Mark Ruffalo and a Cornell University professor warned against the dangers of blue hydrogen development in Northern Ireland on Thursday night.
The webinar, hosted by Fermanagh anti-fracking activist Dianne Little, saw scores tune in to learn about the impacts of the process.
Campaigners fear two petroleum license applications for large areas of Northern Ireland could pave the way for a fossil fuel industry in the region.
Cornell University’s Professor Robert Howarth spoke about the concept of blue hydrogen - a 2015 idea from French gas company Air Liquide which is now being pushed by the fossil fuel industry.
“It’s basically grey hydrogen, which is made by burning gas, with carbon capture and storage thrown in,” he explained.
“It’s been very heavily promoted since 2017 by this group called the Hydrogen Council which was only established in 2017.
“This group was set up by BP, Shell, Total and a few other oil companies so this is the privately owned gas industry and quite frankly it’s greenwashing.
“So far there are only two commercial blue hydrogen facilities globally, one in Texas and one in Alberta,” he added.
“The industry is heavily promoting this blue hydrogen.
“In one example they are calling it nearly zero emissions, this wonderful fuel - sometimes they say low emissions.”
But the Earth systems scientist and methane expert says that’s far from the case.
“The fact is the science doesn’t bear that up,” he added.
Professor Howarth worked with Stanford Engineering Professor Mark Jacobson for a research paper on emissions from both blue and grey hydrogen.
The peer reviewed work found that while blue hydrogen is better than grey “the blue hydrogen footprint... is substantially worse than simply using any fossil fuel.
“We are better off simply burning natural gas instead which we shouldn’t be doing because we need to move to 100% renewable energy quickly.
“The public health consequences of fracking are bad, climate aspects are really bad as well and this blue hydrogen is nothing but greenwashing to continue to sell natural gas.
“I would be very sceptical of carbon capture and storage," he continued.
“What it does is allow our fossil fuel industry to perpetuate this idea that somehow we can deal with our energy future through that as opposed to going to renewables and a fossil free future.”
Hollywood star and decade-long anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo said at the event: “The one thing that’s clear... is when you hear the professionals actually talking about it, you say ‘this is insane’.
“There’s really nothing good to come out of it and anyone with half a brain and doesn’t have some ideological predisposition when they hear this, they decide this is a bad idea.
“It’s what happened in New York state.
“The reason I’m here is because I lived this... I was up at night, it was me and my family and all of our friends.
“We were terrified. We were bringing up children, we had moms, there was pregnant women - we were just like you.
“And we lived through this and we fought - and we won the day because the science led the way.
“We didn’t have the same kind of science that you guys have available to you now. We didn’t have the health compendium.
“We had the beginning of Bob’s work and there was a lot of anecdotal evidence but we didn’t have 18 years or a decade of real scientific study to show us what this was really about.
“You are starting away ahead of us.
“Not only did we have to fight the oil and gas industry but our politicians and even the green corps.
“You have your work cut out for you but this is doable and you have great science and information to help you win this fight.
“The difference between you and us is that you’ve been through decades of trauma like Dianne was saying, like Dr Nolan and Dr O’Dolan are saying.
“The societal impacts of this industrialisation are profound - I saw families turn against families, neighbours turn against neighbours.
“There’s another cost to this which is the community cost - it’s profound, especially if you are steeped in trauma.
“We used to say ‘don’t frack my mother’ but you guys could say ‘don’t blue hydrogen my mother’ - because it is the mothers who bear the burden of this.”
The Avengers star warned “whoever controls your energy, controls your destiny”.
And he urged Sinn Fein to put in place a policy that will stop “licensing of huge tracks of land” to fossil fuel firms.
“We had a saying in New York,” he added.
“It was ‘don’t let the camel get it’s head in the tent because the rest of the body is following’.
“That’s their MO - they do it incrementally so people aren’t looking and the fact they are cynically taking this pandemic and trying to slip this by when everyone is suffering and struggling and grieving should be enough to make you very, very angry.”
Other speakers included Dr Kathy Nolan from Concerned Health Professionals and Fermanagh GP Carroll O’Dolan.
Northern Ireland politicians are yet to make a decision on petroleum licensing for gas and oil exploration under laws that were written in 1964.
While the First Minister’s resignation could mean a decision is not taken for some months - the applications remain.
The first one (PLA1/16), if approved, would give EHA Exploration the right to drill and search for oil across a 1134km2 area that hugs the south basin of Lough Neagh and crosses Tyrone, Armagh and into parts of Belfast.
The second application (PLA2/16) from Tamboran Resources (UK) Limited would give them rights to 608km2 of Co Fermanagh to the southwest of Lower and Upper Lough Erne if passed.
In their application they state clearly they want to drill a 1,500 metre deep borehole to look for gas.
