I generally support any celebrity effort to promote a cause, even if it’s just a retweet or some “minor” effort because it all helps. Of course, it’s much more beneficial if they’ve educated themselves before they endorse something. One person who has proven a considerate advocate is Mark Ruffalo. Although he’s lent his celebrity to many causes, when he or his wife Sunshine speak out, they’ve generally done their homework. Most recently, Mark championed for No-DAPL at Standing Rock.
Mark is co-founder of The Solutions Project, a site dedicated to accelerating the transition to 100% clean, renewable energy. He also appears in the documentary In This Climate coming out next year and was thanked by Leonardo DiCaprio and crew for his consultation in their film, Before The Flood. Renewable energy is Mark’s baby and last Monday he took a firm stand on the need to bring it to the forefront. He appealed to the big banks in a news conference held in New York to divest themselves from the fossil fuel industry. Here is his statement:
I want to read a Hopi quote from the Hopi Nation of Native Americans. “Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Now, I think the one thing that’s become perfectly clear after today’s comments is that if you keep your money in the fossil fuel industry, you are hurting your children, you are hurting the future generations, and you’re hurting yourselves. You can’t say that you care about your children or your grandchildren and keep pouring money into this system.
We now have the technology, clearly, to move forward. I want to thank the fossil fuel industry for a hundred years of concentrated carbon fuel to bring us to this place and, through the technological revolution, to give us the technology today to move forward and away from burning carbon, which is killing our planet and our people.
This is a twofold approach that you’re seeing unfold in front of you. It started with the students. Of course it did, because the students are a moral authority. They haven’t been corrupted yet by the influence of money, and so their voices and their hearts are pure. They know what’s happening, and it’s terrifying to them. And so you have a giant social movement starting to blossom in the world today, because children, the young people, know that their lives are at stake, their futures are at stake. All the money in the world doesn’t mean a goddamn thing if the world is burning around them, if they don’t have water, if the air isn’t clean and if the sun and the elements and the weather become their constant enemy.
So, you have beautiful people in the business sector who hear the call, whose moral vision hasn’t been so clouded, that they understand that now is the time to make a move forward to our future. And it’s a very beautiful future. It’s a future that excludes geopolitical strife. We won’t be fighting trillion-dollar wars over energy assets. It’s a future that keeps our energy dollars here in the state. It creates 3.5 million net gain of jobs, from the jobs we lose from the fossil industry. It allows people to stay home. They don’t have to go to extraction sites and put their lives in danger and put communities in danger, with the crime that comes with it, with that fossil fuel extraction.
Lastly, we have a cultural movement that’s arising. And we will keep fighting. What you see happening at DAPL is only the beginning. The 500,000—the 500,000 people that showed up for the climate march is only the beginning. And we are going to keep putting pressure on you businesses and you banks—Citibank, Wells Fargo—to stop poisoning our people and stop financing climate change. And we’re not going to stop. If you have your money in fossil fuel industry, you’re going to lose it. That’s the message coming out of today. That’s the message coming out of our youth. That’s the message coming out of our technological movement and leaders. Get your money out now, while you can.
It’s a great statement. I appreciate the diplomacy of thanking fossil fuel for getting us to this point but ending his comments with no ambiguity about the fact that they needed to adapt or die out. Plus, it was poetic that he began with a Native American quote and concluded with a Native American plight. The only thing I question is the bit about students. I think he is correct for the most part that students have historically been responsible for bringing about change, but I think their professors deserve some credit for encouraging them. Plus, I am hard pressed to think that American students haven’t been corrupted by greed in some way by the time they reach college-age. Still, it’s a strong message about working together. I guess I need to go research banks that don’t deal with the fossil industry… either that or get a bigger mattress to keep my money under.
Photo gallery: WENN Photos and Getty Images
Aksing banks to do the “right” thing? Hahahahaha.
Surely he can’t be that naive.
Well precisely. It’s a nice sentiment but considering we just hired Goldman Sachs and Exxon to run our country, it reads more like fantasy than anything else.
Ditto.
Also, why do people think oil and gas are the only byproducts of fossil fuels?
We also get medicines, synthetic fabrics, lubricants, plastic to name a few, from fossil fuels.
Actually there was a great story about the Swedish bank that is pulling out of anything to do with the Standing Rock case after executives went their and met with the tribe leaders. The story was on Mother Jones – can’t find the link but they have a ton of great stories.
I love him and his message is spot-on but it seems like an exercise in futility to talk about making any positive progress in terms of green energy when we have an incoming administration that is hell-bent on undoing the small progress we’ve made in that direction over the past decade or so. Not to be a Debbie Downer, just trying to be realistic about the future.
Jerry Brown had a great speech about climate change recently. I dig that guy.
I suppose you have to put over a positive message about the possibilities or nobody at all will listen. But I agree.
I think we will see wars fought over climate change-fuelled migration AND (more than we already have) wars fought over command of remaining fossil fuel reserves. And internal conflicts in big countries – including the US – over domestic migration flows too, as big cities become unlivable due to climate and sea level change.
The future is not pretty.
We are already there. See the recent bombing of Somalia by western allies. In theory due to terrorists, in reality the recently discovered oil reserves found off the Somalia shore that are estimated to be bigger than Saudi oil reserves.
Was just reading about Mogadishu, LAK.
And agree with both of you. There are dark days ahead and I feel for my friends with young children. What kind of a world are we creating for them?
Sigh.
Yes and yes. The entire MENA region has nothing but horror to look forward to.
Mr Sixer is looking over my shoulder. He says: in the UK we are already having our freedom of movement conversation. In the next couple of decades the US will be talking about freedom of movement between states – the least affected by climate change won’t want to accommodate the people from the states most affected.
