Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio went into full climate panic on Thursday. Appearing on PBS’s Charlie Rose, he speculated as to weather it’s “too late” to save the planet from the ravages of global warming. Reflecting on last year’s climate conference in Paris, the jet-setting actor pontificated, “The big question is are we too late? That's been the pondering question for everyone. I know we should all remain optimistic and I want to remain optimistic.”
DiCaprio insisted, “But we do know that the scientific community has been screaming out loud for decades. And other interests have stifled their voice and manipulated this conversation.” Rose did not question whether the environmentalist is a hypocrite for taking a carbon-emitting private jet six times in six weeks.
Instead, he allowed the actor to praise the Paris conference as saving the world from one without hope: “But one thing I'm proud of, that for the first time, we've seen the world community take this issue seriously. And if they hadn't, there would be absolutely no hope.”
DiCaprio lectured, “I'm just very happy as an environmentalist to see something happen in the right direction.”
A partial transcript is below:
Charlie Rose
1/7/16
11:36LEONARDO DICAPRIO: The big question is are we too late? That's been the pondering question for everyone. I know we should all remain optimistic and I want to remain optimistic.
CHARLIE ROSE: But you were worried that we are too late. That somehow we've done so much damage we can never —
LEONARDO DICAPRIO: The answer to that is in somebody else's hands. But we do know that the scientific community has been screaming out loud for decades. And other interests have stifled their voice and manipulated this conversation. And it's a real shame. But one thing I'm proud of, that for the first time, we've seen the world community take this issue seriously.
And if they hadn't, there would be absolutely no hope. We can't wait another four years for people to start to listen to 99 percent of the scientific community. I mean, it's an absurdity. And it's not about the individual anymore. It's about we. It's about we as a species, as a world community, finally coming together to make some sort of progress forward. Whether we're too late or not remains to be seen. But you know, I'm just very happy as an environmentalist to see something happen in the right direction.
