Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo are just two of the many Hollywood stars who are against the Canada Gas Pipeline.
Celebrities have been stepping forward to sign a letter to the City National’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, calling for the pipeline to be defunded.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller & More Use Their Platform To Denounce Canada Gas Pipeline
Fox News reported that more than 65 celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and Robert Downey Jr. have signed a letter to defund the pipeline.
The letter urges the Royal Bank of Canada to “withdraw support from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, effective immediately.” It also claims that “City National Bank’s parent company Royal Bank of Canada is bankrolling the climate crisis and violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
Ruffalo and others actually participated in a video titled “No More Dirty Banks.” The video says that “Major banks like City National Bank and RBC are financing a fracked gas pipeline, bulldozing through the land of the Wet’suwet’en people.”
“Right now, major banks like the Royal Bank of Canada are financing a fracked gas pipeline bulldozing through the land of the Wet’suwet’en nation in Northern British Columbia, Canada,” Ruffalo says.
“The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs never consented to this pipeline construction through their territories, which would risk the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa River, but here’s where it gets complicated,” he continues. “The Supreme Court of Canada recognized Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs as rightful titleholders of the land, but corporations still get away with consulting only ‘elected leadership’ put in place by the colonial government.”
Coastal GasLink Says They ‘Want To Listen’ To Concerns About Indigenous Rights & ClimateChange
In a statement to Variety, Coastal GasLink said, “Since the beginning of the Project, Coastal GasLink has sought to engage and consult with the Wet’suwet’en Houses through the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and the elected leadership. We want to listen and seek meaningful ways to address interests and concerns including ensuring the pipeline is built under the Morice River using the safest technology available.”
“Coastal GasLink recognizes that Indigenous reconciliation and addressing climate change are essential to creating a better, more sustainable world,” they went on. “We would encourage everyone interested to take the time to understand all the facts and the important role Indigenous communities have in developing and building the Project.”
However, that might be too little too late to address climate change, with the “Titanic” actor saying that we have a “9-year window” to address climate change.
Leonardo DiCaprio Calls Climate Change Crisis ‘A Ticking Clock’
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, the former “Don’t Look Up” star revealed that we have less time to address climate change than we think.
“I think there’s a worldwide sense of anxiety about the fact that the powers that be, the private sector, governments, are not making the transition fast enough,” he said, warning, “We literally have a nine-year window.”
He also warned that “we’re not even feeling the real impact of climate change yet and our oceans are now warming at record levels. Each year is getting hotter than the next, and that doesn’t stop. We’re not going to see that stop. So, to mitigate the climate crises, I mean, it is, don’t look up.”
He also stated that technology is not going to be a panacea for the climate crisis, as some critics claim.
“We’re running out of time,” he explained. “We have answers with renewables and ways to make this transition, but the private sector and the governments of the world need to work together. And we, the people, need to make this… rather than it being number six or seven or eight on the list of priorities when it comes to elections, it’s got to be in the top two.”
“When I say warming leads to more warming, it essentially means this: it ain’t going to get any better. It can only get worse.”
When asked what individuals can do to reduce climate change, DiCaprio urged people to vote for politicians who will take climate change seriously.
“The main thing that it boils down to is, if you’re an individual, you, A, have to get involved,” he continued. “You have to vote for people that care about this issue and take science seriously. And we should not have any elected leaders, on a state level, on a city level, or a national level that don’t listen to science, especially in this country.”
“So, vote,” he added. “Vote for people that are sane.”
