At the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Harrison Ford delivered a message that cut through political euphemisms and empty pledges with unmistakable urgency. “If we don’t act now to save the planet,” Ford warned, “the children of the poor will inherit a world that is completely uninhabitable.” It was not a scripted performance, but a raw indictment of global inaction—one rooted in decades of environmental advocacy.
Ford sharply criticized political leaders for what he described as the “denial and denigration of science,” stressing that climate change is not a distant threat but a present-day emergency. Its consequences, he argued, are already being borne by those least responsible: impoverished communities that contribute almost nothing to global emissions yet suffer first from floods, droughts, food insecurity, and displacement.
Climate Change as a Crisis of Justice
At multiple international forums—including the World Government Summit in Dubai—Ford has emphasized the deep inequality embedded in the climate crisis. Rising sea levels threaten coastal мегacities, where nearly three-quarters of the world’s largest urban populations live. Extreme heat and water scarcity devastate rural regions in the Global South, pushing families into cycles of poverty and migration.
For Ford, this is not just an environmental failure, but a moral one. He has repeatedly called climate change “the greatest moral crisis of our time,” arguing that choosing profit over planetary stability is a conscious decision with irreversible consequences for future generations.
Indigenous Voices at the Center
In recent years, Ford has increasingly highlighted the role of Indigenous communities as frontline defenders of biodiversity. Speaking at sustainability forums in the mid-2020s, he noted the contradiction that those who protect much of the world’s remaining forests face constant political and economic pressure. Their knowledge, Ford insists, is essential to any realistic solution.
This stance aligns with his long-standing role as Vice-Chair of Conservation International, a position he has held for over three decades. Through campaigns like “Nature Is Speaking,” Ford distilled complex ecological truths into a simple message: nature will endure without humans—but humans will not survive without nature.
When Art Mirrors Reality
Ford’s activism echoes the environmental warnings embedded in his filmography. In Blade Runner, he inhabited a rain-soaked, ecologically depleted Los Angeles—a dystopia that now feels eerily prophetic. His roles in franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones made him a symbol of heroism, but his real-world work suggests that today’s true heroism lies in prevention, not spectacle.
As a correspondent on Years of Living Dangerously, Ford moved beyond fiction, traveling to climate hotspots to expose deforestation, corporate exploitation, and political paralysis.
Through blunt language and unwavering resolve, Harrison Ford continues to fight for those he calls the most vulnerable—poor children and marginalized communities—warning the world that delay is no longer an option.