DiCaprio’s Message on Climate Change on Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up”

Leonardo DiCaprio on Monday sent a powerful message on climate change following the release of the new film “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix.

The six-time Academy Award nominee explained that Don’t Look Up, in a nutshell, is “an analogy of modern-day culture and our inability to hear and listen to scientific truth.”

In the film, he plays an increasingly frustrated scientist who realizes that, even though he’s discovered that an oversized comet is heading towards Earth, the general public and the authorities won’t do anything about it.

DiCaprio goes on to remind us that a lot of people don’t want to hear about climate change, even though evidence of its effects can be seen every year with increasing ferocity. DiCaprio also commended director Adam McKay for taking on the task of making a film about it and giving it a dark comedy tone, which shines a light on the issue through satire.

“I loved the way that he ended this film because it makes us take a hard look at where we’re ultimately going, and the fact that a lot of this stuff is slowly becoming irreversible,” DiCaprio says.

“We have this very finite window of 10 years to make this transition. If we are not voting for leaders or supporting everything that has to do with climate mitigation, we are going to have a fate very similar to these characters [in the film]”, he added.

DiCaprio pleading for humanity’s survival in Netflix’s Don’t Look Up

In the film, DiCaprio’s character is not the only one pleading for humanity’s survival. He is joined by Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), a Michigan student who discovered the comet, and Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), the head of the United States’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

The trio’s claims, however, are met with skepticism by mass media, the President’s office and the general public, as no one wants to hear grim news and prefer to believe everything will turn out well.

Don’t Look Up’s star-studded cast also features Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Ariana Grande, Michael Chiklis, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Himesh Patel, Paul Guilfoyle, and Melanie Lynskey. Audiences can stream the film exclusively on Netflix now.

DiCaprio is identified as one of the most active celebrities in the climate change movement. He established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness.

Although concerned with all areas of the environment, it focuses on global warming, preserving Earth’s biodiversity and supporting renewable energy. It has worked on projects in over 40 countries and has produced two short web documentaries, Water Planet and Global Warning.

In 2020, he publicized the efforts of Greek environmentalists to clean up the sea bed off the island of Andros. The actor posted a video from one of the volunteers on his own Instagram account.