A favorite eco-themed movie reimagined through Facebook.

We live in a new age where information bytes fly at us in mini-packages and photos flash like fireflies across our screens. Naturally, we decided to run the plot of one of our favorite eco-movies through a Facebook filter. James Cameron is currently prepping Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 for production, so we thought we’d offer up some inspiration for his writing.

Jake Sully’s News Feed:

Jake Sully is blasting off to Pandora. (15 days ago)
10 people like this.

Grace Augustine You better get some rest, rookie. Don’t make me reveal my heart of gold too early.
Norm Spellman I’m ready to be your nerd counterpart, marine boy!
     Grace Augustine likes this.

Jake Sully added Pandora to the Places I’ve Been application.
Miles Quaritch I told you that you weren’t in Kansas anymore, son.
     Grace Augustine Total dislike!

Jake Sully I’m an avatar! I can walk! I can run! I can fly!
     Grace Augustine Don’t get cocky. (xoxo)

Jake Sully is now friends with Neytiri, Eytukan, and Mo’at. (12 days ago)

Jake Sully and three other friends shared a link: The Daily Pandora, Do you think Colonel Miles Quaritch really knows what he’s doing out here?  (10 days ago)

Jake Sully commented on Neytiri’s photo. (9 days ago)

Jake Sully Neytiri, Neytiri, Neytiri. HOT, babe. Hot.
Neytiri Irayo skxawng!
Jake Sully Did you just call me a moron?
     Neytiri likes this.

Jake Sully has changed his relationship status from Single to It’s Complicated. (8 days ago)

Jake Sully Why am I the only marine in Pandora who cares about the sacred spirit tree? (8 days ago)

Jake Sully  was tagged in Miles Quaritch’s photo.
Miles Quaritch commented on his photo.
Coming for you!
          Jake Sully Bring it.
               Miles Quaritch likes this.

Jake Sully and six other friends posted a photo. (6 days ago)

Jake Sully Kicking your ass in battle, @MilesQuaritch! Unabotaium this!

Jake Sully is now playing Mafia Wars. (5 days ago)

     Neytiri Seriously?
     Jake Sully Right. Sorry. Distracted for a second.

Grace Augustine Am I going to die here? What about my heart of gold? Dammit! (4 days ago)

Tsu’tey At least someone didn’t steal your girlfriend. @JakeSully 

Neytiri You suck @MilesQauritch! Go Na’vi!! (2 days ago)

Jake Sully So I’ll take it from here. (1 hour ago)
1 billion people like this.

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Hypocritical or helpful?

Today in Hill/Street Greens, from the Street…

The movie director James Cameron will embark on an eco-tour of Alberta, Canada’s tar sands (aka the controversial Canadian oil development), which he recently referred to as a “black eye” on the country. Did you know that Alberta native activist George Poitras of the Mikisew First Nation met with Cameron this weekend at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and that the Hollywood heavyweight pledged to visit the Athabasca oil sands project first-hand? Now the comparisons between his latest movie Avatar, Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves can truly get under way. Hoo-boy.

The director-cum-eco activist (which I’ve shortened to directovist) has been swigging at the blue Kool-aid he so expertly concocted last year with his environmentalist epic Avatar, which Cameron screened in New York on Saturday night to coincide with the U.N. gathering.

The Canadian-born director recently chastised Alberta in the press for causing a “black eye” to Canada’s environmental record – he’s also been touting his Academy Award-winning Sci-Fi epic’s debut on Blu-ray and DVD. It was released on Earth Day, natch. I’m torn here.

Joining the Canadian environmentalist bandwagon is a good thing. There is a groundswell of complaints that spillage and seepage at Alberta’s oil sands project in Canada’s north is a disaster in the making. But does James Cameron have to be the tip of the movement’s iceberg? (Sorry.) His popular movie is just so riddled with contradictions, after all.

With themes of colonialism, terrorism, malevolent corporations and destruction of the Earth, Avatar is very much a public service announcement pitched as a movie for all audiences. (It’s got action! And romance! And fantasy! And a political agenda somewhere that would make Al Gore…wait for it…green.) The film depicts invading, technology-worshiping, environment-ravaging humans who are set upon by an angry planet and its noble inhabitants. Fine. But then comes the hypocrisy. Cameron’s story clearly curses the proliferation of human technology. In Avatar, the science and machinery of humankind leads to soulless violence and destruction. It only serves to pollute the primitive but pristine paradise enjoyed by the indigenous peoples the director invented called the Na’vi.

