At the 2007 Oscar ceremony , DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices in its production . He presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth , and in 2010 his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award , honoring people who do good . In November 2010 , DiCaprio donated $ 1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia 's tiger summit . DiCaprio 's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a " muzhik " or " real man " . In 2011 , DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund 's campaign to free Tony , a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tête , Louisiana . In 2014 he was appointed as a United Nations representative on climate change , and later that year he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit . He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of Paris Climate Change Agreement . In early 2016 , at a meeting with Pope Francis , he gave a charity donation and spoke about environmental issues . A few days later , possibly influenced by his meeting with DiCaprio , the Pope said he would act in a planned faith-based charity film , '' Beyond the Sun '' . It would be his first acting experience , and would also be the first time in history that a Pope appeared in a feature film . Profits from the film would be given to charities in Argentina . In July 2016 , his foundation awarded $ 15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans , along with combating climate change . In July 2017 , a charity auction and celebrity concert put on by the foundation had raised over $ 30 million in its opening days and was set to continue the following month . In October 2016 , DiCaprio joined forces with Mark Ruffalo in North Dakota in support of the Standing Rock tribe 's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline . He traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government 's palm oil industry 's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods . That same year , he executive-produced and appeared in '' Before the Flood '' , a 2016 documentary film examining various aspects of global warming . In accepting his Best Actor award at the 2016 Oscars ceremony , DiCaprio stated : In April 2017 , he protested President Trump 's inaction on climate change by attending the 2017 People 's Climate March . Leonardo DiCaprio is identified as one of the most active celebrities in the climate change movement . Not only did he highlight the topic at the Oscars but he is a constant source of information on the matter . Many political figures welcome high-profile influencers and actors as Leonardo DiCaprio or artists to address political causes , environmental or not , " because of the high recognition that celebrities have " , states Eric T. Kasper , an associate professor of political science . He claims that much of the public feel a personal connection to the stars after experiencing emotion from them in so many different ways on the big screens . While budgets in the science and technology sector are declining as well as interest in newspapers and scientific journal series , it is important to have more familiar faces and voices , such as those of celebrities , to represent the importance of subjects such as climate change
2007 Oscar ceremony
79th Academy Awards
Leonardo DiCaprio