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Director James Cameron compares oilsands to rainforest destruction
Featured | Edmonton Journal | Hanneke Brooymans | September 28, 2010
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FORT MCMURRAY — James Cameron likened the destruction of Brazil’s rainforest to the impact of oilsands development on Alberta on Monday.
The Hollywood mogul said the oilsands seem to be on a similar scale to Brazil when it comes to the area of land being used by the energy industry.
“The Belo Monte dam project is a $16-billion project, and it’s one of about 60 big hydroelectric dam projects that are planned in the Amazon basin,” said the world-famous, Canadian-born director after he landed in Fort McMurray for a tour of the oilsands.
“So it’s the same sort of thing in a general sense, which is that you have this resource there, in that case it’s energy. But the cost of harvesting it is enormous in terms of the forest.”
Cameron said everyone needs to be aware of the impacts of these colossal projects. “There are obviously environmental effects of this kind of major development here,” he said. “And we need to look carefully at our energy policy. We need to look to the future, at how that’s shaping things. We need to make sure that the Earth is protected and that the rights of indigenous people are protected.”
Cameron’s life has become an unexpected global mission since he filmed Avatar, the director confessed on the tarmac of the Fort McMurray airport Monday evening.
Cameron had just had his first view of the oilsands.
He said he made Avatar because of his concern for environmental issues, concerns that stem back to his childhood in Ontario.
“The funny thing is that when I made Avatar I thought, ‘Well, you know, I’m an artist, I’m a filmmaker.’ I express myself through movies and documentaries. This will be my big statement and then I’ll just go relax for a while. And it was quite the opposite.
“That was just the start of this journey, which has become almost a kind of a mission in and of itself. And I can’t make another Avatar quickly enough to be able to comment on the things that are happening right now. A lot of major decisions I think need to be made by the human race in the next five to 10 years.”
Avatar focused on a humanoid species living on a planet called Pandora. The inhabitants were forced to fight a pitched battle to protect their homeland from a private army pursuing a valuable mineral. It was fiction. Now Cameron finds himself travelling the world, visiting the real thing.
“They’re brought to my attention because they’re real Pandoras, in a way. People are saying, ‘That fantasy that you put up on the screen in Avatar, that’s my life. that’s happening to me right now.’
In April, he flew to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil to help the Juruna and Arana native bands protest against a planned mega project, called the Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu River. The dam would flood about 500 square kilometres of land, most of that forest, and would force approximately 25,000 people from their homes.
Soon after that he took a swing at Alberta’s oilsands, calling them a black eye on Canada’s image as an environmental leader. That prompted an invitation from Premier Ed Stelmach, who vowed to show him it’s not so.
On Monday, Cameron took his first exploratory flight over the oilsands in a helicopter to get a sense of the scope and scale of the development.
The flight was the beginning of a three-day trek that will see him talk to First Nations people, oilsands company executives and government officials in an attempt to learn more about the industry and its impacts.
Of all of the items on his to-do list, Cameron said he wants most to meet with First Nations leaders.
“I get to hear their very real concerns about their health and the welfare of the environment, the animals that they need culturally and for their livelihood.
“The way I look at it is the indigenous people are the ones who speak for nature. Our society goes in and says, ‘What can these natural resources do for me?’ Nobody speaks for nature. And what I see everywhere that I go is it’s the indigenous people that step up and say, ‘We speak for nature.’ Because that’s their culture, that’s what they believe and feel.”
His own concerns grew out of his childhood on the Niagara Peninsula where he said he spent all his time as a kid in the woods and loved it.
“I was deeply affected as a teenager at the start of the environmental movement by thinking about pollution and so on. We had a lot of it in that area.”
Cameron insists he’s not antibusiness.
“I believe in business. I want to hear what the oilsands people, the oil company people have to say about what they’re doing to mitigate the environmental impacts and make sure it’s safe.
“And I want to talk to government agencies about what they’re doing to monitor this and make sure the right data is being taken and that public health and the environment are being protected.
“What I know right now for sure: this thing is complex, there are a lot of moving pieces to it.”
Tagged with: first nations, alberta, syncrude, avatarsands, james cameron, rainforest
