The Gall of Hollywood's Environmental Campaigners

The gall of Hollywood’s environmental campaigners knows no bounds. An ensemble cast of famous faces has banded together to deliver us ordinary folk a lecture about the state of the planet, in the form of a new animated film called Ozi: Voice of the Forest.

Leading the pack is Leonardo DiCaprio, whose career sharply changed tack after he won a Best Actor Oscar for The Revenant in 2016. Having achieved his lifetime’s ambition by bagging the award, he apparently decided to start focussing much of his attention on a series of virtue-signalling environmental documentaries and other eco-woke films like Don’t Look Up.

The 'Ozi' Effect: A Kid-Friendly Lecture on Environmentalism

Ozi: Voice of the Forest is the latest addition to Leo’s quest to raise awareness of environmental issues. Produced by his production company, Appian Way, the film takes the Hollywood elite’s green message to kids directly. Following a young orangutan called Ozi, the film portrays evil capitalists mercilessly destroying natural wonderlands. The state stands by unfazed, leaving environmental destroyers free to go about their business uninterrupted.

The world of Ozi is a far cry from reality, where reams of environmental red tape prevent even well-intentioned entrepreneurs from succeeding thanks to a pious overcautiousness from regulators on green issues. Ozi wades into complex and nuanced environmental and policy debates with an overly simplistic message aimed at kids: capitalism is killing the planet.

The Hypocrisy of Hollywood: A Tale of Two Standards?

The hypocrisy of Ozi is plain to see. It seeks to lecture us about the need to save the planet, but those behind it are not pulling their weight. Its cast members include RuPaul, who came under fire from green groups for leasing mineral rights on his 60,000-acre ranch to oil companies.

DiCaprio himself has a carbon footprint larger than most. He once bought his then-girlfriend Camila Morrone a mega-yacht which burns 300 gallons of diesel per hour, producing 238 kilograms of carbon dioxide per mile. It would take the average British car two months to match those emissions. In 2016, DiCaprio was caught flying 8,000 miles on a private jet to accept a green award.

The Palm Oil Controversy: A Misleading Narrative?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Leo’s grasp on the nuances of environmental policy is wanting. Ozi’s villain of choice is palm oil, a ubiquitous ingredient used in items ranging from chocolate to soap. It is present in almost half of all packaged products sold in shops. Ozi sees her rainforest home burned down by an unrepentant palm oil company, leading her to become a green online influencer.

The villainisation of palm oil is narratively convenient but, in the real world, nonsensical. It is so efficient to produce that eradicating it would mean much higher costs for food and toiletries. It would also be a disaster for the planet, because the space efficiency of the palm oil crop means growing it requires much less land-clearing than alternative oils like sunflower, rapeseed and soybean.

A Deeper Look at Deforestation: The Untold Story

On the question of deforestation, Ozi’s message is straightforwardly misleading. Palm oil sustainability is a free-market success story. New figures from Malaysia, one of the world’s top palm oil exporters, show a 70% drop in deforestation between 2014 and 2020. It’s a poor choice of antagonist for Ozi, having performed much better than other high-deforestation products like soy and beef in securing voluntary no-deforestation commitments from producers. Even the WWF now advocates for sustainable palm oil production as the best means of tackling deforestation.

The Message Behind the Movie: A Lesson in Balance?

Sadly, none of these facts will trouble DiCaprio, safely cocooned in his private jet. The film is low -quality – even the Guardian panned it with a two-star review – but its producers will no doubt win plaudits from their ideological allies for their eco-virtue-signalling. Meanwhile, an audience of potentially millions of impressionable children is ingesting a misleading doomster narrative about burning forests and homeless orangutans, when the true story is one of progress and optimism.

A Call for Critical Thinking: Beyond the Hollywood Hype

In a world saturated with information, it’s more important than ever to be critical consumers of media, especially when it comes to environmental issues. While Hollywood’s efforts to raise awareness about climate change are commendable, it’s crucial to question the narratives they present, particularly when they are delivered with a hefty dose of hypocrisy and simplistic messaging. It’s time to move beyond the Hollywood hype and engage with complex environmental issues with nuance and critical thinking. Ozi: Voice of the Forest may be a fun movie for kids, but it's ultimately a missed opportunity to educate children on the complexities of environmental challenges and the importance of sustainable solutions. Let's hope that future efforts from Hollywood embrace a more balanced approach to environmental storytelling, one that is informed by facts and avoids the pitfalls of hypocrisy and oversimplification.