Speaker A
Please welcome newly appointed United Nations Messenger of Peace, Mr. Leonardo DiCaprio.
UN Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio urges world leaders at the 2014 UN Climate Summit to act on climate change with courage, carbon pricing, and an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Key Takeaways
- Climate change is an immediate, fact-based crisis requiring large-scale government and industry action.
- Carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies are key policy measures.
- Renewable energy is both feasible and good economic policy.
- Addressing climate change is a human rights and survival issue, not a partisan one.
What the video covers
- Leonardo DiCaprio was introduced as newly appointed UN Messenger of Peace and spoke at the opening of the 2014 UN Climate Summit.
- He framed himself as a concerned citizen, referencing the 400,000 people who marched in New York the previous Sunday.
- He argued that climate change has been treated as fiction, but that new extreme weather events show it is happening now.
- He cited intensifying droughts, ocean acidification, methane plumes from the ocean floor, and accelerated melting of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.
- He stated that the scientific community, industry, governments, and even the US military recognize climate change as a serious threat.
- He quoted Admiral Samuel Locklear, Commander of the US Pacific Command, calling climate change the single greatest security threat.
- He stressed that the solution requires large-scale industrial and governmental action rather than individual choices like changing lightbulbs.
- He called for putting a price on carbon emissions and eliminating government subsidies for oil, coal, and gas companies.
- He argued that renewable energy is achievable and sound economic policy, and that clean air and a livable climate are human rights.
- He concluded by urging delegates to act with courage and honesty, warning that they could make history or be vilified by it.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction by the United Nations
- 00:26DiCaprio's Opening Remarks
- 00:50Climate Change as Fiction vs. Reality
- 01:30Evidence of Accelerated Climate Change
- 02:05Climate as a Security Threat
- 02:43Calls for Large-Scale Government and Industry Action
- 03:03Renewable Energy and Human Rights
- 03:35Closing Appeal to World Leaders
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished guests. I'm honored to be here today.
Speaker A
I stand before you not as an expert, but as a concerned citizen. One of the 400,000 people who marched in the streets of New York on Sunday, and the billions of others around the world who want to solve our climate crisis.
Speaker A
As an actor, I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters, often solving fictitious problems.
Speaker A
I believe that mankind has looked at climate change in that same way. As if it were a fiction. As if pretending that climate change wasn't real would somehow make it go away.
Speaker A
But I think we all know better than that now. Every week, we're seeing new and undeniable climate events, evidence that accelerated climate change is here right now.
Speaker A
Droughts are intensifying, our oceans are acidifying, with methane plumes rising up from the ocean floor. We are seeing extreme weather events, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientific projections.
Speaker A
None of this is rhetoric, and none of it is hysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it, industry knows it, governments know it, even the United States military knows it.
Speaker A
The Chief of the US Navy's Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, recently said that climate change is our single greatest security threat.
Speaker A
My friends, this body, perhaps more than any other gathering in human history, now faces this difficult but achievable task.
Speaker A
You can make history, or you will be vilified by it. To be clear, this is not about just telling people to change their lightbulbs, or to buy a hybrid car.
Speaker A
This disaster has grown beyond the choices that individuals make. This is now about our industries and our governments around the world taking decisive, large-scale action.
Speaker A
Now must be our moment for action. We need to put a price tag on carbon emissions, and eliminate government subsidies for all oil, coal, and gas companies. We need to end the free ride that industrial polluters have been given in the name of a free-market economy.
Speaker A
They do not deserve our tax dollars. They deserve our scrutiny, for the economy itself will die if our ecosystems collapse.
Speaker A
The good news is that renewable energy is not only achievable, but good economic policy.
Speaker A
This is not a partisan debate. It is a human one. Clean air and a livable climate are inalienable human rights, and solving this crisis is not a question of politics. It is a question of our own survival.
Speaker A
This is the most urgent of times and the most urgent of messages. Honored delegates, leaders of the world, I pretend for a living, but you do not. The people made their voices heard on Sunday around the world, and the momentum will not stop.
Speaker A
But now it is your turn. The time to answer humankind's greatest challenge is now. We beg of you to face it with courage and honesty.
Topics:Leonardo DiCaprioUN Climate Summit 2014climate changecarbon pricingfossil fuel subsidiesrenewable energyUN Messenger of Peaceclimate actionGreenland ice sheetclimate security
