From the Times Herald-Record
WOODSTOCK - From the town hall of tiny Cochecton in Sullivan County to the capital building in Albany, Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo is almost as renowned in New York for his anti gas drilling activism as he is for movies such as “The Kids Are All Right.” In fact, he’s been such a voice in the fight against drilling, the Woodstock Film Festival Saturday night is presenting him with its first ever Meera Gandhi Giving Back Award.But now the actor from Sullivan who stars as the Hulk in the upcoming movie “The Avengers,” is playing an even bigger role in his fight for clean energy: finding solutions to replace carbon fuels such as gas and oil with renewable energies such as solar, wind and geothermal power.
Meet Mark Ruffalo, founder of WaterDefense.org
“I’ve been focused on the problems for a long time,” says Ruffalo. “Now I’m focusing on the solutions.”
For Ruffalo, gas drilling - more specifically the horizontal drilling method of high volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” - is one of several carbon-based energy approaches that are “no longer working.”
The proof - along with wars fought over those fuels - is climate change, the effects of which are even being felt right here in Ulster County, where scores of people lost homes because of recent floods.
“It’s not just happening in Pakistan, but upstate,” he says. “In the past five years, we’ve had 50 year floods, 100 year floods and 500 year floods. That’s not normal.”
But Ruffalo isn’t just talking the talk, he’s walking the walk.
With WaterDefense.org, he, “Gasland” [watch here] filmmaker Josh Fox and experts such as Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson will soon be presenting an alternative energy plan to Governor Andrew Cuomo. He says it will be especially relevant now that estimates of the amount of gas in the state’s Marcellus shale have reportedly been drastically reduced.
“I don’t think it’s enough to say ‘no,’ (to drilling),” says Ruffalo. “We need something that’s sustainable. We need jobs and sustainable energy is the fastest growing job market in the world. It’s a whole new industrial revolution.”
And what better place to start, says Ruffalo, than in the state where he, his wife and three children live, with a governor who gets things done.
“He’s got ambition and I appreciate that,” says Ruffalo. “And if he can really tackle this, he’s got a real shot at the presidency. It’s going to happen and we’re being left in left field.”
Ruffalo, who says “I personally don’t deserve this award because there are people who work tirelessly behind the scenes,’’ nonetheless says he has a responsibility to speak for causes like this “as an actor.”
“Artists throughout history have been on the frontline for social change,” he says. “And I was taught (by acting coach Stella Adler) that’s part of my responsibility.”
