Leonardo DiCaprio issued a strong, impassioned message on Earth Day.
“Today, on Earth Day of all days, the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote to gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), trading the future of life on Earth for the short-term economic gain of a wealthy few,” DiCaprio, 51, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, April 22. “The ESA was signed into law over 50 years ago by President Nixon after passing 92-0 in the Senate and 355-4 in the House.”
When the ESA bill was passed in 1973, the United States government established certain protections for fish, wildlife and plants that were listed as threatened or endangered. The act also provided ways to rehabilitate the species.
“Today’s bill would devastate the most vulnerable species, which are essential to functioning ecosystems,” DiCaprio stressed to his 60 million social media followers. “Together with my organization @rewild, I urge the House to reject this existential threat to our national security and choose to protect and recover species, and defend the living systems we all depend on.”
He continued, “Call your U.S. Representative today to urge them to vote ‘no’ on the ESA Amendments Act of 2025 (H.R. 1897). U.S. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121.”
Many environmentalists fear the ESA Amendments Act of 2025 will dismantle most of the projections laid out in the 1973 law, including habitat safeguards, while prioritizing economic impacts over scientific assessments.
“What would be left is the Endangered Species Act in name only,” Chris Allieri, who works for the NYC Plover Project to protect endangered birds, told ABC7 on Tuesday, April 1. “I cannot underscore enough how dangerous this is, there is nothing good about this bill. Ninety-nine percent of the species listed under the ESA are still with us. They have not gone extinct, so this thing works.”
DiCaprio, for his part, has long been a fierce environmental activist.
“After Titanic, I decided to explore that interest by getting more involved in environmental issues. I was lucky and got to have a meeting with Al Gore in the White House. He pulled out a chalkboard and drew planet Earth and drew our atmosphere around it,” the Oscar winner told Wired in a 2015 interview. “He says, ‘If you want to get involved in environmental issues, this is something not a lot of people are talking about. … but climate change is the single greatest threat to humanity that we’ve ever had.’ That put me on this path.”
DiCaprio added, “We did Earth Day in 1999. I started a foundation. I started speaking out about the issue. And then, of course, Gore’s film came out, and I think that affected everyone in a profound way.”
DiCaprio now often advocates for environmental protections via his Re:Wild foundation and on his official social media pages.
