Leonardo DiCaprio Should ‘Give Up His Jets and Yacht’ for the Environment
A years-long feud between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and American actor Leonardo DiCaprio continued this week with the president suggesting that DiCaprio’s environmental activism was disingenuous, given his frequent use of private jets and luxury yachts.
The Titanic star triggered the ire of the conservative president initially in 2019, joining an international campaign to shame Bolsonaro over fires in the Amazon Rainforest. The actor – among other celebrities and world leaders, most prominently including French President Emmanuel Macron – shared photos of fires in the Amazon that could not have been taken during Bolsonaro’s tenure and nonetheless blamed his policies for them, predicting that the natural landmark would soon be destroyed.
Bolsonaro is currently seeking re-election, running slightly behind socialist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the polls. Lula, a darling of the international left that former President Barack Obama once referred to as “the most popular politician on earth,” could not compete against Bolsonaro in the 2018 election because he was convicted of using taxpayers’ dollars to buy a luxury beachfront property and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The country’s top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), reversed the conviction last year.