VIDEO:
vimeo.com/760032172
Those of you who know me well will already know this is a topic close to my heart. 🌳🌎
This year I re-watched Leonard DiCaprio's speech to the UN in 2014, and was so roused by it I set it to music. This speech absolutely nails the problem in a nutshell.
Leo gave this speech 8 YEARS AGO. Are we moving fast enough?
I am increasingly worried we are sleepwalking into a world hostile to life, and feel a need to remind everyone of that fact but with a message of hope.
The world and its myriad of species, landscapes and beautiful animals deserve better. Help me give it to them.
With this music release I will be raising funds to plant trees around the world. Information on how it is done can be found at =>
www.onetreeplanted.org
It's a small thing, I know, but it's what I do.
"I believe that mankind has looked at climate change as if it were a fiction.
As if pretending that climate change wasn't real would somehow make it go away.
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.
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 melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientific projections.
None of this is rhetoric. None of this is hysteria. It is fact.
To be clear this is not about just telling people to change their lightbulbs, or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown beyond the choices that individuals make.
This is now about our industries and our governments around the world: you can make history, or you will be vilified by it.
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 given in the name of a free market economy.
They do not deserve our tax dollars; they deserve our scrutiny.
This is not a partisan debate, it is a human one. Clean air and a liveable climate are inalienable human rights.
This is the most urgent of times, and the most urgent of messages.
And the momentum will not stop.
And now it is your turn. The time to answer human kind’s greatest challenge is now.
We beg of you to face it with courage and honesty. Thank you.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, 2014
Messenger of Peace speech ahead of the 2014 Climate Summit
released October 14, 2022
Written, performed, produced and mixed by Edward Blakeley.
Vocals: Juliet Russell
Cello: Fraser Bowles
Extra Violins: Garry Blakeley