“Titanic” star Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-foundation reportedly funded several lawsuits against oil conglomerates over alleged climate change deception by funneling money to a dark money group.
According to watchdog group Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO), a series of emails going back to 2017, disclosed that the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation was a “key supporter” of law firm Sher Edling’s multiple lawsuits against “the world’s leading fossil fuel companies” for rising levels in several coastal California cities.
A 2017 email exchange between philanthropist Dan Emmett and current Biden administration official Ann Carlson, a climate professor at UCLA at the time, highlighted how the DiCaprio Foundation’s then CEO Terry Tamminen was engaged in the lawsuits.
“Chuck Savitt who is heading this new organization behind the lawsuits has been seeking our support,” Emmett said. “Terry Tamminen in his new role with the DiCaprio Foundation has been a key supporter. I don’t know how realistic this approach is from a practical and legal point of view though I respect the good intentions and the message.”
The message included Savitt’s email to Emmett three days prior, which divulged that the lawsuits were backed by the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience and Adaptation, which was managed by dark money group, the Resources Legacy Fund (RLF).
“Wanted to let you know that we filed the first three lawsuits supported by the Collective Action Fund on Monday,” Savitt said in the July 19 message. “These precedent setting cases call on 37 of the world’s leading fossil fuel companies to take responsibility for the devastating damage sea level rise – caused by their greenhouse gas emissions – is having on coastal communities.”
DiCaprio’s foundation announced that they were donating $20 million to a slew of conservation groups to tackle “the urgent, existential challenges of climate change,” in a statement on the organization’s website two months later, which has since been deleted.
The “Revenant” star, who has been a passionate conservationist for years, was labeled an Eco-hypocrite in early 2022, when he was photographed vacationing on Swiss pharmaceutical billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s $125 million yacht, the largest ever manufactured in Great Britain, for weeks off the coast of St. Barts.
The 315 foot luxury liner emits as much C02 in nearly six miles, as a single car releases into the atmosphere in a calendar year.
“Climate change is real; it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating,” DiCaprio lectured during his 2016 Academy Awards acceptance speech. “Let us not take this planet for granted.”
The actor recently inflamed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for encouraging young voters to take to the polls to protect their country’s endangered rainforests.
“The Tapajós region of Brazil’s Pará state is the target of industrialized illegal mining,” the “Wolf of Wall Street” star began in a May Twitter rant. “Which would leave massive destruction and is threatening to erase years of archaeological discoveries.”
“Brazil is home to the Amazon and other ecosystems critical to climate change,” he continued. “What happens there matters to us all and youth voting is key in driving change for a healthy planet.”
Bolsonaro, who has allowed devastating deforestation of the rainforest during his term as president was not happy about the Hollywood heavyweight adding his two cents about the race that will determine if he gets another term.
“Thanks for your support, Leo! It’s really important to have every Brazilian voting in the coming elections,” he snarled in reply. “Our people will decide if they want to keep our sovereignty on the Amazon or be ruled by crooks who serve special foreign interests. Good job in ‘The Revenant.’”
“Now, DiCaprio has to know that it was the very president of the World Trade Organization who said that without Brazilian agribusiness, the world would be hungry,” he continued in a follow-up post. “So, DiCaprio better keep his mouth shut instead of talking nonsense.”
The one-sided feud continued in July, when the celebrity eco-warrior shared a 16-second time lapse map of the depletion of the Amazon rainforest within Brazil’s borders, as a result of ramped up mining activity and oil extraction over the past three years.
“How extensive is deforestation in Amazonia, one of the most important places on the planet for people & wildlife?” He tweeted. “According to this map from @mapbiomas, the region has faced an onslaught of illegal deforestation at the hands of the extractive industry over the last 3 years.”
“You again, Leo?” Bolsonaro shot back. “This way, you will become my best electoral cable, as we say in Brazil! I could tell you, again, to give up your yacht before lecturing the world, but I know progressives: you want to change the entire world but never yourselves, so I will let you off the hook.”