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Article posted: 3/5/2013 1:55 PM

Celebrity ‘fractivists’: True advocates or NIMBYs?

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Actor Robert Redford is among the 100 celebrities leading "Artists Against Fracking." Hydraulic fracturing, a new practice colloquially known as fracking that involves injecting water into underground rock to free vast reserves of gas, has been linked to documented cases of leaking gas ruining nearby well water, of air pollution, and of problems from the waste the drilling generates.

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Celebrities have banned together to fight the drilling practice known as "fracking." But as with many activist causes, the facts can get drowned out by the glitz. Now, some experts are asking whether the celebrities are enlightened advocates or NIMBYs — crying “Not in my backyard!” — even as their privileged lives remain entwined, however ruefully, with fossil fuels.