It’s no secret that Leonardo DiCaprio has long used his platform to educate people on the climate crisis and environmental conservation.
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However, people have raised their eyebrows over Leo’s “activism” in recent years given his lifestyle, which involves excessive private jet usage and boarding superyachts that generate thousands of metric tons of carbon emissions per year. Perhaps most notably, the actor was called out in 2016 for flying from France to New York and back in a private jet to — ironically — accept an award for his work around climate change.
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A few weeks ago, Leo — like several other celebrities — faced backlash for attending the multimillion-dollar Bezos wedding, which was protested by numerous residents in Venice because of the fact that climate change has, in part, caused the city to slowly start sinking. According to multiple outlets, more than 90 private jets flew in for the celebrations, while other guests attended via yachts.
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Interestingly, Leo memorably hid his face with a baseball cap when he was photographed at the wedding, promoting heavy speculation that he didn’t want to be seen in attendance.
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Well, now, Leo is at the center of public discourse again after he was pictured boarding Jeff’s mega yacht over the weekend.
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In the photos, Leo and his girlfriend, Vittoria Ceretti, can be seen greeting Jeff and his wife, Lauren Sánchez, as they step onto the luxury yacht, which is reportedly worth an estimated $500 million.
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Reacting to the photos online, several people called out Leo’s “hypocrisy.”
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“I feel like so many celebrities are just going full mask-off right now. On one hand, it’s nice (?) they are no longer pretending to be righteous do-gooders, but it also feels so dystopian for someone like him to just fully embrace cozying up to MAGA billionaires after so many years of pretending to care about progressive causes. He at least felt enough shame to try and hide from the paps when he attended the Bezos wedding, now he is greeting Bezos arm-in-arm on his yacht,” one person wrote.
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“Seriously all-time great acting job convincing people he’s an environmentalist while flying around in private jets the past 20 years,” another said, while someone else added, “The cognitive disconnect it takes to star in Don’t Look Up and then align yourself with and behave like the very people/hypocrisy the movie was critiquing/satirizing is really…something.”
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“Leo is constantly on yachts and takes private jets everywhere. His environmental activism has always been something he doesn’t practice himself,” one comment read, while another person said, “It’s so disturbing how the 1% have gone full mask-off in the past seven months.”
“Remember in his little climate documentary when a woman he was interviewing called his ass out on him being a hypocrite? This is exactly why,” someone wrote, referring to a clip from Leo’s 2016 documentary, Before the Flood. In the film, environmentalist and political activist Sunita Narain told Leo directly, “Your consumption is really going to put a hole in the planet…The fact is that we need to put the issue of lifestyle and consumption at the center of climate negotiations.”
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While Leo said he undoubtedly agreed that “we have to practice what we preach,” he added, “it’s a very difficult argument to present to Americans that we need to change our lifestyle.”
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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