Foundation for Global Action Against Fracking and Climate Change

The documentary film ‘Bedrock Rights: A New Foundation for Global Action Against Fracking and Climate Change’ explores how fracking and climate change violate human rights. It charts the genesis, impact and the devastating critique delivered by the 47th Permanent Peoples Tribunal hearing, co-organised by Professor Anna Grear, a member of The Centre for Environmental Justice, Cardiff University. The Tribunal also offered a radical new blended jurisprudence, addressing rights of nature alongside human rights for the first time in its history, as well as holding the hearings online (before Covid-19 made that the norm) to ensure inclusion, low climate and environmental impact, and as much access for affected communities as possible.

According to the findings of the Tribunal, violations of rights caused by fracking and climate change include the right to health, the right to clean water, the rights of indigenous people, and the right to information and participation. Climate change is framed as a problem of environmental justice related to colonial power — while the fracking industry is clearly called out for its systematic practices of injustice.

Learn how  rights-based arguments can empower new global action against fracking and climate change.

The film features: • Poetry by Debra Marquart, a writer, singer, and teacher who has taught writing workshops in Bakken oil field communities most affected by fracking • Interviews with Tom Kerns and Kathleen Dean Moore, co-editors of the book Bearing Witness: The Human Rights Case Against Fracking and Climate Change • Stories from those on the front lines of fracking • Comments from environmental justice activists, including Sandra Steingraber and Jacqueline Patterson • Comments from legal experts and key points from the Advisory Opinion of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Session on Human Rights, Fracking, and Climate Change. This film premiered on June 2, 2021. It was produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University, with production and videography by Fire+Bird Films.