In a striking display of the dichotomy between celebrity activism and reality, renowned actor and climate change advocate Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted attending the extravagant wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in Venice last Friday.
This event, according to The Guardian, saw an influx of over 90 private jets into the city, raising eyebrows given DiCaprio's prominent role as the United Nations Messenger of Peace for climate change.
DiCaprio, a vocal environmental activist, was photographed on Friday attempting to shield his face with a baseball cap as he boarded a boat in Venice. This coincided with the day Bezos tied the knot with Lauren Sanchez.
While it remains uncertain whether DiCaprio himself arrived via private jet, it was reported that a significant number of his fellow celebrity attendees did. As reported by The Guardian, the list of jet-setting attendees included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, television icon Oprah Winfrey, and members of the Kardashian/Jenner family.
The lavish three-day wedding celebration, which drew celebrities in superyachts to the UNESCO city, was met with protests from locals and environmental groups. Greenpeace activists made their opposition known by unfurling a banner in Venice's iconic St. Mark Square featuring Bezos's face and the message, "If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax."
Venice, a city uniquely constructed on layers of sediment and timber piles across over 100 different islands on a large lagoon, is particularly susceptible to flooding. In the past century alone, the city has sunk 9 inches into the lagoon, a descent that "has seriously compromised the heritage and the safety of the city in relation to its small elevation above the sea," according to researchers at UNESCO Land Subsidence International Initiative.
In response to the city's vulnerability, Bezos pledged millions of euros to Corila, an academic collective studying Venice's lagoon biome, as part of an agreement with Venice's Mayor Brugnaro, according to Reuters. While the city's unique infrastructure is partly to blame for its sinking, researchers also point to rising sea levels, a consequence of increasing global temperatures, as a contributing factor.
Marco Anzidei, a researcher from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), emphasized the severity of the situation, stating, "Sea level rise, particularly if this is accelerated locally by subsidence, is causing increasingly severe and widespread coastal erosion, beach retreat and marine flooding with very significant environmental and socio-economic impacts on coastal populations."
The issue of rising sea levels is a key concern for DiCaprio, who directed a 2016 documentary on the subject titled "Before The Flood." In this film, he interviewed then-President Barack Obama about his decision to commit the United States to the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.
DiCaprio's commitment to addressing climate change extends beyond his public advocacy. He serves on the boards of several environmental organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, National Geographics Pristine Seas, Oceans 5, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, according to the UN.
In a 2014 address to the United Nations at the Climate Summit, DiCaprio issued a stark warning, stating, "Every week, were seeing new and undeniable climate events, evidence that accelerated climate change is here right now. Droughts are intensifying, our oceans are acidifying with methane plumes rising up from the ocean floor, we are seeing extreme weather events, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientific projections."
The presence of a high-profile climate activist at an event marked by such conspicuous consumption raises questions about the sincerity of celebrity environmental advocacy. It also underscores the need for a more comprehensive and consistent approach to addressing the pressing issue of climate change.
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