Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It—with author Justin Nobel

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 with author and investigative journalist Justin Nobel.

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 will take your questions, and 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.

About the Book

An acclaimed science journalist’s extraordinary seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis.

As Justin Nobel traveled the United States reporting on the oil and gas industry he learned a disturbing and little-considered fact: a lot more comes to the surface at a well than just the oil and gas. Each year the industry produces billions of tons of waste, much of it toxic and radioactive. The fracking boom has only worsened the problem. So where does it all go? Petroleum-238 provides the shocking answer. Shielded by a system of lax regulations and legal loopholes, this waste has been spilled, spread, injected, dumped, and freely emitted across America.

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.

About Justin Nobel

Justin Nobel writes on science and environment for US magazines, investigative sites, and literary journals. His work has been published in Best American Science and Nature Writing and Best American Travel Writing. A book he co-wrote with a death row exonoree, The Story of Dan Bright, was published in 2016 by University of New Orleans Press. His 2020 Rolling Stone magazine story, “America’s Radioactive Secret,” won an award for longform writing with the National Association of Science Writers and inspired this book. Justin’s writing has helped lead to lawsuits, public dialogue and been taught at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Photo courtesy of Joshua B. Pribanic.\