Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is taking some heat after his foundation awarded grants to the Resources Legacy Fund, a dark money group, which then donated to a private law firm suing oil companies over climate change..According to Fox News reports, emails reviewed by the company show conversations between Dan Emmett, a major philanthropist, and Ann Carlson, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate professor..The emails revealed in 2017 that the two worked with law firm Sher Edling to raise money for its efforts to sue oil companies over alleged climate change deception on behalf of state and local governments, this is according to the emails obtained by watchdog group Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) and which shared them with Fox News Digital.."In their emails, Emmett and Carlson discuss how Chuck Savitt, Sher Edling's director of strategic client relationships, had sought Emmett's support and had already received support from Terry Tamminen in his role as the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's CEO, a title he held between 2016 and 2019," Fox News reported.."When the emails were exchanged, Carlson, who is now a senior Biden administration official, served as co-director of the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, the advisory board which Emmett still chairs."."Chuck Savitt who is heading this new organization behind the lawsuits has been seeking our support," Emmett wrote to Carlson on July 22, 2017 Fox News said.."Terry Tamminen in his new role with the DiCaprio Foundation has been a key supporter.".According to Fox News reports, Emmett also forwarded a message Savitt sent him three days earlier on July 19, 2022 asking for his support.."Savitt mentioned in that email that Sher Edling's first lawsuits were filed with the support of the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience and Adaptation, a fund managed at the time by dark money group Resources Legacy Fund (RLF)," Fox News said.."Wanted to let you know that we filed the first three lawsuits supported by the Collective Action Fund on Monday," Savitt had told Emmett.."These precedent setting cases call on 37 of the world's leading fossil fuel companies to take responsibility for the devastating damage sea level rise caused by their greenhouse gas emissions, is having on coastal communities.".Fox News said Savitt also offered to set up a meeting between Emmett and Vic Sher, a partner at Sher Edling. .The email correspondence took place two months before the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation publicly announced it would contribute $20 million in grants to various climate and conservation causes. .DiCaprio traveled on gas-guzzling private jets, and yachts all while funding climate nuisance lawsuits.."DiCaprio's past fuel-powered travels included six roundtrip trips on private jets over the course of just six weeks in 2014. Sony Pictures Studios arranged for DiCaprio to take a private jet from California to New York during the period between April and May 2014, according to internal Sony emails published by WikiLeaks in 2015," Fox News said..The United Nations (UN) also appointed DiCaprio as a "messenger of peace" for his work on climate change in 2014..In 2016, DiCaprio reportedly flew 8,000 miles via private jet from Europe to New York City to accept an award for his environmental activism. He then returned to Europe for a charity event..That same year, Fox News reported, DiCaprio took a private jet to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. At the summit, the WEF gave DiCaprio its Crystal Award for his "leadership in tackling the climate crisis.". DiCaprio's foundation did not respond to Fox News request for comment.
