DiCaprio: Climate Deniers ‘Should Not Be Allowed to Hold Public Office’
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio sat on the White House lawn on Oct. 3, and proclaimed that anyone who doesn’t not believe in climate change “should not be allowed to hold public office.”
“The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over, if you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office,” DiCaprio stated at the livestreamed White House South By South Lawn (SXSL) event.
The invited crowd responded with cheers.
South By South Lawn, or SXSL, was an all-day,Obama White House event hosting various liberal panel discussions about issues like food, sustainability and climate change as well as musical guests — inspired by the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas.
DiCaprio was on hand to moderate a one-sided conversation about the threat of manmade climate change featuring President Barack Obama and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (VIDEO). Obama and Hayhoe took turns arguing the urgency of the climate problem to a friendly crowd, discussing alternative energy, promoting fossil fuel regulations or carbon taxation and warning about worsening “extreme weather.”
Following the talk, his latest climate documentary, Before the Flood, made its U.S. premiere to all those attending. The film will air on National Geographic channel on Oct. 30 — conveniently just eight days before the presidential election.…
’11 QUESTIONS THE PRESS MUST ASK LEONARDO DICAPRIO’
BY CHRISTIAN TOTO
Why would a reporter grill DiCaprio about recycling, using less natural resources and prepping the planet for a healthier tomorrow?
Because he’s arguably Hollywood’s reigning eco-hypocrite, that’s why.
The tales of his private plane usage, which leaves a massive carbon footprint, are legendary
He loves charting gas-guzzling yachts with his tony pals
Suffice to say he owns more than one home, and they’re hardly modest in size
The irony is that some media outlets have dinged DiCaprio on his hypocrisy. The critiques often come from British newspapers, though.
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Here are 11 questions the press should (but probably won’t) ask DiCaprio:
- How do you square your consistent use of private planes with your green activism?
- You’ve said, “The idea of pursuing material objects your whole life is absolutely soulless.” How do you explain that philosophy in light of your lavish lifestyle?
- Do you think your large carbon footprint is hurting the very cause you support?
- Do you think science is ever truly settled?
- So many scientific models about climate change have been flat-out wrong. Response?
- Shouldn’t a foundation like yours be more transparent, not less?
- When we experience a hot or cold spell we’re often told it’s due to climate change. When climate change skeptics point to similar weather pockets to debunk climate change they’re told climate isn’t weather. Can you explain?
- Why do you think other environmentally aware celebrities, like James Cameron, also live lives that contrast their beliefs?
- Have you ever had a long, open discussion with a climate change skeptic?
- Climate change is being blamed for the rise in terrorism. Do you think that is more or less of a contributing factor than radical Islam?
- The recent Gulf of Mexico hurricane drought lasted 10 years, despite us being told climate change would cause more hurricane activity. Can you explain?
WaPo: ‘It’s been 16 years since DiCaprio interviewed a prez on climate. And situation is now much worse’
While actor Leonardo DiCaprio will generate plenty of buzz when he speaks with President Obama and atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe on the South Lawn on Monday night, it’s worth noting that this is not the first time the Oscar winner has interviewed an American president about the state of the climate.
It’s just that this time, the climate is in much, much worse shape.
DiCaprio sat down with Bill Clinton in the White House in March 2000, when he was in town to host a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. During that event, DiCaprio asked Clinton why the issue of global warming was “so constantly overlooked,” and whether he would rank it as important as health care and education.
“Oh yes, over the long run, it’s one of the two or three major issues facing the world over the next 30 years,” Clinton replied. “I think it’s because it takes a long time for the climate to change in a way that people feel it, and because it seems sort of abstract now.”
[When DiCaprio talked climate change at the Oscars, people suddenly cared]
While Clinton took pains to detail some of the evidence, noting at the time that nine of the 11 “warmest years on record have occurred in the last decade,” most of the impacts he described would occur in the future.
“So, the climate is changing, and the globe is warming at an unsustainable rate,” the president said. “And if it is not slowed and ultimately reversed, what will happen is, the polar ice caps will melt more rapidly; sea levels will rise; you will have the danger of flooding in places like the precious Florida Everglades or the sugar cane fields of Louisiana; island nations could literally be buried.”
