As a kid, I was going to be a marine biologist or an actor. When I became successful as an actor, I said, 'Well, maybe I can lend a voice to this with an equal passion.' You realize how lucky we are and how destructive we've been and what little regard we have for the natural world.
Interpretation
Leonardo DiCaprio reflects on his childhood aspirations and how success in acting led him to advocate for the environment.
In this quote, Leonardo DiCaprio shares his early dreams of being either a marine biologist or an actor, emphasizing that his success in acting has provided him a platform to advocate for environmental issues with a passionate voice. He expresses a deep awareness of the ecological destruction caused by humanity and highlights the importance of recognizing our responsibility towards the natural world.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation at a charity event.
Mozambique is having an economic resurgence but still four out of 10 people there have HIV or AIDS...There's astounding conditions but what I was left with...was the power of the human spirit there and the fact these people have been through so much and they were still dancing in the streets
The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it. As for myself, I'm not really sure who I am. I change every day.
My career should adapt to me. Fame is like a VIP pass wherever you want to go.
I lived in Hollywood and, ironically, I didn't know you could just go out and get an agent and go on auditions and try and become an actor, I thought it was like a Masonic thing, like a blood line you had to belong to – until I was 13. Then I realised what you had to do. It is the one thing I know I want to do for the rest of my life.
As a young boy, I was obsessed with endangered species and the extinct species that men killed off. Biology was the subject in school that I was incredibly passionate about.
Mother Earth is hurting. And she needs a generation of thoughtful, caring and active kids like all of you to protect her for the future.
Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth.
What do we plant when we plant a tree? _x000D_ A thousand things that we daily see, _x000D_ We plant the spire that out-towers the crag, _x000D_ We plant the staff for our country's flag; _x000D_ We plant the shade from the hot sun free, _x000D_ We plant all these when we plant the tree.
To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.
Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.
I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century... This is a problem that cannot be postponed.
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