Celebs Fighting To Save The Planet: Leonardo DiCaprio, Gisele Bündchen & More

By ETCanada.com Staff. 5 Jun 2023 8:40 AM

In celebration of World Environment Day 2023 on June 5, we’re taking a look at celebrities who have demonstrated a commitment to combatting climate change.

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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental activist for most of his career, and in 1998 founded the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

Operating in more than 46 countries, supporting over 128 distinct projects and working with over 65 partners, to date the foundation has generated over $100 million in grants to a variety of environmentally oriented programs and projects.
Gisele Bündchen
Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability
In 2009, Bündchen was designated as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program, and in 2011 was awarded the Best Green International Celebrity Award in 2011.

She's also responsible for launching Projeto Agua Limpa (Clean Water Project), which assists conservation efforts in the Amazon.
Sting
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Rocker Sting was an early adopter at protecting the Amazon rainforest. It was way back in 1989, in fact, that he and wife Trudie Styler co-founded the Rainforest Foundation. To date, the former Police frontman's efforts have managed to preserve more than 115,000 square kilometres of rainforest from being razed.
Emma Thompson
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Emma Thompson has been a longtime member of Greenpeace and has regularly lent her voice to protest that not enough is being done to combat climate change.

Among those efforts were a 2014 trip to Svalbard, an Arctic site suffering rapid ice melt, leading Climate Rebellion protests in Britain during 2020.
Mark Ruffalo
Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Mark Ruffalo has long been involved in environmental activism.

Ruffalo is the co-founder of The Solutions Project, which has distributed more than $5 million in grants to over 100 community projects around the country, giving support to frontline leaders working on policy changes and community development, focused on combating the ill effects of climate change and encouraging equitable solutions to clean energy needs.
Meryl Streep
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Meryl Streep has been an environmental activist since the 1980s, when she began working with the Natural Resource Defense Council to promote environmental issues.

She stepped up her efforts in 1989 when she co-founded Mothers & Others, an advocacy group pushing for tougher pesticide standards.
Rainn Wilson
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"The Office" alum Rainn Wilson has long used his platform as a celebrity to draw attention to climate change.

“With the help of my scientist friends at Arctic Basecamp, I’ve changed my name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson,” Wilson said in a statement last year. “This is not a joke, I’m as serious as the melting Arctic, which amplifies global risks including extreme weather events around the globe.”
Shailene Woodley
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Shailene Woodley has been an environmental activist for more than a decade. In 2010, the "Big Little Lies" star founded the All it Takes organization, which promotes sustainability and environmentalism.

Among her various efforts, in 2017, she was arrested while protesting the controversial Dakota Pipeline project, and in 2019, she served as Green Peace Ocean Ambassador to combat plastic pollution.
Joaquin Phoenix
Photo by Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
"Joker" Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix is a committed vegan and has long spoken out about the environmental damage caused by large-scale animal agriculture. He's also produced the short film "Indigo", in which he rescued a cow and young calf from a Los Angeles slaughterhouse.

“I think we've become very disconnected from the natural world," he said when accepting his Oscar. "Many of us are guilty of an egocentric worldview, and we believe that we're the centre of the universe.
Jane Fonda
Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images
Jane Fonda has been politically active for decades, once derided as "Hanoi Jane" for protesting the Vietnam War. These days, Fonda's activism has focused on climate change.

In the fall of 2019, Fonda paused all of her professional commitments in order to launch her Fire Drill Fridays, a series of civil-disobedience protests at Capitol Hill in Washington. D.C., demanding that Congress pass the New Green Deal. During the course of the protests, Fonda was arrested five times.
Rosario Dawson
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
In 2013, the Sin City star founded Studio One Eighty Nine, a fashion social enterprise that encourages eco-friendly practices within the industry. She has been a vocal spokeswoman for charities like Conservation International, the National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy and the Equitable Food Initiative.
Ian Somerhalder
Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Not only has Ian Somerhalder served as a UN goodwill ambassador, in 2010 the "Vampire Diaries" alum in 2010, he launched the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, which distributes funds and resources towards various global environmental conservation, green energy development, deployment and educational charities.
Chris Hemsworth
Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
Actor Chris Hemsworth has been a lifelong surfer, and his love of the sea led he and wife Elsa Pataky to partner with Oceana, a global nonprofit that supports clean ocean life by bridging sea life with humans, featuring the motto, “Save the oceans, feed the world."

Celebs Fighting To Save The Planet: Leonardo DiCaprio, Gisele Bündchen & More

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