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An Earth Day call to ban fracking across this land
The New York Daily News ^ | April 22, 2015 | Mark Ruffalo, actor and director

Posted on 04/22/2015 10:54:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Just say no, Obama.

Flaming water, poisoned air and destroyed lives — that’s what I found when I traveled to Dimock, Pa., in 2009 to see the impacts of fracking firsthand. Six years later, this tragic story is one shared by countless Americans, too many of them with no choice in the matter.

Ten years after the Bush-Cheney administration exempted fracking from key parts of some of our nation’s most important environmental and public health laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, the science is finally catching up to the process — and the results are damning. The oil and gas industry is now fracking in 34 states, bringing with it water contamination, rampant air pollution, swarms of earthquakes, poisoned farmland and animals, and sick residents. Early on-the-ground reports of harm have now been confirmed by more than 450 peer-reviewed scientific studies.

This Earth Day, I’m proud to live in a state where our governor, Andrew Cuomo, stood by his promise to listen to the science on fracking. He didn’t cave to the oil and gas industry; he put New Yorkers first. Based on the science, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health concluded that high-volume hydraulic fracking isn’t safe and should be banned.

Frequent reports of harm from across the border in Pennsylvania demonstrate the wisdom of that decision. Just this week, new state data there show air pollution from natural gas sites has increased significantly. Two weeks ago, a study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found alarming increases in levels of indoor radon — a dangerous gas linked to lung cancer — coinciding with fracking. Lead author Joan A. Casey warned: “By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface.” In 2014, state data confirmed at least 243 cases of water contamination and well failure from drilling and fracking.

Past the health and environmental damage, fracking is also breaking apart communities. Outside workers fill the vast majority of the temporary jobs created by fracking, and then pack up and leave once-beautiful communities with an economic bust and a legacy of toxic contamination after the oil or gas is gone or the price drops.

But despite overwhelming evidence that fracking is a disaster, and despite rapidly growing opposition among Americans, President Obama continues to tout fracking as a solution to our energy needs. Instead of taking the opportunity to protect our federal lands and parks, his administration recently set forth regulations to facilitate fracking in our public lands and even our national parks.

Obama’s policy not only destines our public lands to environmental degradation, but also contradicts his promises on climate change.

We know that we must leave the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe. We know that fracking for oil and natural gas leaks large amounts of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas that threatens to exacerbate the climate crisis in the crucial near-term.

Obama rightfully says there is no greater threat to our planet than climate change, and that we have to reduce carbon emissions. Stopping fracking on our public lands would do just that. It’s a significant action that the President could and most certainly should take now.

To change the course we are on, Obama and Congress should follow the Empire State’s lead in banning fracking and advancing renewable energy. Aggressively moving toward a goal of 100% clean, renewable energy will create a vibrant economy with hundreds of thousands of jobs.

That’s the legacy we should leave for our children, and for their children to inherit. That’s a future worth fighting for on Earth Day and every day.

*****

Ruffalo, an actor and director, serves on the advisory boards of New Yorkers Against Fracking and Americans Against Fracking.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Government; Local News
KEYWORDS: cuomo; energy; fracking; globalwarminghoax; greenpeace; hydrocarbons; markruffalo; methane; newyork; opec; patrickmoore; pennsylvania; petroleum; tomsteyer
Wouldn't Iran and the Sunni potentates love that?
1 posted on 04/22/2015 10:54:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!


2 posted on 04/22/2015 11:13:33 PM PDT by karnage
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It would be far smarter to ban Obama across this land.


3 posted on 04/22/2015 11:14:37 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"I’m proud to live in a state where our governor, Andrew Cuomo, stood by his promise to listen to the science on fracking."

When those New Yorkers start freezing some winter because they cannot afford to heat their homes I doubt if they'll have any reservations about deforesting the state for firewood.
4 posted on 04/22/2015 11:15:03 PM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Earth Day celebrations leave areas littered with Starbucks cups, soda cans and cigarette butts from out of work hippies and fresh out of college yo yo’s with “womens studies” and “art” degrees.


5 posted on 04/22/2015 11:19:19 PM PDT by albie
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To: albie

Agreed. Didn’t they leave 100 tons of trash behind? BAN LIBERAL PINKO EARTH HUGGING MOONBAT COMMIES. Makes you wonder why these idiots are not aborted by their own kind.