But the process of setting that vision on the silver screen is an example of that science and machinery in action. Is there an industry more conflicted with its carbon footprint than movie-making? And is that industry best represented by James Cameron? His film cost upwards of $300 million to make. How many natural cycles of life on earth did it disrupt in the process? How much carbon dioxide was produced? Why is it okay for James Cameron to devote entire rooms filled with energy-gobbling computers to amplify his environmental morals? Especially in the wake of a media push that included Life magazine running a photo spread titled “Avatar: Jet-Setting with the Cast.” Dovetails with trumpeting a lighter carbon footprint campaign beautifully, doesn’t it?

I am curious to see if people will actually pick up on Cameron’s mixed message. His movie distributor certainly didn’t: Neither the DVD nor the Blue-ray boasts the eco-friendly packaging that Pixar’s Wall-E flaunted when it hit the shelves. So Avatar‘s green message has been imprinted on landfill-destined items.

Cameron says that his film’s environmental message is a lesson for all moviegoers to accept. He explains that our planet “will be a dying world if we don’t make some fundamental changes about how we view ourselves and how we view wealth. We’re going to have to live with less.”

Pixar, for its part, was clever. The company distanced itself from Wall-E‘s eco sensibilities, with director Andrew Stanton telling reporters, “I don’t have an ecological message to push. I don’t mind that it supports that kind of view.”

Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in Christopher Correa’s weekly column, Hill/Street Greens, examining the environmental deeds (and misdeeds) of Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

Image: jurvetson

The post James Cameron Derides Canada’s Oil Developments With Aid of Unobtanium-Fueled Ego appeared first on EcoSalon.

Last Wednesday night was cold and rainy in Los Angeles, but the streets of Hollywood were green. Crowded outside the legendary Avalon Hollywood, the green glitterati walked the artificial green grass carpet to party the night away at the 7th Annual Global Green Pre-Oscar bash.

Together with a host committee including James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron, the party was dubbed “Greener Cities for a Cooler Planet.” The soiree focused on raising funds and awareness for Global Green’s national initiatives to fight climate change. And witness to it all was this writer, planted right in the middle of the green carpet, sporting organic makeup and styled hair from Primrose Organics Salon and bedecked in my Carol Young Undesigned finest.

And just who tripped the light green-tastic by me that night? Serena Williams, Mel B, Nicole Scherzinger, Nia Vardalos, Juliette Lewis, Radha Mitchell worked the red, ahem, green carpet. Radha Mitchell (after patiently listening to me gush about her performance in “High Art” – she’s awesome) shared with me her excitement about spending the evening with like minded folk. Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren rushed by under a shared umbrella. Anna Getty talked to us about her upcoming cookbook, Anna Getty’s “Easy Green Organic.” And eco-expert Zem Joaquin showed off her Deborah Lindquist dress and eco-friendly jewelry.

Prior to stepping onto the green carpet, celebs and guests recorded an online video PSA entitled “I Am.” (This will soon be released by Global Green.) Written by environmentalist and famed TV writer (Thirtysomething, anyone?) Marshall Herskovitz, the PSA will “Raise awareness of the threats posed by global climate change to more than 150 million Americans and more than 2.75 billion globally,” according to Global Green.

Guests were also treated to a look at the new Chevy Volt Plug-In Electric Vehicle, to be publicly available by the end of the year. It can travel up to 40 miles on electric charge – and check this out, you can plug it into any old plug! Other sponsors of the event were Pureology, 360 Vodka, LACarGUY, Alternative Apparel, Centropolis and Newton Vineyard, among others.

Once inside, the guests were treated to cosmetic treatments by Purelogy and organic t-shirt screenings by (who else?) Alternative Apparel. They rocked it out to music by Benji and Joel Madden, Mia Maestro and Juliette Lewis. Suzy Amis Cameron’s previewed the eco-friendly couture she will wear Oscar night.

