Actor Leonardo DiCaprio used a press conference in Japan to suggest the next leader of the free world should not be a global warming skeptic.
“We should not have a candidate who doesn’t believe in modern science to be leading our country,” DiCaprio said Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo promoting his Oscar-nominated film “The Revenant.” “Climate change is one of the most concerning issues facing all humanity and the United States needs to do its part.”
Though the actor and self-styled environmentalist did not name names, he may have been alluding to Republican front-runner Donald Trump and fellow presidential candidate Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore], a Texas Republican.
Trump has a history of questioning man-made global warming, telling The Washington Post Monday that he is “not a big believer in man-made climate change.” He has also criticized the Obama administration for “the billions it pissed away on ‘green energy’ failures.”
Cruz, for his part, has referred to climate change as a “pseudo science” and even convened a Congressional Committee Hearing in December — titled “Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’s Climate.” The hearing was meant to question the assertions made by adherents of global warming.
In a statement given to The Daily Caller in December, Cruz stated: “The inconvenient truth, for global warming alarmists in 2015, is that for the past 17 years the satellite temperature data have shown almost no warming of the Earth’s climate.”
He added: “Before we make radical policy changes that will have a substantive impact on our economy, jobs and quality of life for millions of Americans, we should take a minute to ensure that these policies are based on real science and real data.”
DiCaprio expressed hope at the conference that a global warming-themed documentary he is producing will help influence the candidate’s positions on global warming.
“We’ve been traveling around the world documenting climate change,” the actor said.
The “Titanic” actor signed an agreement with Netflix in March 2015 to produce several green-themed films.
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