Lights, camera, action. With climate change being such a huge issue, many of our favorite celebrities are actively taking action to help fix it. Leonardo Dicaprio, Shailene Woodley, Shawn Mendes, and Mark Ruffalo, to name a few, all publicly advocate for protecting our planet. Celebrities are the most influential people in our current culture, and many believe every day should be Earth Day.

In case you need a refresher, climate change is the long-term shift in regional or global climate patterns. We have reached a climate emergency in recent years as carbon dioxide levels are at their all-time highest in 650,000 years, passing 415 parts per million. This is, of course, only one contributing factor in how our Earth is declining. Let’s create a spotlight on celebrities who are using their platforms to speak out about the ongoing climate crisis.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio has been vocal about his feelings towards climate change since 1998 when he launched the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The foundation is “dedicated to the protection and wellbeing of all Earth’s inhabitants.” The foundation is incredibly successful, funding over 200 projects; it has also awarded $100 million in grants. Since then, DiCaprio has sat on the board of numerous foundations and organizations to help promote change. In 2016, he spoke at the United Nations where the Paris Agreement was signed to help combat global warming. DiCaprio is using his platform every day to get the message out there: our Earth needs help. In a Rolling Stone’s article, DiCaprio said, “There isn’t a couple of hours a day where I’m not thinking about it. It’s this slow burn. It’s not ‘aliens invading our planet next week and we have to get up and fight to defend our country,’ but it’s this inevitable thing, and it’s so terrifying.”

Shailene Woodley

Shailene Woodley is another celebrity who is actively trying to help with the issue of climate change. Woodley joined Greenpeace in 2019 as an Ocean Ambassador and uses her social media platforms to spread the message about what these organizations do. She took to Instagram to promote her partnership with American Express to #BackOurOceans which cleans plastic out of our oceans. In an article for Green Matters, the actress states why she is involved with environmental activism, “What makes me want to do it is [that] I want to have kids. And I just can’t justify bringing them into a world where I’m not fighting every single day to make a direct change for future generations. So that’s my driver."

Shawn Mendes

Shawn Mendes, an American Music Award winner, has used his platform to create The Shawn Mendes Foundation. Mendes has become vocal about the importance of being able to tour in a green and sustainable way. His foundation partnered with Reverb, an environmental non-profit that focuses on an attempt to help artists minimize their environmental footprint on tour. He actively has used his social media platforms to speak on topics surrounding this. Mendes stated on Instagram, “Our generation has the power to change the future of our planet, and to help carry that change forward for so many generations to follow.”

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo, who you may know as the Hulk, has been using his platform since 2010 to speak on the issue of climate change. Ruffalo co-founded The Solutions Project in 2012 which works to accelerate the transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. In 2019, he starred in the film Dark Waters. The film is about an attorney who risks his career in order to bring justice to a community that has been affected by deadly chemicals due to one of the world’s largest corporations. This was a passion project of his and in an article he wrote for Grist he states, “The good news is we don’t need superhero strength to protect our planet. We need education and a collective, grassroots movement that is well underway. As students across the country walk across graduation stages, wrestling with what comes next, I want to remind all of them of the power they have and the responsibility they bear.”

It’s refreshing to see celebrities help combat climate change. In fact, they may be the main driving force. They have a platform that can reach millions of people within a single hour, and their activism is the key to informing others about what is happening with our Earth. We should all start viewing every day as Earth Day just like our favorite celebrities.