Matt Petersen, Global Green USA President and CEO, said, “By raising awareness about the threats posed by climate change and by holding our corporate and political leaders accountable, we can make a real difference. Americans can and must do something about climate change, and we can start by creating green buildings, schools, cities and communities that create green jobs, save money and improve our health.”

You can check out all the green folks talking Global Green with me at cocoeco magazine’s Youtube page.

Photos: Courtesy of Wire Image

James and Suzy Amis Cameron walk the green carpet

Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte party at the Global Green Pre-Oscar Party

Party goers rock out to Good Charlotte

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There’s nothing like the big screen to bring home the message of green, namely that our home is in peril. Or, as Michael Ruppert forecasts in Collapse (2009), on the brink of total ruin.

Then again, even the small screen can make a dent with viewers if the message is as compelling as the gruesome one in the extraordinary documentary, The Cove. All eyes were on activist Ric O’ Barry as he strapped a monitor on his chest and barged into an IWC convention playing horrific footage of the dolphin slaughter in Japan. Shocking stuff, yes. That’s ecotainment!

Screen and green go together like popcorn and Junior Mints, and that is why several films in the running for the most coveted prize in Hollywood appeal to our sense of survival as a species – one that sprang from a simple and pure beginning before industrialization began eroding what we treasure the most.

Take Avatar, James Cameron’s 3D odyssey which is among 10 best picture nominees vying for Oscar at the March 7 Academy Awards. It follows the saga of a vicious military machine from an ecologically-destroyed earth setting its sights on the distant planet, Pandora, which possesses a desirable mineral that can provide an alternative energy source. The story mirrors the shameful Native American experience of decimation by conquering imperialists with 10 times the modern weaponry of bows and arrows, thirsty for land acquisition at any human cost. How many times have we seen the same plot relived on the global stage?

The astounding production shot by Cameron with virtual cameras was so far-reaching, it even moved Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem to dress up like the fictional blue Na’vi aliens to combat Israel’s separation barrier. No matter where you stand politically, this film resonates with the historic experience of the displacement of indigenous populations.

Among the other environmental message films getting the nod at the 82nd annual Academy Awards:

Up, an Disney Pixar animated adventure that takes off when a 78-year-old balloon salesman and a chubby 8-year-old boyscout ride a balloon-powered bucket to the South American jungle, navigated with the tools of  little Russell’s “Wilderness Explore GPS” and the old man’s good common sense. They end up outwitting the villain who is trying to harm a flightless mother bird the boy names Kevin, and in the end they return the bird to her chicks and save the species from extinction.

Two eco exposes, Food Inc. and The Cove, are up for best documentary. Both are raw, daring endeavors on the part of the film makers who went to great lengths to reveal foul cover-ups in food production.

Food, Inc., the product of a growing food justice movement in the United States, explains why we are “hungry for change.” It is considered one of the most talked about films of the year, a painful chronicle of the inhumane agriculture industry and a strong case for sustainable, ethically raised beef and farm food versus ignorance and greed.

The Cove reminds us that in “the Greek era it was punishable by death to kill a dolphin,” and begs the question, “What is going on here?” Here, is Taiji, Japan, where an annual bloodbath involving the spear hacking of 23,000 adult dolphins and their young is covered up by a government protecting the fishing industry and the $150,000 made on “show dolphins.” Fishermen trapping and killing schools of dolphins are told they are eradicating “pests” who are eating up the fish supply. Meantime, the Japanese public is duped into believing the mercury-laced protein is actually “safe” whale meat.

In seeking to inform the public about these appalling realities (most Japanese consumers don’t even know about the dolphin slaughter), the makers of The Cove tell us, “By destroying anything in nature we are taking away from ourselves, and we are losing it all at a horrifying rate.”

Will Oscar-winning films slow down that rate? At least, they probe deeper than the usual screen fodder – gratuitous sex and violence – by opening our eyes to our own culpability in allowing downer meat, dolphin murder, deforestation and displacement of indigenous peoples. Sometimes the subject matter is so engrossing, you are motivated to take action once the screen goes dark by writing a letter to your senator, the USDA or Prime Minster of Japan.

My own 10-year-old ran to her room after viewing The Cove and made a poster saying, “Save the dolphins, we want blue water, not red!” It gives a whole new meaning to the term moving pictures.

Imges: Oscars, Luanne Bradley

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