Jason Momoa may be a movie star, but he has been mostly making news recently for being a climate change activist and helping to protect Native land from being trampled on. Momoa, who is of Native Hawaiian ancestry, has been participating in attempting to stop the Thirty Meter Telescope project from being constructed atop a volcano in Hawaii, Mauna Kea, that is considered sacred to Native people. Momoa was chosen to represent the small islands nations at the United Nations General Assembly’s SAMOA Pathway Review.
In the speech, he addressed the Paris Climate Agreement that the United States pulled out from because President Trump is looking to destroy our world in whatever ways he can.
“Three years ago in Paris, the world stood united and vowed to keep the earth below 1.5 degrees of warming” he said. “We pledged to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and to do what is right.”
“I’m standing here today because I am ashamed that not all of our leaders have honored this agreement. Delegates, I ask you now, do we still stand in unity for this cause? Do you intend to honor the commitments for a betterment of mankind? Or will you continue to chase short-term profits above our children’s basic human rights to live on this earth?”
I gotta say, I’m really proud of Momoa using his platform so diligently to bring attention to this issue. While it is a personal and cultural issue for him, the reality is it should be a personal issue for everyone. We share this planet together and regardless of whether we live on a coast, an island, or in a landlocked area, the effects of climate change do not care about where we live. It will destroy us if we continue to ignore the ramifications of human harm on the planet.
“We are the living consequence of forgotten traditions,” Momoa said. “We suffer a collective amnesia of a truth that was once understood. The truth that to cause irreversible damage to the earth, is to bring the same unto ourselves. We the island nations – and all coastal communities – are the front lines in this environmental crisis. The oceans are in a state of emergency. Entire marine ecosystems are vanishing with the warming of the seas. And as the waste of the world empties into our waters, we face the devastating crisis of plastic pollution.”
Momoa ended his speech by saying aloha, making a triangle hand gesture and yelling “Kū Kiaʻi Mauna,” which is a show of support for the effort to stop the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea.
As we celebrate the amazing Greta Thunberg, as we should, we should also remember the Native peoples and non-white environmentalists across the world who have been speaking up about the issues of clean water, clear air, and our collective responsibility to the planet.
(via Big Island Video News, image: Warner Bros.)
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