Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t shy about his love for the environment and passion for ending climate change (he even worked it into his Oscar acceptance speech this year), and now the actor is once again putting on his activist shoes.
On August 23, DiCaprio retweeted a link to a Huffington Post story about Native American protests of a North Dakota pipeline along with the caption, “Inspired by the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline.”
Inspired by the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline. https://t.co/eP3GrnNZvl
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) August 23, 2016
The construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – also referred to as the Bakken pipeline – is a controversial issue as the $3.8 billion project will funnel more than 500,000 barrels of crude per day from the North Dakota Bakken region through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe argue the pipeline will pollute drinking water, threaten the health of their land, and disturb sacred sites.
Tensions between the two sides have been escalating for months, in fact, DiCaprio previously posted support for the Sioux Tribe in May, tweeting, “Standing w/ the Great Sioux Nation to protect their water & lands. Take a stand” along with the hashtags: #RezpectOurWater #KeepItInTheGround.
“Rezpect Our Water” refers to a Change.org petition, initiated by the Standing Rock Youth, and aimed at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop construction of the DAPL. As of this writing, the petition is just shy of its goal of 300,000 signatures.
DiCaprio isn’t the only actor lending his support to the campaign. Ben Affleck and his “Justice League” co-stars Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher and Ezra Miller endorsed the cause on social media and in the video below:
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