Jason Momoa definitely embodies Aquaman in the Warner Bros. movies. Yet he’s also aiming for superheroic feats in real life as well, for the man who first portrayed Arthur Curry in Justice League doesn’t take his activism lightly. Yes, he did exaggerate a little bit (for effect) while suggesting that Aquaman 2 filming could be pushed back if his construction protests at a sacred mountain in his native state of Hawaii continued. A filming SNAFU related to that protest isn’t a danger at this point, although Momoa did pull out of a Wizard World convention stop for the cause. And while Aquaman 2‘s 2020 shooting date is likely secure, Momoa’s still out there, telling it as he sees it, on the subject of saving the oceans and halting climate change.
This weekend at the United Nations’ Small Islands Event at the U.N. headquarters in New York, the See actor delivered a searing speech (that you can watch in full below), in which he declared, “We are a disease that is infecting our planet.” He continued to warn world leaders that “[t]he oceans are in a state of emergency” due to plastic pollution and other waste output, which warms the oceans and contributes to the crisis. Shortly after the 4:00 mark, he grew especially blunt:
“Change cannot come in 2050, 2030, or even 2025. Change must come today. We can no longer afford the luxury of half-assing it as we willingly push ourselves beyond the threshold of no return. As a human species, we need the Earth to survive. Make no mistake, the Earth doesn’t need us. We are demanding global unity for a global crisis. To once again bring natural harmony between mankind and the natural world.”
The Small Islands Event focused on the plight facing the Bahamas, Barbados, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Haiti; and Momoa argued that these nations stood at the “frontlines” of impending disaster. Later on Instagram, Momoa called his appearance before the U.N. “a life changing moment.”
Watch Momoa’s full impassioned speech below.