He’s even more cheerful about it than the three of us!
I recently found an old interview from 2007 in which General Wesley Clarke discusses the hitlist of countries we were to invade. From that list, only Lebanon and Iran are yet to be invaded. We’ve done Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia.
The common thread? Oil reserves or refusal to give the west their oil.
And the kicker? The list was drawn up in 2001.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
I can’t decide if i’m horrified or astonished at the sheer brass balls. And not a peep from anyone.
We will have wars fought over climate change and clean water. Here, the areas that will be most affected are the areas where most people live; the areas where people did not vote for Trump. Of course, all of this may be irrelevant because we may be about to enter war with China with Putin coming out the winner of that conflict. And when those long range bombs fly, while some will go to the missile silos in the middle of that vast red nowhere land, most will hit the coastal blue areas. Sorry, I’m feeling very down right now.
A worthy but uphill battle. The country is now owned by Goldmans Sachs and Exxonmobil. Banks and big oil are sitting comfortable for the next four years unless…
Ha. Just said the same. So technically the senate could still veto Tillerson’s nom right? They’ll probably approve because nobody can say “no” to the orange baby-fisted toddler but….tiny sliver of hope?
The thing though was that the govt was already governed by people under big oil influence. Trump has merely removed the middleman and is appointing the source directly.
Yes this is absolutely true, LAK.
I applaud his efforts but the oil industry no longer needs banks. They are about to be handed the checkbook to the US Treasury. All are tax dollars and our natural resources will be theirs. And we will get nothing in return as they sell our oil to the highest bidders.
OT but just had to mention. I finally got to the end of Oz. My goodness, I loved that show. Shows you what can be done without today’s huge budgets and technical bells and whistles. Just acting and storytelling.
I just started watching Oz! I’m 4 episodes in. Everyone’s been telling me that it’s a great show but I never got around to watch it.
It’s marvellous! Ok, I’m sure even the most notorious of US prisons doesn’t have *quite* so many deaths, but I really, really loved it. I spent half the last series sobbing like a baby.
So many creative ways to murder people on Oz.
And the acting. Joel Grey, Rita Moreno, Betty Buckley, J D Wong, Patti Lupone and this is NOT a musical!
My Said and Augustus! And the evil Schillinger. And Chris Meloni’s butt
MY Said! I honestly might go and watch it all over again, I loved it that much.
The quiet, dignified beauty of Eamonn Walker’s Said. The whole cast was outstanding.
Mark is one of the celebrities that doesn’t irritate me when he speaks out on things like this. He seems super thoughtful and sincere. I don’t think he is a hypocrite (looking at you Leo) or just bored and wanting to talk to hear himself talk. When someone like this speaks out it is a big deal because I think people listen.
I think that we, as individuals, hold a lot of power and that we are just as much to blame for the things that go on as banks, oil companies, etc. As consumers our priorities and where we put our money determines a lot. We live very cushy lives here in America. I have to remind myself of that often. A lot of the time we make our choices based on convenience and based on costs etc., or at least, I know I am guilty of that.
I don’t think individuals are just as much to blame. The choice you make with your money have an impact, but it’s not that significant.
Just my opinion… But I think we, as consumers are the reason for almost everything that happens. If I didn’t go fill my truck up with gas… So I can drive everywhere… If no one did… Just imagine.
We don’t want to do without, as a society.
You can believe that if no one purchases a product… The supplier wouldn’t be out there continuing to supply it. They will be there as long as there is money in it. I use gas on an almost daily basis to drive. I am well aware that I am the reason big oil is “big”.
Actually, if individual choice didn’t matter or didn’t make a difference, there would be no need for persuasion.
When people boycott stuff, it hurts the supplier and that’s a clear demonstration of our power as consumers.
I think consumer pressure can lead to incremental change. Companies do respond but often with pretty words and minimal actions. But minimal actions are better than no actions.
The complete sea change in lifestyle required for climate change won’t happen through consumer action, however. Nothing significant will happen until necessity propels it and there is more money to be made in tech advances than exploiting remaining fossil resources.
That’s never going to happen if anything financial institutions and advisors are going to be pushing more money into the oil industry. Look at who he is appointing, they are all about the oil industry and invading Iran for oil.
Oil = money and that is what bankers care about so while this is nice it’s also a bit delusional because it would never happen.
The next administration has admitted they want the banks and business to rule the country and get rid of safety nets. Let that horrifying reality sink in.
Sorry but instead of wasting time asking for things you know would never happen he should use his voice to get something that is possible.
I really like and respect Marc but this annoyed me, not because I think he’s wrong to fight for this but because with what we are up against I think people need to start having smart and well planned approachs. This country is in serious danger and we need to be serious and not risk getting laughed out of the room before a valid and necessary point is made. To much is at stake.
The best thing about the Trump election is that the electrolate are finally awake to the big business screw up of their lives.
For 30yrs or more, everything has increasingly directed by big business with little protest from the public because the face of the politician on top was someone people liked.
Now that Trump is in charge, people have removed their rose tinted spectacles and are seeing the reality of their country because Trump isn’t bothering to sugar coat it.
This is a good tjing because it means people won’t let the politicians get away with this stuff any longer.
I agree with that his corruption is right there on the table but I still think people have to be realistic in fighting it, banks aren’t going to suddnely be ethical and pull out of the biggest way to make money. You want to stay in the room so you can still fight so be smart on the approach.
I read Mark’s twitter feed often. He is a passionate man about this country.
Yes. I don’t always agree with everything he says, but I have a lot of respect for him. He really seems to believe in his causes. He seems like a good guy.