I stand before you not as an expert but asa concerned citizen – one of the 400,000 people who marched in the streets of New Yorkon Sunday and the billions of others around the world who want to solve our climate crisis. As an actor, I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters, often solvingfictitious problems. I believe that mankind has looked at climatechange in that same way, as if it were fiction, as if pretending the climate change wasn’treal would somehow make it go away. But I think we all know better than that now. Every week we’re seeing new and undeniableclimate events, evidence that accelerated climate change is here right now. Droughts are intensifying. Our oceans are acidifying with methane plumesrising up from the ocean floor.
We are seeing extreme weather events and theWest Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientificprojections. None of this is rhetoric and none of it ishysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it. Industry knows it. Governments know it. Even the United States military knows it. The Chief of the US Navy’s Pacific CommandAdmiral Samuel Locklear recently said that climate change is our single greatest securitythreat. My friends, this body, perhaps more than anyother gathering in human history now faces this difficult but achievable task. You can make history or you will be vilifiedby it. To be clear this is not about just tellingpeople to change their light bulbs or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown beyond the choicesthat individuals make. This is now about our industries and our governmentsaround the world taking decisive large-scale action. Now must be our moment for action. We need to put a price tag on carbon emissionsand eliminate government subsidies for all oil coal and gas companies. We need to end the free ride that industrialpolluters have been given in the name of a free market economy. They do not deserve our tax dollars. They deserve our scrutiny for the economyitself will die if our ecosystems collapse. The good news is that renewable energy isnot only achievable but good economic policy. This is not a partisan debate. It is a human one. Clean air and a livable climate are inalienablehuman rights. And solving this crisis is not a questionof politics. It is a question of our own survival. This is the most urgent of times and the mosturgent of messages. Honored delegates, leaders of the world, Ipretend for a living but you do not. The people made their voices heard on Sundayaround the world and the momentum will not stop. But now it is your turn. The time to answer humankind’s greatestchallenge is now. We beg of you to face it with courage andhonesty. Thank you.
We are seeing extreme weather events and theWest Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientificprojections. None of this is rhetoric and none of it ishysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it. Industry knows it. Governments know it. Even the United States military knows it. The Chief of the US Navy’s Pacific CommandAdmiral Samuel Locklear recently said that climate change is our single greatest securitythreat. My friends, this body, perhaps more than anyother gathering in human history now faces this difficult but achievable task. You can make history or you will be vilifiedby it. To be clear this is not about just tellingpeople to change their light bulbs or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown beyond the choicesthat individuals make. This is now about our industries and our governmentsaround the world taking decisive large-scale action. Now must be our moment for action. We need to put a price tag on carbon emissionsand eliminate government subsidies for all oil coal and gas companies. We need to end the free ride that industrialpolluters have been given in the name of a free market economy. They do not deserve our tax dollars. They deserve our scrutiny for the economyitself will die if our ecosystems collapse. The good news is that renewable energy isnot only achievable but good economic policy. This is not a partisan debate. It is a human one. Clean air and a livable climate are inalienablehuman rights. And solving this crisis is not a questionof politics. It is a question of our own survival. This is the most urgent of times and the mosturgent of messages. Honored delegates, leaders of the world, Ipretend for a living but you do not. The people made their voices heard on Sundayaround the world and the momentum will not stop. But now it is your turn. The time to answer humankind’s greatestchallenge is now. We beg of you to face it with courage andhonesty. Thank you.
