For the fourth time since its premiere, I sat down and watched “Avatar,” this time on my living room TV. As with every other time, I sat and got lost in Pandora.
Yeah, yeah, the story is cliché. I’ve heard that a million times. But the story is incredibly relevant to today. Thanks, James Cameron.
I would have hoped that such a film, with its record-high popularity, would spark some environmentalist activism. Or at least that it would enhance the “green” movement.
How do millions of people watch that movie and then keep contributing to the deforestation and pollution movement that has been sweeping the globe for more than a century like a plague affecting nature?
The storyline of “Avatar” is cliché, as critics have pointed out (even if they love the movie). But what “Avatar” hones on — the real, physical connection people have with nature — helps to show a cliché film in an original light.
That story of man vs. nature is more pertinent to today than it has ever been. It’s our ongoing reality.
We believe we can defeat nature. But a victory in the battle against trees or the battle against our ocean or the battle to take as prisoner all the natural resources in Earth’s brigade is a stupid conquest. We’re enslaving and killing what is meant to live and produce to keep us alive. To make an enemy of the Earth is like making any enemy of the very organs needed to keep us breathing.
We’ll never win the war.
All wars result in tragedy; and ours is the greatest and most widespread of them all: The tragedy of the commons.
Today, 5,000 barrels of oil have joined the thousands of other barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Today, more of the ozone layer dissolved.
Today, people young and old died because there’s no water for them to drink.
Today, another machine cut down another forest of trees.
The list is infinite. But it’s difficult to make it mean something to you, because the problem requires not just your cooperation, but everyone’s. That in itself is what makes this problem so great and so tragic: It is everyone’s.
We have killed our mother, as “Avatar’s” Jake Sully tells Eywa, the Na’vi’s mother goddess.
When we lose nature, we lose humanity. We’re already losing it through our detachment and destruction of all things natural.
When all the problems others in non-developed countries face — scarcity of water, disease, conflict over natural resources — reach America, we’ll understand what we’ve done and what we’re doing. When our problems are no longer just economic, we’ll understand that it should not have been our mission to supersede nature. It should not have been our mission to treat it as other than and apart from ourselves, to exploit it and to kill it.
We have to understand the symbiosis, the innate connection between humanity and Earth. Why are the planets surrounding us not inhabited by life? There’s no mother, no source for life.
Those peoples that have realized this have been oppressed by a Western model that thrives off domination. And that model is spreading as technology shrinks the globe.
What we need to know is all this can only lead to one thing: Mass suicide.
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maelzo 2 years ago
Agreed, we should all follow the example that James Cameron has set for us. Everyone, go buy a 8,272 sq ft mansion to live in (source: http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/james-camerons-house/). If James Cameron lives in one it must be green and good for the earth. I'm sure he also only travels by private jet so we should all refuse to fly commercial, the carpooling of the sky. In all honesty Cameron is another rich hypocrite who think he has earned the right to live how he wants but the rest of us must do everything in our power to go as green as possible. "Do as I say, not as I do."
Terminate_Damnation 2 years ago
Yeah, I wonder why people, after watching a movie that cost the GDP of a small country to make, didn't turn around and start a green revolution.
Stupid people.
brandeis 2 years ago
Hey, Massachusetts has like no clean water right now and it's still truckin'. No 'Mass' suicides yet, get it?!
Haha, you astound as usual with the sheer vacuousness of your purple, purple prose. We are nature, fool. Nothing exists now that wasn't always here. Everything is nature. It may not be Pochahontas, and it may not be daisies and shining on your brother, but that's Disney nature, and this is real nature.
EsSmith 2 years ago
Firstly, I would like to personally thank Ms. Meyers for what appears to be her first article not blatantly attacking Greeks or the male population as a whole.
I would also like to congratulate you, Brooke, for being green, and taking all of your criticisms to heart. I'm incredibly impressed that, since you're against all of the oil being used, that you refrain from driving or even riding in cars. Equally impressive is your choice not to live in a home that was built where trees once were. So many trees have been knocked down to build houses for people that I respect your choice to boycott houses.
The very sad truth is that most of us prefer the destruction of our precious nature. We selfishly want desks, tables, chairs, and other furniture that requires wood. We inexplicably crave for deforestation resulting in better highway systems throughout our country. We fail to understand that saving nature should be more important than a text-book for science class.
On a day-to-day basis, we as a whole ignorantly attempt to utilize nature for our own petty wants. It's painfully obvious that in order to solve the problems of the non-developed countries that you talk about, we ourselves should remain undeveloped. Why only you and I seem to be able to understand this is beyond me.
While we as a nation are making what most people feel to be an impressive attempt to become more “green” (hybrid cars, increased recycling stations, and more efficient light-bulbs all come to mind), you correctly point out that this nowhere near enough. It seems the only acceptable answer is to completely abandon technology and go back to a more natural way of life. After reading your article, it is clear that you have already done this, so I thank you. We should all commend you for not taking advantage of our earth.
I’ll be sure to think of you the next time I destroy the earth by driving to Wal-Mart.
Jaco99 2 years ago
Dear Gaia/Earth-Spirit,
Oh yeah, and for Christmas this year I want a big, red, eco-friendly fire truck. I'll leave extra organic cookies and fertilizer, or whatever it is that you eat, next to the fireplace as a prior show of thanks.
Your ever-green friend, Jaco99
P.S.- I miss Max Avery and his stable of writers. Could you please rejuvenate them with your Gaia powers?