The Revenant star, Leonardo DiCaprio, finally won the very elusive Academy award after previously being nominated six times. During the ceremony, the 41 year old actor used his Oscar acceptance speech in order to shed light on one of the most pressing issues the planet is suffering through at present - Climate Change.
DiCaprio has long been an advocate for environmental issues. In his speech, the actor spoke about how The Revenant is clearly about humanity's relationship with the environment. He revealed that during the filming of the movie, the crew had to go through lengths in order to find snow.
"Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating" read a part of his speech.
Scientists from all over the globe have since commented on Leo's controversial speech and according to some, the quips by the Oscar winning actor might not be that far off from the truth.
A team of scientists from the Department of Geography at Rutgers University recently released a report detailing the slow decline of snow coverage throughout the years. According to the data they have accumulated which dates back from 1967, there is a significant difference between the snow fall in the past four decades.
"Northern Hemisphere snow cover during 1988 and 1989 was at its lowest extent since the advent of reliable satellite snow-cover monitoring in 1972; running some 8 to 10 percent below the 18-year annual mean of 25.7 million km squared [9.9 million miles squared]" explained David Robinson a professor from the university.
The team agrees that the disappearing snow brings a multitude of ramifications. Robinson in particular explains that if there is no snow light gets absorbed into the ground where it melts and becomes permafrost. Permafrost, the scientist reveal, can release methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas.
