From Larry West,
Your Guide to Environmental Issues.
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Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s newest creative project is co-writing, producing and narrating a feature-length documentary film about global warming.

A Film for Earth's Eleventh Hour
According to his publicist, Keleigh Thomas, DiCaprio has started production on "11th Hour," which examines the issue of global warming and offers “visionary and practical solutions” for reversing the harmful effects of global warming and restoring many of Earth’s fragile ecosystems.

"Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity," DiCaprio said in a statement. “We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet.”

A Creative Collaboration
The film, scheduled for release in autumn 2006, is a collaboration between DiCaprio and Tree Media Group founders Lelia Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, who are sisters. The three have worked together before on two short films, “Global Warming” and “Water Planet,” which can be viewed on DiCaprio’s web site.

DiCaprio's History of Activism
For Leonardo DiCaprio, 31, who received Oscar nominations his role as Howard Hughes in “The Aviator” (2004) and for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” (1993), environmental activism is nothing new.

In 1998, he started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to foster awareness of environmental issues through participation with many outstanding organizations, ranging from the National Resources Defense Council to National Geographic Kids. DiCaprio also has lobbied hard for universal access to clean water and for reducing fossil fuel emissions and other greenhouse gases worldwide.

DiCaprio's Personal Commitment to Environmental Issues
At home in Los Angeles, DiCaprio and his family drive hybrid cars, and he was one of several film stars who drove hybrid cars to the 2005 Academy Awards ceremony in a celebrity event organized by Global Green USA to highlight the urgent need for personal and political action to address global warming.

"I own a Toyota Prius; it's a step in the right direction,” DiCaprio said in an interview for Hybridcars.com. “It's a gasoline-electric midsize car that gets about 50 miles per gallon. We have the technology to make every car produced in America today just as clean, cheap and efficient."