Widespread fracking could encourage people to support alternatives to fossil fuels, the director of Gasland 2 told a screening of the documentary in Lewes, Sussex, last night (23/10/13).

Josh Fox said: “The way to get the world off fossil fuels is the number of places they want to frack. When your home is on the line it changes things.”

The film, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, investigates  the power of the oil and gas industries over governments and shows what happens to communities when fracked wells leak.

Josh Fox told a packed Lewes Town Hall that people who didn’t like the idea of fracking had to support renewable energy. “This is the choice of whether you want fossil fuels or renewable energy. Unconventional fossil fuels mean it is game over for the world.”

In the audience were campaigners against Cuadrilla’s exploration for oil at Balcombe. Laurence Dunn, a Balcombe resident, warned that politicians would override environmental regulations that got in the way of fracking. “They want to drill 1,000 well pads in Sussex.” he said. “They are going to take out 10,000 acres of farmland and hundreds of thousands of trees.”