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It’s climate change, stupid: Director Jim Jarmusch bashes deniers amid raging Los Angeles fires

‘I would just like to say it’s time we wake the f*** up!’ Jarmusch said at a New York awards event

Mary Papenfuss
in San Francisco
Friday 10 January 2025 00:37 EST
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Film director Jim Jarmusch has had it with politicians blaming the Los Angeles firestorm on everything but the most obvious
Film director Jim Jarmusch has had it with politicians blaming the Los Angeles firestorm on everything but the most obvious (Getty Images)

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Film director Jim Jarmusch erupted during a critics awards event to attack climate change deniers as wildfires tore through Los Angeles.

Jarmusch took the opportunity to address the issue while presenting the Best Screenplay award to Anora director Sean Baker at the New York Film Critics Circle Wednesday night.

“We are all worried about our friends in L.A.,” Jarmusch said before flatly declaring: “Climate crisis is brought to you by climate [change] deniers.”

The director of iconic indie films Coffee and Cigarettes and Stranger Than Paradise, angrily added: “They are telling us that ‘woke’ is a negative thing. I would just like to say it’s time we wake the f*** up!”

Film director Jim Jarmusch has had it with politicians blaming the Los Angeles firestorm on everything but the most obvious
Film director Jim Jarmusch has had it with politicians blaming the Los Angeles firestorm on everything but the most obvious (Getty Images)

Jarmusch spoke out in the wake of billionaire Elon Musk’s bizarre claim that the firestorm destroying LA was somehow inexplicably caused by California’s diversity policies. When extremist podcaster Alex Jones insisted in a post on X that the fires were part of a “globalist conspiracy” aimed at toppling America, Musk also got onboard that train, responding: “True.”

Extremist podcaster Alex Jones and Elon Musk are on the same page on theory that Los Angeles fires are part of a ‘globalist plot’ to topple America
Extremist podcaster Alex Jones and Elon Musk are on the same page on theory that Los Angeles fires are part of a ‘globalist plot’ to topple America (Alex Jones/Elon Musk/X)

Trump blamed Joe Biden for California’s dry fire hydrants. Yet Trump’s mantra during his campaign was “drill, baby, drill” to boost fossil fuel use, which is viewed as the key driver of climate change and extreme weather events.

Trump claimed Tuesday that he could have saved California if only the state’s governor, whom he insultingly referred to as Gavin “Newscum,” had signed a mysterious “water restoration declaration,” which Newsom responded does not exist.

California needs rain to restore its water.

L.A. has received a scant fifth of an inch of rain downtown since July, the second-driest period in at least 150 years, according to CalMatters.

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