Climate change has been named the single greatest threat to global security. However, as of yet, there has been little action taken by the world’s governments to reflect the reality of this threat. Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is familiar with the art of pretending, an art that he recognizes in the world’s leaders, who have continuously pretended that climate change is not a real, immanent threat to our very survival.

In his address to the UN panel on Climate Change, DiCaprio presented the reality of climate change to his audience. As a concerned citizen, DiCaprio joined the hundreds of thousands of others who vocalized their demands for effective climate policy at the Peoples Climate March, and is intent on ensuring that the momentum of this ground-breaking event continues. The fiction of climate change can no longer be held as the accepted norm, but it is necessary that the entire human population accept our shared reality and react accordingly.

As DiCaprio states in his address, it is time for decisive large-scale action from the world’s governments, industries, and individuals. “The economy itself will die if ecosystems collapse.”

Clean air and a livable climate are inalienable human rights that we should all be allowed to enjoy, and climate change presents a direct threat to these rights. When we know what we do about the impending collapse of environmental systems due to human activity, how can we continue at a business as usual pace? The time for action is now, life as we know it depends on it.