Mick Jagger has become the latest musician to voice their opinion on climate change, taking the chance to criticise a lacklustre approach to the topic by US President Donald Trump.
Undoubtedly, climate change has become one of the biggest and most prevalent topics affecting the planet today. While much has been said about climate change and its effects, numerous activists have attempted to make their voices heard, including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, whose 2018 speech was recently sampled by The 1975 for a new track.
However, the Venice Film Festival was the latest location for activism, with a group of young activists storming the red carpet to “address the topic of the climate crisis”.
One attendee of the festival was The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who was attending in support of his role in the new film The Burnt Orange Heresy, and later told reporters he was “absolutely behind” the activists who occupied the red carpet.
As the AFP reports, Jagger took the opportunity on Saturday to make his own voice heard, specifically criticising the inaction of Donald Trump and his administration, noting he was “tearing apart” necessary environment controls.
“We are in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the U.S., where all the environmental controls that were put in place – that were just about adequate – have been rolled back by the current administration so much that they are all being wiped out,” Jagger explained.
“The U.S. should be the world leader in environmental control but has lost that and has decided to go the other way.”
Likewise, Jagger’s co-star Donald Sutherland also threw his hat into the ring, pointing the finger at a number of world leaders – including Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and England’s Boris Johnson – for their own inaction in regards to the climate crisis.
“Mick is right, the controls under Obama were barely adequate – now they are being torn apart,” Sutherland added. “It’s the same in Brazil and they will be torn apart in England.
“When you are 85 years old and you have children and grandchildren, we will leave them nothing if we do not vote those people out of office in Brazil, in London, in Washington. They are ruining the world. We have contributed to the ruination of it, but they are ensuring it.”
While Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under fire for his own muted response to climate change, it remains to be seen whether any of these comments will be taken to heart by anyone, or whether climate change will continue to get worse to the point where it is too late to do anything.
Check out the comments made by Mick Jagger on climate change:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iYVQl3k-nw
