The world can seem impossibly big, but it really isn't; it's delicate and can be horribly damaged by mankind's interference. In fact, such a situation is playing out right now in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Large swaths of lush greenery are being burned down by corporations, and the government of Brazil is doing nothing to stop it, going so far as to blame environmental NGO groups for the fires, creating a completely nonsensical conspiracy theory. The Amazon rainforest does a tremendous amount of work in balancing out the planet's natural carbon footprint, but burning down countless miles of said jungle will only accelerate the rate of man-made climate change, to say nothing of the cultural disaster that comes from destroying a sizeable portion of any ecosystem and every living creature in it.
Global Green is an organization dedicated to creating a sustainable future for the environment, and they've teamed up with fundraising titan Omaze and the popular video game, PUBG Mobile, to raise worldwide awareness towards the plight of the Amazon, with the goal of protecting the land from greedy corporations that seek to shorten the planet's lifespan in the name of short-term profits.
On this project, actors and activists Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox are the tip of the public relations spear. The #Fight4TheAmazon campaign represents a perfect cross-section of Hollywood glitz, video game action, and a righteous cause. The best way to donate is through an Omaze sweepstakes that allows participants to enter to win a Tesla Model S and a $20,000 cash prize.
While promoting the #Fight4TheAmazon campaign, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star spoke to Screen Rant about his concerns over the future of the planet, and how the status quo needs to shift away from oil and towards renewable sources like wind and solar. The current status quo is not sustainable; the sooner the wealthy corporations are forced to change their focus towards protecting the planet rather than hurting it, the sooner we can begin to repair – or at least mitigate – the damage we've already done.
The #Fight4TheAmazon campaign is an ongoing movement to raise awareness for this global issue. Both Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green will be among the participants in a celebrity PUBG Mobile match, which will be live streamed on Twitch.tv/PUBGMOBILE on December 9.
I live in Far Rockaway, New York, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. I do these interviews with people in L.A., whose houses are on fire, while in New York, we're just waiting for another hurricane to come and wash us away for good. I've interviewed people in Australia, and they're having some bad fires, too. But possibly the biggest environmental disaster right now is in the Amazon rainforest. It's still on fire right now, being destroyed as we speak.
I don't think people realize what a big part the Amazon plays globally. I don't think they realize just how important it is to have that spot on the Earth, and what that forest provides, and what it does with CO2 and what it does with being part of the ecosystem itself, how important of a job it plays in the free world, in what we have and what is necessary for us to survive.
In that video on the website, your wife, the amazing and talented Megan Fox, calls it the beating heart of the Earth, and that is not an exaggeration, I think.
No, it's not. The amount of carbon... One of the biggest things we're fighting in the climate crisis is the emission of carbon. That alone is being remedied in large part by the Amazon. And the Amazon being burned, and not being able to be part of our fight... It's so important.
There are so many corporations that are unregulated and they're just destroying the environment, literally as we speak, and they're making so much money. How do you fight something like that? How do you change their minds? How do we reverse this self-destruct course that humanity is on?
I don't know. Unfortunately, there's so much money involved in that. I think, what we do is, as humankind, as human beings, we constantly educate people on what the Earth needs and what our part on it is. And slowly, one person at a time, you make people aware of what can be done in their area. Eventually, people will look for alternate forms of power and fuel. And these large corporations will lose business, they'll start losing money and bleed enough to go, "It's time to get out of this game." Hopefully, at that point, something new steps up. We have companies like Tesla that are really leading the way in that. We have all these solar companies that continue to develop and create new forms of power and energy. We have all these wind farms, and we have ocean turbines, and we have all these ways that we can create new power. We just have to continue to implement them and continue to grow those forms of energy. So the more people we can make aware of what is going on and what changes they can do, it'll help, but it's gonna have to be on a global scale.
I really hope that within our lifetime, we look back on oil and our dependence on it as though it were the dark ages, some forgotten era that we're embarrassed to have been a part of.
We say we really hope, but we need it. We're kind of at the point now where there's no turning back. It has to progress. That's one of the reasons why I originally got involved. I was originally involved with Generosity, trying to help with the clean water crisis. It was something that I could see the end of within my lifetime. I thought, that's a really great cause to be part of, and something where I could really make a difference. But now we're at this point where it's like, globally, you need so much more than that. The clean water crisis is important, but it's such a small part of what we need to do. We need to start looking. Things need to happen on a much grander scale than that. There are activists, like Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been a huge influence in that. I so respect and honor the work he's done, but you've got people like Ed Bagley Jr., who, since I was a kid, has been an activist for other forms of power and using technology. There are other people like that who are so amazing, and they've really laid the groundwork and paved the way for what can be done. So now's the time where things have to be done. It's not just a vision anymore. It's something that has to happen, or we leave nothing to our kids and our grandkids. I don't want to be part of that. And I know my wife doesn't want to be part of that. And a lot of people I know don't want to be part of that: leaving something to their kids that isn't better than what we had when we came into this world. It would be a shame. I think it's our job and our duty... You know, our kids, that generation is so much more aware of what they're doing than we were as kids. And now's the time to fight. We have the power of our generation, the generation after ours, and the generation after that. Now's the time, globally, to really try to do that.
I think that leads into your collaboration with this really hip game that everybody's playing, PUBG. More specifically, PUBG Mobile. How did your activism and the game intersect?
