Born in the United States in 1974 and having played roles such as Jack in Titanic (1997) and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Leonardo DiCaprio is the example for Hollywood celebrities to follow through his long career in as an actor and environmental activist
Activism and the big screen: two irreconcilable worlds?
Leonardo DiCaprio is living proof that it is possible to be a mainstream celebrity– beloved by the general public – and a determined campaigner for urgent action to address the climate crisis confronting us today. We saw him notably in 2016 in his acceptance speech at the Academy for his highly anticipated first Oscar for his interpretation of Hugh Glass in the film The Revenant (2015).
Furthermore, he recently starred in the film Don't Look Up (2021), a satirical comedy where DiCaprio plays an astronomer who seeks to warn humanity of a comet that is hurtling towards the planet earth and which promises the extinction of our species. Does this sound familiar? For the actor, the film is a direct parallel with reality, where some are aware of the climate situation and are desperately trying to alert a society that conforms to living in ignorance and denial.
A “Messenger of Peace”
During the signing of the Paris Accords in April 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio addressed the UN to call for collective awareness and the effective implementation of measures to combat the climate crisis by the major political leaders present. in the room. Indeed, since 2014, DiCaprio has been part of the United Nations “Messengers of Peace”, public figures whose objective is to attract media attention to the work carried out by the UN with a view to their activism.
His work for the UN is reflected in the series of documentaries he has helped produce throughout the past decade, the most notable being Before the Flood in 2016.
You can also watch Cowspiracy (2014), which focuses on the impact of industrial agriculture on the environment, and The Ivory Game(2016) which focuses on illegal ivory trade in Africa.
Large investments
At the end of the 90s, when he was only 24 years old and his film career was at its peak, Leonardo DiCaprio decided to create the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, an NGO dedicated to protecting biodiversity by directing funding to innovative projects for environmental conservation and to fight climate change. Between 1998 and 2019, the organization distributed more than $100 million in grants to nearly 200 different projects. The NGO's greatest contributions have been in the protection of wildlife, an area that is of great interest to DiCaprio, an active member of the . org.uk/]World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare[/ color].
In 2021, Leonardo DiCaprio embarks on a new adventure with the founding of his new organization Re:wild. This is a collaboration between the actor and a group of experienced scientists to continue the work of conservation and restoration of nature that he started 25 years ago.