6 posted on 04/22/2015 11:21:33 PM PDT by Up Yours Marxists
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Mark Ruffalo, actor and director

He also starred in Jame's O'Keefe's hidden video about rich Saudis offering actors to produce an anti fracking video.

Hollywood celebrities caught on hidden camera accepting money from "Middle Eastern oil interests"

7 posted on 04/22/2015 11:21:40 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mark, you’re an uneducated nitwit. Fracking fluid is nothing but water, sand, and food grade chemicals like table salt and citric acid. Colorado Governor Hickenlooper drank some (minus the sand of course) to show how safe it is:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/feb/12/colorado-gov-hickenlooper-i-drank-fracking-fluid/

And, Mark, I think the solution is relatively simple here. The need for drilling for fossil fuels could be greatly reduced if you and everyone opposed to “fracking” and/or drilling for petroleum and/or mining for coal would simply abstain from utilizing any fossil fuel energy for any purpose and use no products made with or by or from fossil fuels. You could eliminate both your petroleum and carbon footprint, and lead by example, proving once and for all you’re not just ordinary, garden-variety hypocrite who preaches “Do as I say, not as I do.”

I certainly don’t understand why people like Mark who are so opposed to using fossil fuels continue to consume them in mass quantities. After all, they’re the very first to boycott lettuce, grapes, Walmart and such for the slightest perceived unfairness. Certainly “saving the planet” is far more critical than trying to put Walmart out of business.

So, Mark, please quit yammering, and whining and finger-pointing and do something positive for a change: quit consuming resources you detest so much. After all, it shouldn’t be that much of a hardship, since you can simply substitute the wind-power and solar power you adore so much that you’ve demanded that hundreds of billion of tax dollars of other peoples’ money be spent “developing” (though I do have to admit I’m not sure exactly how you’ll lubricate the moving parts and insulate your electrical wiring).


8 posted on 04/22/2015 11:27:56 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: chris37
But despite overwhelming evidence that fracking is a disaster, and despite rapidly growing opposition among Americans, President Obama continues to tout fracking as a solution to our energy needs. Instead of taking the opportunity to protect our federal lands and parks, his administration recently set forth regulations to facilitate fracking in our public lands and even our national parks.

The source of this "overwhelming evidence" must be the same leftist propaganda mill that generated all that global warming crap. But it's funny: when Barack Obama isn't far enough left for you, you know you're an extremist, one of the leftist 1%.

9 posted on 04/23/2015 12:21:10 AM PDT by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The first sentence is a complete Lie, and then the Article gets even worse.


10 posted on 04/23/2015 12:31:10 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Hillary, because it's time for a POTUS without a SCROTUS...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Every time there is a Natural Disaster, two things happen.

People stock up on Drinking Water and they also top off the Gas Tanks in their Cars. Every time...


11 posted on 04/23/2015 12:33:12 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Hillary, because it's time for a POTUS without a SCROTUS...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Frack you Ruffalo!!!!!!


12 posted on 04/23/2015 1:01:14 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface.”

Why would Radon do that? It's much, much heavier (denser) than air. (That's why it accumulates in basements, not attics, where it occurs at ground level.)

13 posted on 04/23/2015 4:17:26 AM PDT by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
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To: Vince Ferrer

He should stick to comic book movies where his dialogue usually consists of two word sentences.


14 posted on 04/23/2015 4:32:51 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ban Earth Day.


15 posted on 04/23/2015 4:57:34 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ($$$$$ Don't Defund the Government...Defund Obama and his illegal policies $$$$$)
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To: Up Yours Marxists

Agreed. Didn’t they leave 100 tons of trash behind?”

...yes. I live near DC and have gone to conservative and liberal protests. Conservatives mostly clean up after themselves. Liberals don’t. They hate America so much, they feel it necessary to litter it. They say it makes a point. It’s actually just laziness, hypocrisy and lack of respect.


16 posted on 04/23/2015 4:59:02 AM PDT by albie
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Author, Mark Ruffalo.


17 posted on 04/25/2015 2:06:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Mark Ruffalo keyword:
18 posted on 04/25/2015 2:28:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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