DiCaprio: Politicians must believe in climate change to hold office

Politicians who deny climate change are unfit to serve, actor Leonardo DiCaprio said at a White House event Monday alongside President Barack Obama.

"The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over," the Academy Award-winning actor said during a discussion during the White House's South by South Lawn event. "If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office."


DiCaprio did not specifically mention Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or name any other politicians. He spoke ahead of the premiere of his new climate documentary, "Before the Flood."

Obama declared himself "proud" of his administration's efforts on climate change, and defended EPA's rules to limit carbon emissions from power plants.

DiCaprio said most scientists he spoke with in making the documentary favored a carbon tax, but acknowledged that policy "needs to come from the will of the people." Obama acknowledged that the current political climate meant "the likelihood of an immediate carbon tax is a ways away."

The president also touted the international climate agreement reached in Paris last year, in which countries around the world agreed for the first-time to drive down their carbon emissions.

The Paris agreement is set to take effect "in the next few weeks ... much faster than any of us first anticipated," Obama said, adding that he also hoped to complete separate international agreements to limit international aviation emissions and another to drive down short-lived climate pollutants before leaving office.

Later in the event, Obama said he understands environmentalists' concerns about potential risks of fracking, but defended the need for natural gas and nuclear power as part of the nation's energy mix.

Until the world develops the perfect zero emission energy source, "we’ve got to live in the real world," Obama said. "I say all that not because I don’t recognize the urgency of the problem, but because we’re going to have to straddle between the world as it is and the world as we want it to be and build that bridge."

Recognizing a place for technologies like nuclear power will be critical if the world hopes to see rapidly developing nations like China and India deliver on promises to drive down their emissions, the president said.

Obama admitted such incremental progress was not ideal or perfect, but said it was the only realistic way to actually solve the problem of climate change.

"Better is good. Better isn’t enough. Better is not always ideal and, in the case of climate change, better isn’t going to save the planet. But if we get enough better — each year we’re doing something that’s making more progress, moving us forward, increasing clean energy — then that’s ultimately how we end up solving this problem," he said.