DiCaprio Wins Oscar, Uses His Speech to Talk Climate Change

After six previous Oscar nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio finally received his first Oscar at the 88^th Academy Awards. During DiCaprio’s much anticipated speech he thanked the cast and crew of The Revenant, his friends and family, and finished by talking about climate change. Saying, “The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world” he told the audience that the world in 2015 experienced the hottest year in recorded history  and that climate change is a real threat happening right now all around us. DiCaprio urged the audience that this is an issue that needs to be solved collectively and that the world needs to stop procrastinating, as this is “the most urgent threat facing our entire species”. Along with this messaged he urged support for leaders around the world who speak for humanity and not big polluters. Climate justice was also a theme in DiCaprio’s speech as he said support was needed for the indigenous people in the world and the billions of underprivileged people “whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed”. It is remarkable that DiCaprio focused on climate change and the environment and urged the audience as well as global viewers to take action against this threat. While his speech could have simply been about DiCaprio’s life or his achievement in film thus far, he instead decided to focus on an issue that impacts everyone in the world. It is important that he and other celebrities continue to take a role in advocating for climate change action in front of large global audiences so that more awareness for this global issue can be raised. This will help propel saving the climate, and indeed the planet, to become more of a global priority.