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Leonardo DiCaprio Continues Crusade To Save The Planet

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:31 PST, Nov 16, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio believes that the involvement of political leaders is vital when trying to combat environmental degradation. While speaking at the London Film Festival at the premiere of his environmental documentary Before the Flood, DiCaprio urged young people to vote for politicians who are environmental evangelists.

According to BBC News, the Aviator actor suggested the best way to combat issues like climate change is to vote for politicians who will take proactive steps to deal with environmental problems.

“The main thing is to try to vote for political leaders that are going to do something about climate change. If we have political leaders in office that do not want to take fundamental steps to combat this issue we are ultimately doomed.”

Indeed, the Titanic star recently took to Twitter to encourage his fans and fellow environmental activists to encourage Vietnam, the host of this week’s International Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, to take steps to save the endangered rhino population.

DiCaprio is a strong believer in youth power because he’s witnessed first-hand impactful youth movements in other domains aside from environmentalism. With a view to saving the environment and the planet, the actor has established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, created to protect the earth’s flora and fauna by preserving their habitats.

As part of his initiative, the actor visited Indonesia to team up with local organizations and build a sanctuary in the Leuser rainforest ecosystem, home to a number of endangered animals, like Sumatran elephants. DiCaprio had previously criticized the Indonesian Government for deforesting the ecosystem by expanding palm oil plantations. The Revenant actor believes that deforestation is not only harmful to elephants; it threatens the survival of other animals such as orangutans, rhinos, and tigers.

It appears that his comments annoyed the Indonesian Government because authorities reportedly threatened to revoke DiCaprio’s visa. Officials claimed that Leonardo’s propaganda could well have led to public disorder. However, the actor left Indonesia before the authorities could decide whether he should be deported.

Apart from working tirelessly to achieve his environmental goals, Leonardo DiCaprio is confronting pollution-causing people on another front. Vanity Fair reports that DiCaprio has teamed with Paramount to produce a film based on Captain Planet and the Planeteers, a 1990s television program.

However, DiCaprio will neither play the role of the superhero nor feature in the movie. Appian Way Productions, Leonardo’s production company, will be involved in making the film, and the script will tentatively be written by Jono Matt and Glenn Powell.

The producers haven’t currently shortlisted suitable actors to play the title role in the proposed Captain Planet movie. In 2011, actor Don Cheadle played Captain Planet in a short film that parodied the 1990s cartoon superhero. Don Cheadle’s Captain Planet was a feared crusader who ruthlessly punished people for even minor pollution offenses. However, Leonardo DiCaprio’s planned Captain Planet movie will not be a parody — it will be a serious movie based on the cartoon series.

Leonardo DiCaprio recently teamed up with other filmmakers to produce Before the Flood, a documentary featuring DiCaprio with other prominent personalities such as President Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Pope Francis, which has already garnered over 60 million views. According to Forbes, DiCaprio is planning to produce another movie titled The Sandcastle Empire.

The Sandcastle Empire will be a post-apocalyptic fantasy movie based on author Kayla Olson’s young adult novel of the same name. The story of Olson’s novel is based in the year 2049, a time when the earth is experiencing problems caused by climate change, flooding, and population explosion. It appears that the backdrop of the novel struck a chord with the popular actor, and fans are eager to see the end result.

[Featured Image by Jerod Harris/Getty Images]

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