Keira Knightley calls for action in the urgent, animated explainer Climate Crisis, and Why We Should Panic.
Translated into 14 different languages, the short features Knightley describing what’s causing climate change, and why governments need to enter crisis mode before it’s too late. “Our children will grow up in this devastated world,” she says, while a red-headed child holds the Earth in her hands. “What will we say when they ask, ‘The science and data were all there for everyone to see. Why didn’t you stop this while you still could?’”
Climate Crisis, and Why We Should Panic was written, directed and animated by Miritte Ben Yitzchak. It’s part of Extinction Rebellion, an international and politically non-partisan movement that persuades governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
“I want to speak out in support of Extinction Rebellion,” Knightley said in a statement. “Lending my voice to the most urgent issue of our time feels like the right way for me to take a stand, in the hope that we can leave a world worth living in for our children. Climate change and the ecological crisis are two sides of the same problem. This animation explains the climate change aspect in a no-nonsense way — though the message is horrifying to hear.”
The video follows Extinction Emergency, and Why We Must Act Now, an animated short on the ecological crisis. It was voiced by Naomie Harris with music by Brian Eno.