Environmentalists should cool their jets in regards to supporting anti-fracking movements like the “keep it in the ground” movement, President Barack Obama told actor Leonardo DiCaprio Monday at a White House panel.
“If you are a working class family, and dad has to drive 50 miles to get to his job, the most economically important decision for him is to have low prices,” Obama said at an event leading up to the opening of DiCaprio’s latest documentary on global warming.
The president was speaking with climate activist Katharine Hayhoe and the “Wolf of Wall Street” actor at a White House event called, “South By South Lawn.”
“If you start lecturing him about climate change, it just isn’t going to register,” Obama added.
The president was attempting to stifle some of the high-minded rhetoric the Oscar award-winning actor has spewed recently regarding the importance of going green. Obama’s advice to DiCaprio, as well as those in attendance can be summed up thus: be less preachy.
DiCaprio is no stranger to hyped up rhetoric, having spent much of the year at press junkets for his movies blasting what he calls the “corporate greed” associated with the fossil fuel industry. He even praised the anti-pipeline protesters in North Dakota during his comments Monday.
