Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian & More Respond to the Devastating Australian Fires

Getty Images / Vivien Killilea

The Australian continent is burning on a scale never before seen and celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, and Selena Gomez are urging their followers to contribute to the relief effort.

The peak fire season is only just beginning and according to the New York Times, fires have already burned about 14.5 million acres. That’s more than triple the area destroyed by the 2018 fires in California and six times the size of the 2019 fires in Amazonia.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s Earth Alliance organization committed $5 million to Amazon fire relief effort, took to Instagram to share the news that, “500 million (!!) animals are estimated dead because of the bushfires. Over 20 people have died and thousands of homes have burned to the ground. The fires have spewed 2/3 of the nation’s national annual CO2 emissions.”

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#Regram #RG @gretathunberg: Australia is on fire. And the summer there has only just begun. 2019 was a year of record heat and record drought. Today the temperature outside Sydney was 48,9°C. 500 million (!!) animals are estimated dead because of the bushfires. Over 20 people have died and thousands of homes have burned to ground. The fires have spewed 2/3 of the nations national annual CO2 emissions, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The smoke has covered glaciers in distant New Zealand (!) making them warm and melt faster because of the albedo effect. And yet. All of this still has not resulted in any political action. Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires That has to change. And it has to change now. My thoughts are with the people of Australia and those affected by these devastating fires.

A post shared by Leonardo DiCaprio (@leonardodicaprio) on

Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner used their Instagram stories to show their followers how to contribute to relief efforts, including wildlife rescue charities.

Kardashian also tweeted, “Climate change is real” and retweeted a post from Senator Bernie Sanders.

See how other celebrities are responding below.
Words by Isabelle Hore-Thorburn
Weekend Staff Writer

Isabelle is an Australian writer based in Berlin.