So, this campaign started before Megan and I got involved. Global Green and Omaze and PUBG Mobile basically figured out a way to combine what they do best. PUBG Mobile has access to all these people because they are as big as they are. They were in a world that so many people are involved in, with mobile gaming and all that. Omaze is this unbelievable company that's really good at coming up with fun ways of raising money and doing that. When they teamed up with Global Green, it just made sense for what they do. Then the aspect of bringing myself and my wife in to help promote it, and to help really get eyes on it, it became everybody going, "Okay, how do we use our platforms in the best way to raise awareness?" Then this party that we're doing December 9, with Twitch TV, that's another aspect of it. So the whole thing is one giant push. And PUBG Mobile has been amazing, and Omaze has been amazing, and Global Green is an amazing organization, so we really want to help them as much as we can with resources to combat what's going on in the Amazon and the fight for that, and just start there and hopefully grow.
You mentioned your kids, and I've kind of half-joked that I'm too irresponsible to have kids, but it's like, for my generation, the genuine fear is real, that any world left to our children won't be one worth living in by the time they come of age. It's a good and righteous fight you and Megan are fighting.
Thank you, thanks a lot.
I have to ask. Have you played? Are you a big PUBG guy?
No. Me and the family, we sort of moved away from TV and video games and iPads and computers and iPhones. We try to get our kids outside and have them be as intertwined with the environment as possible. That's what I had when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I had a skateboard and the outside. If I was thirsty, I'd drink from a hose that I found, you know? There was that sense of, like, when the sun comes up, you go outside, and you play outside until the sun goes down. Those were my weekend days and my summer days. We really want our kids to have as much of that as possible. We want them to play outside and swim. They're really big right now with the neighbor kids playing "ding dong ditch," which is awesome because, as annoying as it is for us adults, it's really cool that the kids are into that! That was a huge part of growing up for me. And they're playing frisbee and riding bikes and skateboards and doing those outdoor activities. That means a lot to myself and Megan, and that's a big part of our family and what we do. When weekends come around, we're like, "Okay, what the activity going to be? What are we gonna do? Are we gonna go to a zoo? Aquarium? The museum?" We've got to find an activity. We can't just stay at home. There's too much going on in the world to sit at home and watch TV.
Going outside fuels the imagination. As much as I love TV, it doesn't necessarily scratch the itch in the same way.
You know, I think there's a time and a place for all things. I think TV and movies... When the sun goes down, and because of daylight savings it gets dark early, we've got time inside the house. So then it's like, okay, let's go on Apple TV and pick a movie, and all of the family sits down and watch that. But let's not sit in front of the television and watch, you know, brainlessly until we fall asleep or enter a vegetative state! (Laughs) So we try to find other forms of entertainment. We also play a lot of board games as a family, we play a lot of... One of the big games we play, especially during breakfast and dinner, we try to all sit around the table together and play the animal guessing game.
Ooh, what's that?
So, one person comes up with the name of the animal, and everyone else has to ask questions to figure out what the animal is that you're thinking of, so it's good. It's a fun way to interact with everyone and laugh together. And it's something that my wife is actually much better at than I am. So I'm learning with the kids, and it's good for us, and it's good for families to do. We go out to eat too often, and see the entire family on their iPhones and iPads, and nobody's talking to anybody. That's just not okay for me. That might be okay for some, but it's not okay for me and my kids and my family and my relationship with them. To each his own, but that's how we are!
And you've got the podcast, which is still going strong, right?
Yeah, yeah it is! We've done two years straight now. We've done this live podcast, which started off more as just a podcast, but this year, because of the reboot and all of that, it sort of took on a life of its own and became this event that we weren't originally setting out to do, but we did it! We ended up making this weekend out of it for fans of 90210. People flew in from all over the world, and we held the podcast at Torrance High School, where we shot the original show. That was West Beverly High. I had a bunch of cast members from the old show. Douglas Emerson, who played Scott, and Joe E. Tata, who played Nat, and Ian (Ziering) was there, and Gabrielle (Carteris) was there, and Christine Elise was there, and it was a really good time. So we all just sat and talked and had fun, and we had these really great packages for the people that were fans of the show to come. In some packages, they got to tour around in a car with the executive producer and one of the writers of the show, and they got to go to locations from the show and talk with them in the car. We had all these really special things. Some people got to tour the campus of the school. It was really fun. We ended up doing the whole thing with 100% of the proceeds going to generosity.org and to colorectal cancer awareness for Luke. It became a really great way to raise money for those foundations and to pay homage to the show and have fun with fans. I don't know if we'll do it again because it was a lot of work (Laughs), but the podcast has been really fun. We don't have any corporate sponsors, so Derek, my partner, we just hop on the phone together and we record on Skype.
That's so cool. I mean, there's so many celebrities who have their causes that they fight for, but for you and Megan, it feels so genuine, that concern for the future.
I don't want to take away from anybody. I think there are a lot of people who have causes that mean a lot to them, and I think that's great. This one, for Megan and I, with our kids and our family, it just really rings true and makes sense. It touches a certain part of us. Before this campaign began, this was something Megan and I were really active in. It's really bothered us, and we sat with out seven-year-old son while he's cried during news footage of the fires in the Amazon. To be be able to say we're part of this, and for him to know exactly what it is, and know what we're fighting for, it means a lot to us. For future generations, and for our family as well. There's a really tie to it for us. It's a big honor for us to be part of it, it really is.
And it's been an honor to talk to you! This has been a really treat for me, I'm such a huge 90210 fan. I graduated high school in 2009, but I watching 90210 when I was in high school... Which is probably why I have something of a fetish for those big 1990s scrunchies, but that's a whole other thing.
I wouldn't say that out loud too much! (Laughs)
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