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Thinking About Avatar
By B. Earth | January 7, 2010
If the plot of the box office hit Avatar seems familiar, that’s because it is. Film critics have drawn a host of comparisons between Avatar and other movies. Like Dances with Wolves, Avatar is the story of an American soldier who, after learning the ways of a native culture, decides to defend that culture rather than help destroy it. Like Pocohantas, it is a love story about a couple caught between two warring peoples. And like The Matrix, Avatar imagines the use of mind control to steer a second body that is capable of daring and fantastic physical feats.
But the plot of Avatar also resembles many of the true stories often told on this blog - stories of exploitation and ecological destruction caused by the reckless pursuit of mineral wealth. Avatar is set in the year 2154. Humans have set up a base on a planet-sized moon called Pandora, an ecologically rich paradise teeming with all sorts of exotic creatures. Chief among these are the Na’vi, an intelligent life form vaguely resembling humans, but blue-skinned and 10 feet tall. However, aside from some geeky scientists, the
actual humans are interested less in Pandora’s ecological richness than in a rare and valuable metal known as “unobtanium.” A giant deposit of the metal sits right below the Na’vi’s most sacred tree. Humans are trying to force the Na’vi from their land so that they can cut down the tree and strip-mine the property. When the Na’vi won’t move voluntarily, war breaks out between the rival life forms. (Incidentally, Zoe Saldana, the lead actress in Avatar, owns a fair trade gold pendant from Brilliant Earth!)
Avatar brings to mind how Western powers, in past centuries, mounted imperialist campaigns in the search for gold and other precious metals and materials. Today, although the age of old-style imperialism is arguably over, many nations continue to be exploited for their mineral wealth. We are just now beginning to learn how to take advantage of the earth’s mineral wealth without violence or ecological devastation. Ethical models exist for the mining of diamonds, gold, and other precious gemstones and metals, but change is needed to make those models the norm. By raising awareness about unethical mining practices and building a market for ethical origin jewelry, Brilliant Earth is trying to make this change happen. Let’s make sure the modern business of mining should bear no resemblance to the fictional story of Avatar.
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