Alec Baldwin Calls For Action On Climate Change At UN Event

Actor Alec Baldwin said that his passion about preserving the planet for future generations was sparked by meeting indigenous people who are guardians of their lands at the 2015 Paris conference that adopted the landmark agreement to tackle global warming.

Baldwin was at U.N. headquarters to moderate a panel on threats to “Forest Defenders” on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and spoke to several journalists about his commitment to the environment.

He said he finds it “very, very unsettling” that indigenous people who understand better than anyone else the places where they live face strong opposition from those in power who want “to get rid of them by whatever means necessary” and gain control of natural resources on the land. Baldwin cited as examples the killings of indigenous activists in Peru and Brazil, and deforestation of the rainforests in the Amazon and Asia that are “the lungs of the planet.”

Baldwin’s message came just a day after Earth Day, a global celebration of environmentalism observed since 1970.

President Trump didn’t mention climate change or the environmental threats created by deforestation, species loss and plastic waste in oceans in his Earth Day address, the Guardian reported. Instead, the president affirmed that “a strong market economy is essential to protecting our critical natural resources and fostering a legacy of conservation.”

In 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. plans to leave the Paris climate accord as soon as it is eligible to do so.

Baldwin, who plays Trump on the NBC comedy series “Saturday Night Live, sat beside Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary-general of Indonesia’s Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago. She said 10 indigenous activists are currently behind bars in her country.

World leaders will “have to stop talking and negotiating” at the U.N. climate summit coming up in September, Sombolinggi continued. “They just really need to agree on actions” to preserve “mother Earth,” Sombolinggi said.

Baldwin interjected to laughter: “Can’t you move here and run for senator?

“We need someone to say, ‘No more talking,'” he said. “We need you in Washington!”

Baldwin said Americans feel they are going to do the right thing because of their resources and economic power, “but you find that we’re becoming more and more like other parts of the world where anything goes, regulations being set aside.”

FOX News