If you haven’t thought about global warming lately, James Cameron would like to shed some new light on the subject, along with a slew of his most famous friends.

Cameron’s newest project, “Years of Living Dangerously,” is an eight-part documentary [release date some time in 2014] that shows the human impact on global warming. ”Everybody thinks that this is about melting glaciers and polar bears,” says Cameron in the trailer. “I think it’s a big mistake. This is 100-percent a people story.”

Along on Cameron’s journey are a plethora of familiar faces, including Harrison Ford, America Ferrera, Jessica Alba, Matt Damon, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All those actors are sure to grab viewers’ attention, and hopefully open a whole lot of eyes at the same time. Check out the trailer. – Amanda Just

This article originally appeared on Ecorazzi

Ecorazzi covers news and gossip on celebrities and notables in support of the environment and humanitarian causes. You can follow us on Twitterand Facebook.

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The vast list of vegan celebs includes some notable heavy hitters: Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney, Emily Deschanel (who recently had a vegan pregnancy), Mike Tyson (!), and of course, director James Cameron.

While accepting an award at the National Geographic Society’s 125th anniversary gala, Cameron, director of epic films including “Titanic” and “Avatar”, recently spoke about his choice to adopt a vegan diet. Cameron received the “Explorer of the Year” honor from the National Geographic Society for his 2012 solo dive to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean.

“I’ve had an epiphany recently,” Cameron said to the guests, which included some of the world’s top scientists and explorers. “I want to challenge all of you as people of deep conscience, people who are environment stewards of the earth and oceans[…]by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world,” he said.

Cameron’s switch to a vegan diet last year clearly changed his life: “I felt like I was waking up from a long sleepwalk. I believe we are all sleepwalking off a cliff if we don’t do this,” he said to the guests.

Along with wife Suzy Amis, who apparently triggered the family’s shift to a strictly plant-based diet, Cameron also recently turned his New Zealand dairy farm into a crop farm instead of raising animals for food, saying that he didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

So why is Cameron so adamant about veganism? Perhaps the folks at Comedy Central’s South Park summed it up best in Season 16’s episode “Raising the Bar” (about his deep sea dive): “James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron.” Well damn. We’ll drink a glass of almond milk to that. Cheers, James Cameron.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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With the Academy Awards taking place on February 27, Suzi Amis Cameron, wife of legendary Oscar award-winning producer, director, and writer James Cameron, is calling all designers 18 and over with $75 in their pocket to think about creating a dress for her Red Carpet, Green Dress competition.

Not just any dress of course, but a sustainable red carpet stunner that Cameron will wear as she walks down the strip at the Global Green pre-Oscar Party in Hollywood, California on February 23. While none of James Cameron’s movies are up for an Oscar this year, he will be receiving a Milestone Award from The Producers Guild of America, so looking good this year is pretty important (no pressure young designer).

Last year’s winner, Jillian Granz, a Michigan State University senior majoring in apparel and textile design, was the lucky designer who was flown out to L.A. and set up in style, not to mention getting some face time with both Camerons.

The Red Carpet Green Dress contest is an international fundraising competition with all funds raised going toward the MUSE Global program and MUSE School Ca.The MUSE Global Program fully funds a school in Mae Sot, Thailand for children who have escaped the genocide in Burma (Myanmar). Approximately 50 percent of the children at MUSE School Ca. are on financial aid. This aid provides many children from under-privileged situations an opportunity to receive an education, which might otherwise not be possible.

To learn more about entering the contest and facts, you can continue reading here.

Top image from Red Carpet, Green Dress: Jillian Granz, a Michigan State University senior majoring in apparel and textile design, who won the Red Carpet, 2010 Green Dress competition.

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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.

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