Australian woman screams at Leonardo DiCaprio about fracking on indigenous land

An Australian woman screamed at Leonardo DiCaprio about fracking on indigenous people’s lands as he arrived at the Cop26 conference in Glasgow this week.

The 46-year-old Hollywood star attended the second day of Cop26, the global United Nations summit on climate crisis.

DiCaprio was present when US president Joe Biden pledged to work with the European Union and other nations to reduce overall methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.

As the actor was entering the main hall, he was surrounded by cameras and fans, when a woman confronted him.

“Leo, talk to Indigenous people about fracking on their land!” the woman, identified as art gallery owner Rikki Dank, shouted. DiCaprio kept his head down at the time of commotion, while his security personnel encircled him.

Ms Dank added: “Mr DiCaprio, talk to indigenous women in Australia about fracking practices on their land! The government just gave $50million to frack their country. The Australian government is fracking their land.”

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of recovering gas and oil from shale rock. Well operators drill vertically through rock then force a highly-pressurised mix of sand, water and chemicals against a rock formation. The liquid breaks apart, or fractures, the rock layers to release deposits of gas and oil.

But studies have found that fracking can induce earthquake activity large enough for people to feel. This is possibly due to increasing fluid pressures within the rock that relieve stress on faults and allow them to slip, according to the Seismological Society of America.

Caprio, known for his roles in Titanic, Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Revenant, is a passionate environmentalist and was widely expected to make an appearance in the hope of persuading the likes of Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, and Jair Bolsonaro to agree on a landmark deal to safeguard the future of the planet.

Read More

Cop26 Glasgow news live: Biden says forests ‘indispensable’

What are the Covid rules at Cop26?

Cop26 off to shaky start as queues and chaos mar first 24 hours