'Avatar' director Cameron urges Lula to stop dam project
AFP
BRASILIA- Director James Cameron was in Brazil on Monday to lend his "Avatar" success to the fight against a controversial dam project he denounced as an "ecological disaster."
Cameron, who made a pro-environment message central to his blockbuster film, urged Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to stop construction on the Belo Monte dam in the country's Amazon jungle.
James Cameron and his wife Suzie Amis attend the world premiere of 'Avatar'
Activists have been keen to portray the construction of the dam, and opposition to it by indigenous people who would be displaced by it, as strikingly similar to the "Avatar" storyline, in which feline-featured natives on a moon fight against militaristic strip-miners from Earth.
Cameron, who has long had a fascination with marine and jungle environments, said: "Huge dams are a 20th century idea in the 21st century: it's a dinosaur's idea."
Belo Monte, he said, "is going to be an ecological disaster," and asserted that "the knowledge of indigenous people, who learned how to live with nature" is one of Brazil's biggest resources.
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