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Human beings or homo sapiens (in Latin) has got to be the most dangerous species living on planet Earth right now. They have been known to kill each other, for example in both World War I and II, 83 million people were killed. They also have been known to invade each other’s territory like the invasion of Iraq by the US army in 2003 that resulted to the death of 1.2 million people. In the 15th century Spaniard Francisco Pizarro invaded the Inca Kingdom by killing their Emperor, Atahualpa ending the Inca Empire, and in the same century another Spaniard Hernan Cortes invaded the Aztec Empire in Mexico.
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Man’s other dreadful achievement is in producing world-destroying chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbon famously known as CFC, methane, nitrous oxide and many more. These gasses are partly responsible for a threatening phenomenon known as the ‘greenhouse effect’. This process contributed to the alarming event of global warming. Global Warming will cause sea levels to rise from the melting of the icebergs in the Arctic as a result of the thinning of the ozone layer.
Then there were the Apartheid in South Africa, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, and list goes on and on. All the facts above confirmed that we, the Human Race are the most devastating creature to ever walk the face of this planet and we should hate ourselves for that.
James Cameron’s latest sci-fi epic Avatar is giving us the opportunity to do just that. Made at a record cost around US$300 million, it’s about a planet called Pandora which about 4.4 light years away from Earth. In the year 2154, when Earth is totally polluted, the humans seek to exploit Pandora’s reserves of ‘Unobtanium’, a precious mineral. Pandora is inhabited by an indigenous species of humanoids called the Na’vi. Standing 9 feet (2.7 meter) tall, with tails, their bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber, and bioluminescent blue skin. They live in harmony with the natural world, and are considered primitive by human standards. Pandora is a beautiful planet, almost tropical by nature. In Pandora they breathe gasses like Carbon dioxide (Co2) and ammonia.
The humans then plan to invade the Hometree, the main home of the Na’vi, which covers a large ‘Unobtanium’ deposit. This is when everything went wrong on planet Pandora. I don’t know about you but that sounds mighty familiar to me. It’s the human race trying to destroy another world after destroying their own.
In Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol, miserly, cold, unfeeling, old and curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge has to go through a process of being visited by four ghosts in order to make him realize his bad qualities. It’s the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and finally a spirit who showed Scrooge his own neglected and untended grave.
Avatar works like Dickens’ Christmas Carol for the Human Race. The fact that planet Earth was totally polluted is the Ghost of Christmas Past, what they’re about to do to Pandora is the Ghost of Christmas Present and the idea of the outcome of their actions is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The final spirit is in the form of their defeat to the Na’vi. Avatar is trying to show us what we are and what we will be capable of doing in the future.
According to Dr. Grace Augustine, the chief scientist in Avatar, Pandora’s real treasure is not the ‘ubobtanium’ but the real treasure is the planet itself where every single living things are connected to a natural network that enable them to communicate with each other. The Human race have been extracting fossil fuel, gold, tin and many other natural resources from Mother Earth thinking that they are getting the most of its treasures while they fail to see that the real treasure is our planet itself. Planet Earth deserves to be saved and Avatar is telling us just that. On that note I am officially announcing that I am beginning to despise my own species. Thank you Mr. James Cameron, we owe you one, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
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