Matthew Modine on Environmentalism | Matthew Modine | Big Think

Matthew Modine on Environmentalism

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Inspired by the writing of Carl Sagen, Matthew Modine knows we must reevaluate how we treat the earth.

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Matthew Modine:

Matthew Modine is an actor who has starred in major films including Streamers, Full Metal Jacket, Married to the Mob, Pacific Heights, Any Given Sunday, and Notting Hill. His recent television work includes Showtime's hit, Weeds. And he recently wrote, directed and starred in the short film "I Think I Thought" about a man who cures himself of over-thinking. He lives in New York.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What is the Bicycle for a Day Initiative? rnrnModine: Well, you know, the idea of Bicycle For A Day is… I travel a lot, you know, working in different countries and stuff. And in 1978, when I was in college, I was studying Oceanography and my professor, he was so sad because he felt that any moment then, in 1978, that the oceans were going to go belly up and that the whole world would turn into a giant red sea. That 98% of the world’s population lives near coastline, whether that be a river, a lake, a stream, an ocean, a sea, and that since the beginning of time, but particularly since the beginning of the industrial revolution, that the rivers, lakes, streams and oceans have become the receptacle of all of our human waste, of all of our nuclear waste, that the French government, probably the American government, probably every government, once they started developing nuclear technologies, that when they didn’t know what to do with the waste, they’d put them in 50 gallon drums and dump them out in the ocean. And there was footage that they showed us of Jacques Cousteau in his deep sea submersible going down trying to find where those 50 gallon drums had been dumped, and there they were with their lids popped open, yawning like clams, with all of the nuclear waste having seeped out and spilled out, you know, across the world’s oceans. So, my Oceanography teacher, you know, he filled me with so much fear that the world was coming to an end, because the ocean is…. You know, people don’t think about this. The world’s biggest producer of oxygen on the planet, you know, all the planktons, all the sea plants, you know. It’s the biggest forest in the world that absorbs carbon monoxide and, you know, produces oxygen. And I just, I dropped out of college. I thought that the world was coming to an end. And then, as we progressed… There’s a great article you can read, I remember, at the same time that Jimmy Carter, that he addressed the nation from the White House, gave a, one those addresses, I don’t remember what they’re called. They’re called the State of the Union Address, and Jimmy Carter was wearing a sweater because he turned the thermostat down on the White House, and he told the United States that if we don’t address the situation now, we are going to find ourselves in a situation exactly like we are today, in 2008. That he said, that it is, that addressing the environmental situation and fuel, that if we don’t stop our dependency on foreign oil, that we would be in exactly the position we are in today, that America would have lost its strength and its moral standing in the world, that we would find ourselves fighting wars for oil. Jimmy Carter said this is the moral, moral equivalent of war. He put solar panels on the White House, and they laughed at him. They said he looked like Mr. Rogers in a sweater and, you know, he put solar panels on the White House, which when the Reagan’s came in they took off because, you know, whatever reason. They felt it made our country look weak or they weren’t attractive. So they were removed. But had we in 1978 addressed the environmental problem and the fuel problem, the energy crisis that we were experiencing then, perhaps it would be 30 years ahead of the game that we are right now of trying to play catch up with the rest of the world and maybe we wouldn’t have lost our, you know… America has become kind of a joke around the world. I hate to say it, but, you know, when I was 20 and I traveled to England, people were like, “Right. That’s cool. You’re from America.” And now, when you go over there, they kind of shake their head, like you’re from not financial third world, but a moral and…

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