Hundreds of protesters stormed the Venice Film Festival‘s red carpet on Saturday in an attempt to raise awareness about climate change and advocate for the enforcement of a ban on cruise ships entering the ancient Italian city.
In showing support for the demonstrators, Canadian actor Donald Sutherland and The Rolling Stones‘ frontman Mick Jagger added to the controversy with their own remarks on the state of climate change, specifically directed at some current world leaders.
The celebrity icons spoke on the matter during a panel for Giuseppe Capotondi’s The Burnt Orange Heresy ahead of its premiere. The duo also starred in the film together.
WATCH: Climate protesters take over Venice Film Festival red carpet
Jagger, 76, then criticized U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for pulling out of the 2015 Paris Agreement — the UN agreement launched as an effort to fight climate change as global allies.
READ MORE: Climate change protesters take over red carpet at Venice Film Festival
In June 2017, less than a year after being inaugurated as the U.S. leader, Trump and his cabinet made the decision to pull out of the agreement.
“We are in a very difficult situation at the moment,” said Jagger, “especially in the U.S., where all the environmental controls that were put in place — that were just about adequate — have been rolled back by the current administration so much that they are being wiped out.
“The U.S. should be the world leader in environmental control, but now it has decided to go the other way,” he said.
In support of his co-star, Sutherland, 84, said: “Mick is right when he said the reforms that were instituted during the Obama administration were barely adequate, and now they’re being torn about.”
Furthermore, he pointed the finger at Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Boris Johnson, the newly appointed Prime Minister of the U.K., on the same issue.
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“They are ruining the world,” he said. “We have contributed to the ruination of it, but they are ensuring it.”
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On the efforts of the Venice Film Festival protestors, Sutherland commented: “They have to fight harder… And they have to get as much support as they can among all of you.”
— With files from Reuters
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