Hasn’t anyone told him about FaceTime, Skype, or teleconferencing?
Leonardo DiCaprio was pilloried by fans and critics this weekend for taking a private jet from France to New York and back again to scoop up an environmental award, an 8,000-mile-long journey that was anything but green.
He had flown to New York City to receive an award from the grassroots organization Riverkeeper, which helps protect NY waterways. Before coming to New York, DiCaprio was chumming it up at the Cannes Film Festival in France and partying hard at club Gotha with supermodel Georgia Fowler.
A rep for DiCaprio told US Weekly: “He was asked to speak at both Riverkeeper and amfAR events, but the only way to attend the two fundraisers was to hitch a ride with flights that were already planned.”
Apparently, DiCaprio has never heard of large-screen projectors and teleconferencing, something even the Oscars has used for actors who are inconveniently too far away.
After arriving in New York City and attending the Riverkeeper Fishermen’s Ball at Chelsea Piers, Robert De Niro presented DiCaprio with the ‘Big Fish’ award. DiCaprio shared the award with Ralph Lauren, and the long-running event raised more than $1.6 million. DiCaprio also gave a $100,000 grant from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) to the Riverkeeper group.
But before the private jet’s engines had a chance to cool, the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ star was back in France to attend the annual amfAR auction at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, surrounded by a gaggle of supermodels at another party.
All told, DiCaprio’s jaunt spewed an estimated 40 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, or the equivalent of what two Americans release in one year.
At the amfAR auction in Cannes, DiCaprio auctioned off a one-week vacation for 12 people at his home in Palm Springs, and not one of his homes, as his rep intuited.
DiCaprio’s foundation had already pledged $15 million to environmental causes at this year’s World Economic Forum. He was there to decry the “greed of the energy industry” and demand more action on global warming.
He also made climate change an issue at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and, more recently, at the Oscar Award ceremonies by championing his favorite cause: global warming.
During his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actor in “The Revenant,” the actor said: “[Climate change] is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively … and stop procrastinating.”
At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Film Awards in February, DiCaprio used his acceptance speech to deliver a profanity-laced diatribe on climate change, calling it his real focus and passion. “If we get the answer wrong”, he said, “We’re all f***ed.”
DiCaprio has been working on a Netflix documentary about global warming for nearly three years.
DiCaprio has been condemned for his lavish, carbon-heavy lifestyle. He eschews flying commercial and routinely opts for private jets, owns one of the largest diesel-spewing yachts, as well as numerous properties across the globe.
His glitzy, flamboyant lifestyle “diminishes his moral authority to lecture others on reducing their own carbon emissions,” Robert Rapier told the New York Post.
Rapier adds that DiCaprio is the perfect example of “why our consumption of fossil fuels continues to grow. It’s because everyone loves the combination of cost and convenience they offer. Alternatives usually require sacrifice of one form or another.”
And the Natural Resources Defense Council said in 2014 that the actor was a “hypocrite” for traveling the world on private jets and mega-yachts.” On the LDF website, it features videos on how ‘other’ people should live a more carbon-neutral lifestyle, and that we have only five years to reverse an approaching ‘tipping point,’ a favorite scare tactic among the left.
DiCaprio didn’t fare well on social media outlets like Twitter, with fans criticizing the actor for his green hypocrisy. One user tweeted: “DiCaprio flies from Cannes to NYC in a private jet for an environmentalism award. If only his self-awareness were as big as his carbon footprint.”
“Everyone saying he’s some hero for protecting the environment,” one fan wrote about DiCaprio’s Instagram photo from the Riverkeeper ball. “He’s just a hypocrite.” Another fan said, “Unfollowing @leonardodicaprio. Practice what you preach.”
Top photo via Leonardo DiCaprio/Instagram
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