What Avatar Can Teach You About Being Eco Friendly

The Na'vi in James Cameron's blockbuster movie Avatar are superior to humans in many ways. Not only are they very tall with broad shoulders and slim waistlines, they are also very in touch with their surroundings - quite literally.

The critique of humanity's way of using resources isn't exactly subtle in James Cameron's Avatar. The RDA Corporations prime interest in the moon called Pandora is to dig up as much of the resource called "Unobtanium" as possible, not minding removing or killing any plant, animal or humanoid that happens to get in their way.

Or as the Chief administrator for the mining activities (played by Giovanni Ribisi) puts it:

"Killing the indigenous looks bad, but reporting a bad quarter to the stock holders is much worse".*

The indigenous humanoid species of the "planet like moon" of Pandora are the Na'vi. They can actually communicate directly with nature and with various animals by using the queue at the end of their long hair braid - it works sort of like a neural interface.

And although they of course also use the available natural resources to a certain degree, they are very well aware of how they fit into their particular ecosystem - thanks to their very tangible ways of staying in touch with nature.

The Na'vi lives in harmony with nature on the moon of Pandora.

Similarities in our world

What is portrayed in the movie has many similarities to how advanced, powerful countries on earth have exploited areas rich in natural resources. And, similarly to the Na'vi, many indigenous peoples of our planet have had a long history of cherishing things in nature, often assigning various life bringing qualities to certain natural processes.

The Inca civilization for example worshipped the sun, and many Asian cultures still firmly base a lot of their actions on the concept of Qi - a natural energy not entirely unlike "the force" in George Lucas' Star Wars universe.

The point I am getting at here is that modern man has perhaps become somewhat blindsided by our (fairly recent) rapid technological advancements. So much in fact, that we have become very cocky and almost feel that we stand above and beyond the forces of nature - if not outright controlling them as we please.

In other words, we have totally lost our awareness of how we fit into our natural environment.

How to be more like the Na'vi

The Na'vi's way of communicating directly with their natural environment is pure fiction of course. But nonetheless I think that a lot of waste, pollution and exploitation could be avoided if we at least occasionally tried to involve ourselves more directly with nature and the resources we use.

For example, if you had to personally chop all the wood to use in your fireplace, you'd probably be more wary about "making a fire for the birds"**. Since you personally put in all that effort you have a much better idea of what each chunk of wood is worth.

Or if you have grown your own vegetables you will probably want to make good use of as much as possible of your crops, instead of haphazardly throwing things away.

I am sure you can come up with many similar ideas of "communicating" more directly with your natural surroundings, even without growing a queue.

* Quote probably not correct word for word, but i believe the original meaning is conveyed correctly.
** Loose translation of a Scandinavian expression meaning that you are wasting a lot of energy, in this case wood, for no good reason.

Photo credit: AntSizedMan