Leonardo DiCaprio Gives Scary Insight Into What May Happen To Planet Earth In Just 10 Years

Leonardo DiCaprio has sent a stark warning that humans must act now to mitigate the potentially devastating effects that climate change are likely to have on our planet.

Speaking in an interview for the YouTube channel Netflix Channel Club, DiCaprio was linking the climate crisis to the theme of his most recent film: Netflix's very own Don’t Look Up, which was released in the UK on 10 December.

DiCaprio clearly buys into the film’s underlying message, set out by its director Adam McKay. The film is about a giant comet which is set to destroy all of planet Earth, with DiCaprio starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence as astronomers attempting to warn the ignorant and seemingly uninterested population about the threat.

McKay wrote the film with the intention that the impending threat of the comet would mirror the threat which global warming poses to humanity in real life.

Three-time Golden Globe winner DiCaprio said: “If I were to describe Don’t Look Up in a nutshell, it would be ‘an analogy of modern-day culture and our inability to hear and listen to scientific truth.

“I’ve often — in my career — looked for a film that had an environmental undertone to it. But much like the inundation of news on climate change, a lot of people don’t want to hear it — and making a film about it is an even more difficult task to take on. Adam, who is an incredibly outspoken individual on the climate crisis, really wanted to do a film that brought an element of dark comedy to what seems to be a daunting issue.”

Alamy

DiCaprio is clearly a fan of director McKay’s mission here, and continued to compliment the 53-year-old filmmaker, admitting: “What Adam did that was so brilliant here was use the analogy of a giant comet heading towards Earth, and how the human race would react to it from a political level, from a scientific level, and what we would do about it.

“It really reminded me of what it’s like for climate scientists. There are some hard truths that these characters need to face, much like we do as a species on Earth.”

DiCaprio warned that if people do not act to counter climate change at the micro level, then the sorts of problems faced by the characters in the film will only grow in the real-world.

“A lot of this stuff is slowly becoming irreversible, and we have this very finite window of ten years to make this transition. If we’re not voting for leaders or supporting everything that has to do with climate mitigation, we’re going to have a fate very similar to these characters.

“We’re seeing the ramifications of what scientists have been telling us for the last few decades, and it’s almost happening to the exact year and date.

“It’s not that we’re not listening. We’re just not taking the necessary action.”

DiCaprio goes on to describe the climate crisis as “the most important issue that’s ever faced humanity in the history of civilisation.” It certainly brings to light just how passionate the actor feels on the topic — and how desperate he is for humanity to get its priorities straight.

Topics: Leonardo DiCaprio, TV and Film

Dom Smith