8 Questions for Gloria Reuben

Gloria Reuben at the 2009 Heart of Green Awards. She was honored with the "Truth Teller" award for her work with the Waterkeeper Alliance's Dirty Lie campaign.

Photo: Doug Goodman

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Gloria Reuben, winner of the 2009 Heart of Green Truth Teller award, has been an outspoken advocate for environmental protection, human rights and human health. That passion led her to become the spokesperson for The Waterkeeper Alliance's The Dirty Lie campaign, which seeks to dispel the myth that coal is "clean." She is the Vice-Chair of the Waterkeeper Alliance's Board of Trustees and a board member of the National Wildlife Federation, and she's also actively involved in advocacy around global warming and mountaintop removal mining with the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Rainforest Action Network.

Gloria Reuben will return to the LEED-Gold certified Hearst Tower in New York City on April 20 for the invitation-only 2010 Heart of Green Awards Ceremony, honoring another worthy group of individuals who help green go mainstream. The Daily Green's senior editor Dan Shapley recently spoke with her by phone. Here's what she had to say about the issues they discussed:

On mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia...

For a Planet Green segment we went to West Virginia. I saw a couple of mines on the ground, and we did a flyover. That was just – I don't mean to sound dramatic, but there are certain things you see in life that change you forever, and the visuals of these beheaded mountains have made me even more determined to do what I can to make sure that it stops. When I talk about it with anybody, whether they're in the environmental world or not.... I tell them about what I've seen.... People are shocked not only that this happened – but that it continues to happen. It's such a barbaric thing that people can't wrap their heads around it.... When we filmed a Rainforest Action Network PSA to stop mountaintop removal coal mining, the production crew had no idea. It's a prime example.

There's too much money behind Big Coal. Mountaintop removal is the cheapest way to get coal. They won't admit it, but it's the cheapest – quote unquote – in terms of the money they have to pay out, but the most expensive in terms of the ramifications we're left with, environmentally, economically and spiritually.... When you see these things first hand, there's a part of your spirit that shrinks. It's heartbreaking. We talk about eating fish being a human right. What about living in a beautiful mountain range and having no mountains there? It's the industry. It's the big money behind the lobbyists and it's the politicians. They have had their pockets filled with this.

On mercury pollution, which results from burning coal...

Autism, ADHD – these illnesses are in large part due to some kind of dysfunction going on in the brain. I think about the damaging effects that mercury has, and how every single state in the United States has freshwater fish advisories, and yet we continue to burn coal. You can't go fishing anymore.

It is a human right. Having clean air to breathe is a human right. And having clean water to drink is a human right. Those two things are a God-given right. We can't let these industries and these highly financed lobbyists win. It's not ok with me.

On "clean coal," technology that would strip carbon out of the coal-burning process before it escapes the smokestack...

Now, when it comes to that oxymoron called "clean coal"... I don't even want us to bother spending the time and energy and money to create that technology when we can be doing other things instead.... Even if we could capture all this CO2 it doesn't solve all the other issues, from "how we get the coal" to "where do we put the sludge afterwards" to the other toxins we put in the air. It's too stone age.

On Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson...

She is fearless and I love that about her. She has no qualms about hitting this issue (global warming) head on and saying it like it is to the industry heads that don't want to see anything change. This is a massive shift. Big Oil and Big Coal have been able to dominate politics in the last few decades. It's turned in to this massive ocean liner. There aren't many of us, but we are a force turning that ocean liner around... Finally we have the leadership and the will to make that turn.

On being an advocate for AIDS patients, education and research...

I've been and continue to be an activist for HIV and AIDS, specifically here in the African American community. Six years ago it was the number one killer of young black women. When I read that, I was like, "What? How can this be possible?" I thought we were making progress... On ER I had played an HIV-positive healthcare worker (Jeanie Boulet). I read this and knew I had to be out there talking about it.

On being an activist and actress both at once...

What you put your energy towards magnifies. I have not been focusing as much on my acting career as maybe my representatives and my accountant would like me to. I have to be able to eat and clothe myself and that doesn't come with the activism. When I do have to focus on a specific project I'm focused on it 100%.

On Al Gore, whom she met at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, where she was representing both the Alliance for Climate Protection and the National Wildlife Federation...

If things had turned out differently, I don't know if Al Gore would have been at the forefront of this issue the way he is. If there is anybody who throughout especially these last 10 years has literally truly changed the world by bringing this issue of climate change to light, it's him. Thank god we got through George W. Bush...

The thing that struck me most about Al Gore and that had the biggest influence over me, particularly recently, is that he manages to not just have the perseverance, but this unbelievable sense of humor – despite the darts that get thrown at him. Being around him that little bit has impacted me greatly. I know myself well enough that I need to laugh more and if he can, doing all that he's doing, certainly I have to regain my sense of humor a little bit.

On what individuals can do for the environment on Earth Day or any day...

The first thing I would like to see people do, which frankly ties back to when I first started talking about HIV, is get educated. Learn the facts. Learn what is really going on. Do not listen to the ones who are denying the reality. The more we learn the more apt we are to do something about what we learn. That's what been great about the RePower America campaign; it's been giving young people a platform to express their beliefs, and their desire to have climate legislation passed.

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