Leonardo DiCaprio enlisted fellow environmental campaigners to help him complete the ice bucket challenge, while casting a critical eye over Canada’s tar sands before nominating the heads of oil and gas firms.

The actor and environmental activist is in Alberta, the epicentre of the oil sands industry, to reportedly research a documentary, Toronto’s Globe and Mail reports.

His visit caused a bit of a stir, the newspaper said, leading to a government minister and oil official defending the industry, particularly after DiCaprio narrated a short film, in which he says humans must “fight to keep this carbon in the ground”.

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DiCaprio’s challenge was filmed with members of Fort Chipewyan, a community on Lake Athabasca, and was posted to his official Facebook page this morning.

In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Dave Grohl Potentially the best one so far: Dave Grohl and the guys from Foo Fighters recreated the infamous scene from Carrie YouTube/Foo Fighters In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Lady Gaga Lady Gaga managed to keep an admirably straight face as she poured what looked like a solid silver bowl of cold water over herself HipHopForever/Youtube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Homer Simpson Fans were overjoyed when their favourite yellow cartoon character got involved in the campaign to raise money to help those suffering from ALS. As per usual with Homer Simpson, things escalated quickly YouTube/Fox In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Reece Witherspoon One of those who have arrived slightly late on the scene, actress Reece Witherspoon looks nervous but resolute as she has a bucket of ice-cold water chucked over her head Instagram/Reece Witherspoon In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Lily Allen Lily wore a bikini as she self-administered her bucket of icy water. She thanked Jess Glynne for the nomination, and passed the challenge onto Mark Ronson, Millie Mackintosh and rapper Giggs Instagram/lilyallen In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Daisy Lowe Celebrity ALS Ice Bucket Challenge videos seem to be coming in faster than we can watch them - model Daisy Lowe is one of the most recent to get involved. She was nominated by Sun journalist Dan Wooton, and passed it on to radio presenter Nick Grimshaw and Abbey Clancy YouTube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Bill Gates One of the first to go viral on YouTube, Bill Gates had freezing water tipped over him in a bid to raise millions of dollars to fight the illness ALS thegatesnotes/YouTube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge George W. Bush It felt like quite an important moment when the former President of the United States accepted nominations from his daughter Jenna Bush Hager, golfing champion Rory McIlroy, Woody Johnson, and Jim Harbaugh. He nominated 'my friend Bill Clinton' George W.Bush/Facebook In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Jimmy Fallon In an official letter this week, the ALS Association said: 'Never before have been in a better position to fuel our fight against this disease.' NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Tom Hiddleston Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis affects the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons degenerate and die which makes it increasingly difficult to move muscles YouTube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Rita Ora There is no known cause of ALS, though there is a proven hereditary factor in some cases REX/Broadimage In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Taylor Swift There is also no known cure, though the millions being raised by the ALS association will go towards researching these great unknowns TUBEBREAKINGNEWS/YouTube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Oprah Winfrey The illness is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, named after the all-time great baseball player from the early 20th Century whose time at the top ended when he was stricken with the illness in 1939 In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Mark Zuckerberg The Facebook founder is unarguably the master of the challenge, who – following his drenching – saunters off TV iGosu/YouTube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Justin Bieber Bieber's first attempt was pretty naff: he didn’t quite get it and decided not to use ice or a bucket to complete the challenge. Obviously, the internet moaned at him and he was brilliantly peer pressured into having another go Swaggy Bieber/Youtube In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Justin Timberlake Celebrities have been nominating one another to do the challenge In pictures: The famous do the ice bucket challenge Christiano Ronaldo and Marcelo The challenge is now making its way over to this side of the Atlantic, former Manchester United players Paul Scholes and Gary Neville both doused themselves in cold water for a terminally ill fan MaximumFootballHD/YouTube

He said he duly accepted David Beckham’s nomination and happened “to be here with a few friends in Alberta, learning more about the Canadian tar sands, its impact on our climate and the way they affect our lands, water and heath of the indigenous communities that live here”.

Standing alongside two chiefs from the local communities and the president of an environment organisation, he confirmed that he will be donating to the “very worthy cause” of the ALS Association before the group then made nominations themselves.

“My friends Chief Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation challenges Dave Collyer, President of Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers; Chief Courtoreille of the Mikisew Cree First Nation challenges Mark Little of Suncor Canada; and The Sierra Club President Michael Brune challenges Shell CEO Ben van Beurden,” DiCaprio captioned his video with on Facebook.

DiCaprio, 39, then nominated Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister.

His utilising the ice bucket challenge to push forward a good cause is similar to the move made by fellow actor Matt Damon, who did his dare with toilet water due to his founding a clean water charity.

DiCaprio is in the Canadian region with award-winning director Darren Aronofsky, the latter of whom has been tweeting about the trip.

Aronofsky said last week: "sober lecture last night by erin flanagan @pembina on #tarsands. less than 1% of mined lands certified reclaimed. woodland caribou doomed."

According to Just Jared, DiCaprio also donated $100,000 to the ALS Association.

In the Carbon video, which names one of its executive producers as Leo’s father George, DiCaprio the younger states: “The fossil fuel industry continues to pull that carbon out of the ground – they drill, they extract, making trillions of dollars, they frack, they mine, earning astronomical profits.”

He says that we need to avoid the “catastrophic warming of the planet”.

On Sunday, Alberta Energy Minister Diana McQueen said the oil-sands development was “transparent and responsible”, according to Globe and Mail.

“We respect people’s right to their opinions. At the same time, we believe reasonable people recognize the world needs all forms of energy, including fossil fuels, developed responsibly to meet its needs.