Page 150 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

140 P. McCURDY

2009 release of his science fiction film Avatar. The high-budget
Hollywood blockbuster was a feature length environmental parable
which pitted space travelling money-hungry humans keen to extract
resources across the universe against the Navi, the indigenous peoples of
Pandora, determined to protect their planet from being plundered by the
interstellar extractive industries. Immediately upon the film’s release par-
allels were drawn between the struggle over Pandora’s resources and over
Alberta’s tar sands (see CBC National 2010; Haluza-DeLay et al. 2013;
Itzkoff 2009). Avatar was further linked with tar sands campaigning when
a group of over 50 eNGOs spent $20,0000 USD on a full page ad in
Variety magazine’s March 2010 Oscar issue endorsing Avatar’s nine
Academy Award nominations with the headline “JAMES CAMERON &
AVATAR YOU HAVE OUR VOTE. CANADA’S AVATAR SANDS”
(Barnes 2010; Rowell 2010, emphasis in original). Consequently, when
Cameron finally visited Alberta in September 2010, he did so in the wake
and context created by his film. Cameron’s trip included a meeting with
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, a tour of Syncrude and meetings with First
Nations leaders (Wingrove 2010). The media space created around
Cameron’s tour was described by Elizabeth May, leader of Canada’s Green
Party, as follows:

What James Cameron has done has been to help a lot of Canadians take the
tour with him, to see the massive scale, to see the devastation of the envi-
ronment, to understand more of the science and to see where we really are
right now on this planet in terms of our overall imperative to get off fossil
fuels (CTV News Staff 2010).

Cameron’s choreographed celebrity pilgrimage to the tar sands capitalized
and extended the mediated opportunity created by Avatar. By travelling to
Alberta to bear witness to the tar sands, Cameron opened mediated
opportunities for activists and First Nations representatives to secure a
public platform for debate and contest. His Hollywood celebrity status, the
relevance to the issue of his hugely successful film, Avatar, and his status as
a Canadian citizen combined to provide a powerful news hook to raise
awareness of the tar sands into the public imagination.
Canadian musician Neil Young has been one of the most vocal
celebrities to speak out against the tar sands and has payed particular
attention to the land rights issues of First Nations. Young’s political acti-
vism and polemic statements have garnered national headlines and made