Sorry for the DiCaprio deluge today…if two posts can be called a
deluge…but I just came across the young actor’s environmentally
conscious Web site and thought it was worth looking at. It is suprisingly informative, if a bit shrill, IMHO.
Still, good for him to put forth the effort.
The site takes on the issue of global warming, offering links to news and events related to oil consumption,
greenhouse gases and ocean conservation. DiCarpio himself has
penned an essay on the subject
of global warming, and offers a short Flash
film to boot.
Lots of stars these days (and in days past) have made a public stand on important issues. You might remember Brad
Pitt’s recent jaunt to Africa to rail against global hunger, and
we’ve moaned a bit here about the anti-war wanderings of
Sean Penn. I guess I’ve come around a bit to see these efforts as something positive. We’re inundated with so much
information these days, that it’s hard to focus on certain issues, and actors often serve as points of focus, casting
their celestial light on things we might otherwise be distracted from. Ours is a celebrity obsessed culture, a fact due
to some kink in our genetic make-up that makes us look up to those others look up to, a kind of societal pecking order
mechanism that has always been a part of the human constitution. While perhaps misguided (shouldn’t we really be
celebritifying the scientists and activists who really make change happen?), that is who we are. Why fight
it?