Search icon

News

26th Aug 2019

Leonardo DiCaprio donates $5 million to help save the Amazon

Rudi Kinsella

dicaprio amazon

A very sound gesture from the Oscar winner.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s charity has pledged to donate $5 million in an attempt to protect the Amazon rainforest from fires.

The donation will be given by Earth Alliance, a charity that pools the resources from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, the Emerson Collective and the Global Wildlife Conservation.

In a post on the charity’s official Instagram page, they urged others to donate to the charity, promising that “100% of your donation will go to partners who are working on the ground to protect the Amazon.”

The post continued: “We are deeply concerned about the ongoing crisis in the Amazon, which highlights the delicate balance of climate, biodiversity, and the wellbeing of indigenous peoples.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ltR2QgDXT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Recent information provided by the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil says there have been more than 72,000 fires in the Amazon rainforest this year, an increase of 40,000 since this time last year.

More information can be found here.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, recently suggested that the massive fires could potentially have been started by nonprofit organizations who are suffering from lack of funding, in an attempt to “generate negative attention against me and against the Brazilian government.”

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge