Leonardo DiCaprio brings attention to climate change during Oscar victory speech: 'It's real and is happening now'

(Image credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 29 February 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio took home his first Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Award Sunday night for his turn in The Revenant, and used his platform to deliver an acceptance speech decrying climate change.

DiCaprio, previously nominated four times, had kind words for his director, Alejandro Iñárritu, and co-star Tom Hardy, but used the bulk of his speech to bring attention to climate change. DiCaprio noted that The Revenant is about "man's relationship with the natural world," and as 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history, production had to be moved to the "southern tip of this planet just to find snow." Climate change is "real and it is happening now and it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species," he said. "We need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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