Whoopi Goldberg voices animated short from Extinction Rebellion to mark World Environment Day

Actor has a history of environmental activism

Whoopi Goldberg has teamed up with environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion to voice an animated short for World Environment Day.

In celebration of the United Nations holiday on Friday 5 June, The Color Purple actor provided her voice to The Gigantic Change, a short film made in collaboration with Passion Pictures, the company behind the banned orangutan Christmas advert from Iceland.

The animated film, which can be watched in full on Extinction Rebellion’s YouTube channel, takes place in the year 2050 and sees a grandmother, voiced by Goldberg, reading her grandchild a story about the state of the Earth due to climate change and how people came together to save the planet from the climate crisis.

A statement from Extinction Rebellion reads: “As we start to plan how to rebuild our world post-Covid, the film shows that a brighter future really is possible. But this won’t happen on its own; we must all take action today.

“The climate and ecological crisis is an existential threat to people of all ages and backgrounds. The need for collective action has never been greater.”

UK-based protest group Extinction Rebellion formed in 2018 and are best known for shutting down cities with acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in protest against government inaction on climate change.

In February, Joaquin Phoenix partnered with the group on a short film titled Guardians of Life, which also starred Rosario Dawson and Oona Chaplin.