A regular at the annual People’s Climate March and producer of multiple documentaries about environmental issues, the Oscar winner established his eponymous foundation back in 1998 to promote awareness and he’s been active in causes allied in the fight against climate change ever since. Over the years DiCaprio has sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund, Global Green USA, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare; was named UN Messenger of Peace on Climate Change in 2014; and he spoke at the United Nations in 2016 before the signing of the Paris Agreement to combat global warming. He even met with then-president-elect Trump to try to get his ear on the issue, but to no avail.
In 2018 the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation announced $11 million in new grants pledged to the non-profit’s six main programs—Wildlands Conservation, Oceans Conservation, Climate Change, Indigenous Rights, Transforming California, and Innovative Solutions—bringing the organization’s total financial impact to over $100 million. And in 2019 the foundation became part of Earth Alliance, a super-organization co-chaired by DiCaprio that pools the resources of several funds to further the fight against climate change and attacks on biodiversity.
And, he was one of the first big movie stars you saw driving a Prius.
“I am consumed by this,” DiCaprio told Rolling Stone in 2016. “There isn’t a couple of hours a day where I’m not thinking about it. It’s this slow burn. It’s not ‘aliens invading our planet next week and we have to get up and fight to defend our country,’ but it’s this inevitable thing, and it’s so terrifying.”