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Environmentalists see oilsands in Avatar
News Articles | Vancouver Sun | Canwest | Amy Husser | March 04, 2010
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OTTAWA — Environmental and aboriginal groups have launched a new ad that compares their fight against Canada’s oilsands to the intergalactic good-versus-evil battle portrayed in the blockbuster movie Avatar.
The special Oscar edition of the Hollywood trade publication Variety hit newsstands Thursday containing a full-page ad lobbying for Avatar to take home the best-picture award because of what environmentalists say are its links to Alberta’s oilsands.
“James Cameron, a Canadian-born, and raised near the majestic boreal forest, has shined a light on a dark reality,” the ad reads. “James Cameron & Avatar . . . You have our vote!”
The black and blue ad — presumably representing oil and the indigenous population featured in the blockbuster movie respectively — has the words “Avatar Sands” printed over an image of dirt roads and tailing ponds.
The ad is from a coalition of 50-plus environmental and aboriginal organizations.
A yellow 797 Heavy Hauler truck sits on the edge of the ad since, the consortium says, the model was one of the first trucks used to mine the oilsands and also figures prominently in the opening scenes of the film.
The plot of director Cameron’s latest project — a revolutionary high-tech film that reportedly cost more than $300 million to make and was developed over a 14-year period — is focused around a battle between military might, driven by corporate greed, and an indigenous, nature-attuned population on the lush moon Pandora, located light years away from Earth.
Jake Sully, a former marine confined to a wheelchair, is recruited to win the hearts and minds of the Na’vi through his avatar, a remotely controlled biological body built in the image of the local population. That local population happens to be living on top of a massive store of a rare and highly valuable mineral that is key to solving the world’s energy crisis.
“There’s a lot of themes in Avatar that parallel what’s happening in the oilsands,” said Mike Hudema, spokesman for Greenpeace in Alberta, who said the ad initiative is backed by groups in both Canada and the U.S.
But oilsands representatives fired back Thursday, saying the coalition needs to stop “blurring the lines” between fact and fiction.
“We invite these activists back to planet Earth to discuss the appropriate balance between environmental protection, economic growth and a safe and reliable supply of energy,” said Janet Annesley, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, in a statement.
“Avatar is like one big advertisement for our fight against Canada’s tarsands oil,” added Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. “This is one of the most destructive projects on earth.”
The effort by the 55-group consortium — which includes major environmental groups from eight countries, such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund — comes just ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards, where Avatar is nominated for nine Oscars. The movie broke box office records and became the high-grossing movie yet, raking in nearly $7.1 billion since its premier 11 weeks ago.
Cameron has said he hopes the strong environmental message apparent in the film creates an “emotional reaction” for its audiences, stewarding change.
“Avatar asks us all to be warriors for the Earth; this beautiful, fragile miracle of a planet that we have right here is our land — not ours to own, but ours to defend,” he said during a recent live interview with radio host and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell.
The award-winning director, however, has never spoken out specifically against the oilsands.
“Avatar is not here to teach or preach, it’s here to create an emotional reaction. When you see the tree fall . . . when you see the Na’vi people being pushed out of the way as if they are insignificant, you feel an emotional reaction,” he explained. “That sense of emotional outrage is exactly what we need to feel about what’s happening right now on our own planet.”
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