Hollywood actor and celebrity heartthrob, Leonardo DiCaprio is best known for his role as Jack Dawson in the hit movie Titanic and for dating beautiful supermodels like Bar Refaeli and Giselle Bundchen. However he is also an avid environmental activist, devoting much of his time to green causes.
While eco-causes are a current fad in Hollywood, with many stars conveniently promoting their charity work just in time for the release of their next movie, DiCaprio has been working quietly and tirelessly promoting environmental awareness.
Leonardo DiCaprio's Career
Though DiCaprio grew up in a seedy, drug-dominated area of Los Angeles, he has shaken off his hometown's stigma and risen to Hollywood-superstardom, with a string of successful feature films, three Academy Award nominations and world-wide superstardom.
DiCaprio was a child star, playing parts in TV series and commercials since the age of five. His first big role was as Josh, in Critters III (1991), which was followed by the Academy Award nominated role as the mentally disabled Arnie, in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. More recently, he has starred in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, The Beach, and as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Despite a life of fame, DiCaprio has kept his feet firmly on the ground, and devotes much of his time to environmental activism that has inspired other celebrities to follow suit.
DiCaprio's Documentary Film On Global Warming
Earlier this year, DiCaprio completed his latest creative project of co-writing, producing and narrating a feature-length documentary film on global warming, The Eleventh Hour, which follows on in the same theme of other recent environmental documentaries such as Al Gore's award-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth.
The Eleventh Hour takes a close look at the issue of global warming and offers realistic, yet visionary solutions for people to take charge and reverse the current trend of atmospheric degradation.
The movie features interviews with over fifty experts from all over the world, including scientist Stephen Hawking and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. The focal point of The Eleventh Hour is on how our society has arrived at this moment, the impact we are having on the Earth's ecosystems and our own environment, and what we can do to reverse the effects of our actions, before it is too late.
DiCaprio collaborated on The Eleventh Hour with the founders of the Tree Media Group, Lelia Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, who are sisters. The trio worked together previously on two short documentaries called Global Warming and Water Planet, which both look at environmental issues we face today.
According to DiCaprio, global warming is not just the most important environmental challenges, but one of the biggest issues ever faced by humanity. The young star is working hard to raise awareness about global warming and in promoting a sustainable future for the planet.
DiCaprio Walks His Talk
While he doesn't shy away from using his celebrity status to voice awareness about global warming, DiCaprio is a shining example of walking your talk; he drives a hybrid car, his house features solar panels and he chooses to fly on commercial flights rather than chartering private jets, which use more fuel.
DiCaprio's hybrid car, a Toyota Prius that runs on a gasoline-electric engine, can get around 50 miles to the gallon, which is almost double that of comparable conventional cars. Leonardo reportedly commented that we have the technology to make every car produced just as clean and efficient.
Green Cars Replacing Limos At The Academy Awards
Earlier this year, DiCaprio joined other stars, including Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz and Al Gore in the Red Carpet/Green Cars Oscar campaign, organised by Global Green http://www.globalgreen.org/ to encourage some of the world's biggest celebrities to arrive at the Academy Awards in 'green cars.' Instead of the traditional stretch limos, which are very polluting and uneconomical, the stars were driven in eco-friendly hybrids, electric sports cars and other green vehicles.
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
Leo's environmental work isn't a recent fad; in 1998, he and his mother donated $35,000 for a state-of-the-art computer centre at the Los Feliz branch of the LA Public Library. The computer centre was built on the site of his childhood home.
That same year, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to actively foster awareness of environmental issues. Cooperating with organisations including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Natural Resources Defence Council, Global Green USA, and National Geographic Kids, the Foundation puts a strong emphasis on issues such as renewable energy resources and global warming.
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation also devotes a lot of focus to preserving biodiversity, supporting numerous animal rights and preservation groups such as the Dian Fossey Foundation, the U'wa Defense Project, Reef Check and others.
The foundation created the website http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/ as a platform to reach and inform a wide global audience about issues of environment and global warming.
Onward And Upward
In 2001, DiCaprio was awarded the prestigious Martin Litton Environmental Warrior Award by the ecological action group, Environment Now, for his work on environmental issues. Environment Now is a group which works on preserving and restoring coastal, freshwater and forest ecosystems, along with improving air quality and urban sustainability in Southern California.
DiCaprio has also worked together with the world's leading voice on the global warming issue, former US Vice President, Al Gore, maker of the recent eco-documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. DiCaprio and Gore made an announcement at the Oscar ceremony this year that the Oscars had been planned and produced using environmentally intelligent practices. DiCaprio also presented the US leg of Live Earth, a series of concerts organised by Al Gore that were held around the world to initiate a campaign to combat climate change.
Leonardo believes that the environmental movement is not about telling people how to live, but about being aware of the situation of the environmental crisis and global warming, and everyone doing what they can. It's about people putting pressure on their governments to make real changes, so that environmental awareness can be a natural part of our daily living, for everyone on the planet.