DiCaprio, who stars in and produced the new National Geographic film on climate change, “Before the Flood,” will talk with Obama as part of the White House’s South by South Lawn festival.…
Obama, DiCaprio team up against climate change
President Barack Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio walk to the stage to talk about climate change as part of the White House South by South Lawn event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington,Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo)
Washington: President Barack Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up on the White House South Lawn on Monday to sound a call for urgent action to combat climate change.
Obama told a crowd gathered for the ‘South by South Lawn’ festival of technology and music that the world is in “a race against time” to combat climate change.
The president said the world gets an “incomplete” grade on its response to global warming so far, but he added that “the good news is we can still pass the test.”
“I tend to be a cautious optimist about our ability to make change,” Obama said.
Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton was mentioned in the discussion, but their presence was nonetheless felt.…
Obama hosts DiCaprio & Warmist Hayhoe at White House for climate summit
…DiCaprio: Climate deniers ‘should not be allowed to hold public office’
Politicians who don’t believe in climate change should not hold public office, said actor Leonardo DiCaprio Monday at the White House before the screening of his new climate documentary.
“The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over,” DiCaprio said at the White House’s South By South Lawn event.
“If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.”
DiCaprio screened his film “Before the Flood,” a documentary about climate change. Ahead of the screening, he spoke on a panel with President Obama.
“Climate change is almost perversely designed to be really hard to solve politically. It is a problem that creeps up on you,” Obama said.
“The political system in every country is not well designed to do something tough now to solve a problem that people will really feel the impact of in the future.”
In the film, DeCaprio travels to Greenland, the Pacific Islands, Sumatra and industrial regions of China to show the impacts of climate change.
DiCaprio, and the film’s director, Fisher Stevens, hope to use it in the run-up to next month’s presidential and Senate elections, according to The Guardian.
They plan to show it on college campuses and across swing states. It will be released via National Geographic later this month.…
Leo DiCaprio’s Using His Global Warming Film To Go After Republicans
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s new global warming film is set to debut in several swing states before the election, but not before its director went on an unhinged rant against Republicans in a recent interview.
Fisher Stevens, the director of DiCaprio’s film “Before the Flood,” told Politico’s Morning Energy they plan screenings in Florida Tuesday, followed by showings in swing states, like Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Stevens said in Florida they’d “highlight that Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott are both climate skeptics, despite the state being on the frontlines of climate change,” reports Politico. Stevens thinks DiCaprio’s voice on global warming can move Americans to action.
“I’m not going to be so bold as to say we can do much – we’re just a little documentary – but [DiCaprio] has a big voice,” Stevens said of the film, which is set to premier on National Geographic channel at the end of October.
Stevens took aim at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who he sees as the biggest threat to civilization.
“If he wins, it’s not just climate change that I’m so terrified of, it’s the entire world civilization as we know it,” Stevens said. “I’m scared for world order. Period.”
Stevens credited Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with “definitely taking it seriously” and noted DiCaprio has spoken to her several times about global warming.
Stevens also went on an unhinged rant against Republican lawmakers he saw as jeopardizing the future of the planet.
“He, personally, is responsible for putting his grandchildren’s futures in jeopardy,” Stevens said of Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
“I don’t know if we can ever change James Inhofe and make him understand, and that’s sad because it’s amazing his position of power,” Stevens said before shifting his attack to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Leonardo DiCaprio Set To Speak With President Obama About Climate Change
Leonardo DiCaprio Set To Speak With President Obama About Climate Change
‘Exciting news’
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Update: Leonardo DiCaprio urged to repay donations tied to massive Malaysian ’embezzlement scheme’ (UK Paper changed report)
Leonardo DiCaprio’s charity has been urged to repay donations linked to a Malaysian fund that backed his film The Wolf of Wall Street. The foundation is being investigated by the US department of justice over alleged ties to a $3.5 billion embezzlement scandal whose “misappropriated” funds were used to bankroll the 2013 film, according to reports.
The actor is now facing calls to “give the dirty money back”. According to the US department of justice, certain donations to the Oscar-winner’s environmental charity, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, (the LDF), came directly from billions of dollars siphoned from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
The department filed a complaint in Los Angeles last month in what has been called the world’s largest embezzlement case, saying that at least $1 billion (£0.76 billion) traceable to the conspiracy was laundered through the US and used to purchase “assets” there.
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