Speaking to a group of supporters on Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ripped actor Leonardo DiCaprio for his comments about the Amazon rainforest and youth voting.
DiCaprio had issued a series of tweets on April 28 in which he first stated, “The Tapajós region of Brazil’s Pará state is the target of industrialized illegal mining” then followed by urging people to vote, tweeting, “Brazil is home to the Amazon and other ecosystems critical to climate change. What happens there matters to us all and youth voting is key in driving change for a healthy planet.”
.@mongabay: The Tapajós region of Brazil’s Pará state is the target of industrialized illegal mining, which would leave massive destruction and is threatening to erase years of archaeological discoveries.https://t.co/rPnLu0r8fo
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) April 28, 2022
Brazil is home to the Amazon and other ecosystems critical to climate change.
What happens there matters to us all and youth voting is key in driving change for a healthy planet. For more on voter registration in Brazil before May 4, visit https://t.co/0mKrfxLdRR #tiraotitulohoje— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) April 28, 2022
Thank you to the heroes of democracy in Brazil who are helping young people register to vote. To learn more & register online by the May 4th deadline, visit https://t.co/Ok03JYLH0U, https://t.co/vnKyBBO6Dq, https://t.co/UfqsCAMZiz & https://t.co/bU46tieJYA https://t.co/Ok03JYLH0U
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) May 2, 2022
Bolsonaro furiously addressed DiCaprio on Tuesday, telling his supporters, “Now, DiCaprio has to know that it was the very president of the World Trade Organization who said that without Brazilian agribusiness, the world would be hungry. So, DiCaprio better keep his mouth shut instead of talking nonsense.”
The day after DiCaprio’s tweets, Bolsonaro mocked DiCaprio on Twitter, writing, “Thanks for your support, Leo! It’s really important to have every Brazilian voting in the coming elections. Our people will decide if they want to keep our sovereignty on the Amazon or be ruled by crooks who serve special foreign interests. Good job in The Revenant.”
– Thanks for your support, Leo! It's really important to have every Brazilian voting in the coming elections. Our people will decide if they want to keep our sovereignty on the Amazon or to be ruled by crooks who serve foreign special interest. Good job in The Revenant! 👍 https://t.co/kg3b6rmPCw
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) April 29, 2022
The Daily Wire reported, “Bolsonaro later fact-checked DiCaprio, reposting a screenshot of a photo DiCaprio had put up on Instagram.”
“By the way, the picture you posted to talk about the wildfires in the Amazon in 2019 is from 2003,” Bolsonaro noted. “There are people who want to arrest Brazilian citizens who make this kind of mistake here in our country. But I’m against this tyrannical idea. So I forgive you. Hugs from Brazil!”
In September 2019, DiCaprio slammed climate change “deniers” in his speech to the exclusive Global Citizen Festival in New York City. “It’s become clear that our political leaders have failed to live up to the promises that we celebrated that day,” DiCaprio pontificated, referring to the Paris Agreement. “Our future is being gambled away, and our leaders, those whom we entrust to protect us and set the example, are either failing to stop these dangerous trends or, in some cases, denying the very science of this climate catastrophe.”
Yet DiCaprio has been harshly criticized for taking private jets to exclusive climate conferences in Europe and Asia.
Photos of DiCaprio using private jets and yachts have been distributed around the internet, as Newsweek reported. One person commented, “I would love to hear what he is saying but his enormous carbon footprint is blocking the speakers.”