University of Miami Special Report: Climate Change

University of Miami Special Report: Climate Change

  • The Complex Climate
    • Solving the Climate Puzzle
    • — Hurricanes on Demand
    • — Corals Struggle to Survive
    • — Eyes on the Arctic
    • — Predicting the Future Through the Past
    • — Hovering Over Environmental Research
    • — Crunching Data at CCS
    • — Climate’s Impact Through the Ages
    • — At the 26.5 Parallel
    • — Flooding Events Increase on Beaches
    • — Remote Sensing the World’s Oceans
  • Built Environment
    • A Resilient and Innovative Future
    • — Building a Sustainable U
    • — Mapping Forgotten Places
    • — Zoning in on Evacuation Plans
    • — Miami Beach Reimagined
    • — The ‘Brush’ to Save Water
    • — ‘Living In Different Times’
    • — Sustainable Development in the Brazilian Amazon
    • — Anatomy of a Smart City
  • Renewable Energy
    • The Power Struggle
    • — UM Student Launches USolar Project
    • — Beyond the Battery
    • — Methane as a Fuel Source
    • — Taking Electrons for a Spin
  • Impact on Health
    • Planet and People in Peril
    • — Battling Vector-Borne Diseases
    • — Climate Change’s Unexpected Impact
    • — Healthy Buildings Help People
    • — Every Breath We Take
    • — Turning Down the Heat
    • — Nurses at the Ready
    • — Dangerous Migration
    • — One Water
  • Politics of (Climate) Change
    • The Spin Cycle of Climate Change Policy
    • — DiCaprio Visits Rosenstiel
    • — IPCC: Global Perspective Through a Local Lens
    • — The City Beautiful Confronts Climate Change
    • — The Art of Climate Change
    • — Visualizing Sea-Level Rise
    • — Communicating the Climate
    • — Inside the Abess Center
    • — Investigating Glacier Health
    • — Collaborating with Teachers
    • — Exploring the Invisible
    • — Sea Secrets Tell All

DiCaprio Visits Rosenstiel

Leonardo at UM
Image is not available
Image is not available
Leonardo at UM
Image is not available
Image is not available

Oscar-winning actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio visited the Rosenstiel School prior to going to Paris for the climate change conference.

On the day the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened in Paris on November 30, one of the world’s most recognizable actors stepped onto the Virginia Key campus of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

There were no paparazzi or throng of fans for Leonardo DiCaprio to negotiate as he made his way through the gate.

He was there to learn, to hear firsthand from scientists about their research into climate change and its growing impacts.

DiCaprio, an Oscar-winning actor and one of the strongest voices heard today calling on the world’s leaders to take a stand against climate change, toured the campus and the school’s SUSTAIN tank, a unique hurricane simulator capable of generating Category 5 hurricane-force winds.

He spent time with Ben Kirtman, professor of atmospheric sciences and a rock star in his field as a coordinating lead author for a chapter in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report released in 2013-2014 that concluded the world is getting warmer and humans are at fault.

DiCaprio spent more than three hours on campus before telling his documentary film crew that he would see them in Paris at the climate change conference. His visit was mentioned in a recent Rolling Stone article.

A few days before the Paris accord was reached on December 12, 2015, DiCaprio made a speech to hundreds of mayors and leaders from around the world, a meeting that was hosted by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

"We gather here on what may be the most important conference of anyone’s lifetime," DiCaprio told the audience. "Climate change is the most fundamental and existential threat to our species."

DiCaprio is working on a documentary about climate change, having traveled the planet for his work. He says the world’s poor will be the first to experience climate change’s harshest impacts.

In 1998 DiCaprio established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to bring awareness to conservation and climate change. In 2014, he was designated the UN Messenger of Peace for Climate Change and received the Clinton Global Citizen Award.

- Peter E. Howard / UM News

About the Photo

Oscar-winning actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio (in cap) tours the Rosenstiel School and talks climate change with Ben Kirtman (yellow shirt), professor of atmospheric science at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Photo courtesy: Diana Udel, Rosenstiel School.

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