Exclusive Interview About Coal With Gloria Ruben

Seth Leitman :I know!!!!!!!! Caught her in the joke.  It was great!

Gloria Ruben :That’s exactly the point, right?

Seth Leitman: Exactly, right, yeah.

Gloria Ruben : The coal has got a lot of money spreading that falsehood. So, over the last couple of years, actually I’ve really made it a mission. I’ve of course expanded that mission to the broader issue of climate change, but started out with this issue of coal, getting specific about the mountaintop removal, coalmining disasters that continued to happen in stepping up to the play to help kind of sort these barbaric acts.

Seth Leitman : They’re now stepping up, thank goodness.

Gloria Ruben : Yeah. And then we have a new administration.

Seth Leitman : Yeah. Yeah.

Gloria Ruben : It helps a great deal. But also the other factors that are outlining the whole issue of gathering coal and using that, the 50% of our electricity resource the United States, mercury poisoning in our waterways and in our fish, coal ash lagoons that are unlined, sipping toxic chemicals into the groundwater. The air that is — people that are living in these areas, where there are coal-fired power plants, are clearly dealing with a number of serious and lifelong health issues. So —and I guess people, they took notice and so I’ve got…

Seth Leitman : Yeah. And that’s fantastic — I mean that the whole concept of clean coal’s a constant rhetorical question I say to myself and then I just decided one day, I said, “You know what, no.

Gloria Ruben : Yeah.

Seth Leitman:  No such thing. I’m sorry. We could try. It all ends up. One thing I tell the story to some people is that I remember when I was doing my master’s program and I was studying coal-burning power plants that were being built by the world bank in China and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to — inside the world bank and meet the project manager, who was actually the money transfer guy between the world bank and China, to do this coal-burning power plant and I as a New Yorker was able to look him in the eye and say, “What are you thinking? Do you realize what you’re doing?” And the answers were like, “We’re just so smelling of methane that you just decided that it was like — this is wrong.”

Gloria Ruben : Right. Well, it’s clearly a big business for him at the expense of for our lives, for our health, for our air, for our water. Now, the good is that there is a lot more awareness going on clearly in this country and around the world on the issue of coal-fired power plants. So, eventually, the more people that know about it. I mean that know the truth about it and know the actual facts about it. They are more apt either communicate or start having a dialogue. All which is of course the first thing. Also and eventually, the more that people kind of learn about the disasters that are happening. Look, we all know about the tragedy that just happened in West Virginia.

Seth Leitman : Oh yeah, I was just thinking that while you were talking about that.

Gloria Ruben : Within a few days, there was also a coal mining disaster that happened in China.

Seth Leitman : And then we talked about that.

Gloria Ruben :And there was that huge supertanker going — leaving Australia filled with coal on the way to China that ran a ground of the Great Barrier Reef. So, now, in succession, these three things happened in about five or six days of each other, it’s almost like we’re getting messages from the divine.

Seth Leitman :I believe that. I really do believe that.

Gloria Ruben : We need to stop. So, anyway, back to tonight.

Seth Leitman : Back tonight, it’s great to be here, but it’s what we’re here about. That’s the heart. That’s our heart and that’s why we’re so passionate about why people are worrying such great things. And Gloria, thank you so much for your time. I know it’s a busy night, but thank you for — and rock it out as the MC. All right. Green Living Guy saying one step at a time guys, it’s all it takes. One little thing every day, and when you do that, you’ll get greener and greener and you’ll realize things, and just one little thing you’re learning today, how coal is not a way to go, bye-bye.