A new study from SDSU researchers suggests that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Academy Awards acceptance speech may have triggered record levels of public interest in climate change.

The study shows that record-breaking numbers of Tweets and Google searches about climate change followed DiCaprio’s speech, although coverage in traditional news media was unaffected.

The clear and surprise Oscar winner was climate change,” said SDSU adjunct assistant professor John W. Ayers, in a statement. Ayers pioneered the study along with doctoral candidate Eric C. Leas.

“These results suggest that celebrities who champion social causes really can make a difference,” Ayers said.

DiCaprio used his Best Actor acceptance speech as a platform to advocate for action on climate change to an audience of 34.5 million live viewers. According to SDSU, the research team used public archives to acquire their data for the study. The goal was to investigate global engagement with climate change, beginning on Jan. 1, 2011.

When the team focused on Feb. 28, 2016, the day of DiCaprio’s speech, they discovered a record-breaking increase in tweet and Google searches mentioning the words “global warming,” “climate change” and similar terms.

“We can directly assess how the population is engaging with a message in real time based on the timing and content of news media, social media postings and Internet searches,” Ayers said.

There were at least 250,000 unique tweets related to climate change on the day DiCaprio gave his speech, according to the study. That demonstrates a 636-percent increase based on historical trends.

Google searches for “climate change” or “global warming” went up by 261 percent and 210 percent, according to SDSU researchers. A noticable peak continued for the following four days, and search queries often reflected specific phrases from his speech.

“Ideally we will see more individuals in the public eye who have remained silent on climate change speak up, knowing their voice can make a difference,” Ayers noted.