An Environmentalist can be anything from an animal rights activist to the average nature lover. It is important to establish that the environmentalist stakeholder captures a wide range of people. What all these people share is a love for mother nature and furthermore an interest in protecting it. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio a very famous actor in movies such as Titanic and The Wolf of Wall Street is an avid advocate for ocean conservation. His organization the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation donates millions each year to charities trying to help the environmentThe image below shows Leo in 2014 at the Department of State’s Our Ocean Conference in Washington D.C. where he supports President Obama’s executive orders to further protect U.S. marine life.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio speaking at the State Department’s Our Ocean Conference.
DiCaprio also describes returning to a dive spot in Australia after twenty years saying “What once had looked like an endless underwater Utopia is now full of bleached coral reefs and massive dead zones.” This quote shows that not only does the destruction of the ocean’s play on the environmentalists conscience but also interferes with their enjoyment of the environment. If overfishing kills all the pretty fish and that overfishing results in sea turtles and other elegant creatures death as a result of bycatch diver will have nothing to look at, filmmakers will have nothing to film, and whale watchers will have nothing to watch. So even though unlike the fishermen their stake isn’t as much money related, environmentalist have just as big as a stake in the issue at hand. In order to make a difference more environmentalists need to act in the way Leonardo DiCaprio is acting even if they do not possess the means necessary to donate millions of dollars. It is still within our power to get involved whether it be volunteering to pick up trash off the beach or donating a few dollars to an ocean conservation charity. It us the environmentalists who need to unite and demand that our governments do more to combat the issues of overfishing and ocean acidification.
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