Game of Thrones Actor Doing Everything He Can to Stop the Ice From Melting

Those who understand the scientific facts of climate change understand how dire the situation is. But does it hit home for us as much as it does for Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau?

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The actor, who plays Jaime Lannister, recently wrote an op-ed for CNN in which he essentially pleads for a better understanding from everyone, using facts that affect him and his family from their home in Greenland. Coster-Waldau explained the real-world effects of his wife’s homeland, where they have two children.

“In the considerable time I have spent there, I have seen firsthand the devastating effects of rising temperatures on the delicate ecosystem of the world’s largest island,” he wrote. “In Game of Thrones…… one of the many stunning visual images on regular display is an overwhelmingly massive wall of ice. I know all too well that, were Game of Thrones a nonfiction world, that wall of ice would be seriously imperiled by climate change.”

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While it’s fairly poetic for Coster-Waldau to compare the real-world problems of global warming to his work, it’s sad that comparisons can be made in the first place. He further explained that Greenland is almost 80 percent covered in an ice sheet. If temperatures continue to rise, that ice sheet will continue to melt, resulting in a sea level rise of at least 20 feet around the world. To bring it back home, many parts of New York, Miami and New Orleans would be completely submerged at that level.

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Coster-Waldau hasn’t lost hope, though. The successful actor is also an ambassador for the United Nations Development Program and has worked on implementing a set of 17 sustainable development goals, which are plans to stop climate change in its tracks.

So, while some might not be fans of Jaime Lannister for many reasons, there are more reasons to be a fan of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and help him instill ideas for real change into the minds of many across the world.