Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio gave a sober speech after taking home his first Oscar. A staunch environmentalist, DiCaprio used the biggest stage not to harangue but to encourage people in their fight against climate change. What can people do? They’re powerless, aren’t they, against so vast a force? DiCaprio was specific about a course of action — and it is political. “We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity,” DiCaprio said, “for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this.”
He continued, saying his plea was “for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.” This ties directly to a statement DiCaprio made about presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who among US leaders is closest to fitting the prototype DiCaprio endorses. “Listening to Bernie Sanders at that first presidential debate was pretty inspiring,” DiCaprio told Wired, “to hear what he said about the environment.” At the Oscars DiCaprio essentially endorsed Sanders from the biggest entertainment pulpit there is.
