Leonardo DiCaprio: Humans Have Had a Devastating Impact on our Planet

April 4th, 2007 10:14 AM

Vanity Fair has just released its second annual “Green Issue.” This year, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was prominently placed on the cover -- captured by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz no less -- standing at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in southeast Iceland perfectly looking the part as Hollywood's foremost concerned environmentalist.

In the featured piece, DiCaprio was labeled “The Man of the Hour,” and the following excerpt of his soon to be released documentary “The 11th Hour” was offered to the unsuspecting public (emphasis added throughout):

So, we find ourselves on the brink. It's clear humans have had a devastating impact on our planet's ecological web of life.

Wow. We’ve had a devastating impact on this planet? Devastating? Really? DiCaprio continued his sermon:

Because we've waited, because we've turned our backs on nature's warning signs, and because our political and corporate leaders have consistently ignored the overwhelming scientific evidence, the challenges we face are that much more difficult. We are in the environmental age whether we like it or not. So, what does the future look like? We know the United States, the greatest consumer and source of waste, needs to make a transition to a greener future, but will our pivotal generation create a sustainable world in time? What will guide this massive change? And does nature hold the answers we need to help restore our planet's resources, protect our atmosphere, and therefore help all life survive?

Vanity Fair then predictably quoted anthropogenic global warming believer after believer, not offering the opinion of one scientist currently on record with a contrary view. Here was one from environmentalist Paul Hawken:

The problem that confronts us is that every living system in the biosphere is in decline and the rate of decline is accelerating. There isn't one peer-reviewed scientific article that's been published in the last 20 years that contradicts that statement. Living systems are coral reefs. They're our climatic stability, forest cover, the oceans themselves, aquifers, water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity. They go on and on as they get more specific. But the fact is, there isn't one living system that is stable or is improving. And those living systems provide the basis for all life

Not one, huh Paul?

Disgracefully, Vanity Fair offered not one scientific view to the contrary. Not one.