Pandora on Earth
If you’re a big Avatar fan, then James Cameron’s Oscar loss may have left your eyes swollen and your popcorn soggy. But if Avatar grabbed your attention with its story of greedy humans ravaging the alien moon Pandora for a mineral that Earth needs, then here are a handful of real-life stories, from good ol’ planet Earth, that might make the plight of Pandora’s native Na’vi seem eerily familiar.
First we have members of the Dongria Kondh tribe from Orissa, India, talking to the tribal-rights group Survival International about their quest to save their sacred mountain from a large mining company. The company wants to raze a huge part of their lush, bountiful, holy mountain to mine not “unobtanium,” but bauxite. Wait, James… are you getting this down?
Survival International took out an ad in the film industry magazine Varietyto appeal directly to Cameron for help. Says Survival International director Stephen Corry: “Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything,’ for the Dongria Kondh, life and land have always been deeply connected. The fundamental story of Avatar – if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids – is being played out today in the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, India.”
Evil “Sky People” and Avatar Sands
More than 50 environmental groups from eight countries coughed up $20,000 to take out an ad in the Oscar edition of Variety declaring that Pandora’s precious unobtanium was akin to Canada’s tar sands. Green groups likened oil companies like Exxon, BP, and Shell to the evil “Sky People,” and declared that they are ruthlessly destroying the environment of Canada’s Alberta province in their quest to wring oil from the dirt.
The full page ad cried: “James Cameron, a Canadian born and raised near the majestic boreal forest, has shined a light on a dark reality. Help us stop tar sands development and the pipelines that will lock us into 30 more years of tar sands oil instead of transitioning to a clean energy future.”
The Chinese Government Says No to Avatar, and to Environmental Debate
What is the best way to get Chinese to stop worrying about the environmental and social impacts of the massive Three Gorges Dam project, which dammed the Yangtze River? Simple, says the Chinese government, just don’t let the folks see Avatar, lest they find similarities between the Na’vi being forced from their “Home Tree” and the 1.24 million Chinese who were forced to relocate when the land above the dam was flooded to form a reservoir.
The Communist Party got so jittery about the movie, it pulled it off almost 1600 2-D screens throughout the country and replaced it with Confucius, a domestically produced biopic about the renowned Chinese philosopher.
Life Imitates Art Imitating Life
The movie crew behind Avatar, had a moment of art-imitating-life-imitating-art when they were on location in the rainforests of Hawaii. Producer Jon Landau told reporters in London: “When we went to Hawaii to rehearse with the cast, we actually saw clear-cutting, and it stopped us and sort of, I think, had a profound effect on everybody, just watching the clear-cutting going on.”
Around the world, there are plenty of other sad stories where pristine environments and native people are threatened by corporate interests, but maybe it’s time now to go back to the escapism and the awesome blue people.
