The Philippine Online Chronicles

Avatar director James Cameron is in Brazil to protest the construction of a dam in the Amazon rain forest, in solidarity with indigenous and environmentalist groups.

The proposed Belo Monte dam, if built, would be the third-largest hydroelectric project in the world. Environmentalists have said that it would prove devastating to the indigenous communities that live along the Xingu River, as the dam would dry up nearly a hundred kilometers of the river. It would also cause massive flooding in the Amazon, threatening both wildlife and people currently living in the potentially affected areas.

The administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known popularly as "Lula," has argued that the dam will provide clean energy and has to be put up in order to meet current and future energy needs.

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Cameron described the struggle as a real-life Avatar confrontation in progress. "What's happening in Avatar is happening in Brazil and places like India and China, where traditional villages are displaced by big infrastructure projects," he said.

Cameron also said that he had sent a letter to Lula, asking for a meeting and urging him to stop the project. The Brazilian president, who is in the United States, has yet to reply.

According to Cameron, he had written that the situation presented an opportunity for Lula to be "a hero, a visionary leader of the 21st century", should the leader elect to pursue sustainable economic growth instead of growth that would adversely affect certain sectors in the population.

If he were able to meet Lula, Cameron said that he would tell the Brazilian head of state that he believes North America and Europe have to help pay to preserve the rain forest, because it provides a service to the world by contributing to the fight against global warming.

Cameron was one of those who had attended an environmental summit in the Amazon last month, along with former US Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore.

The director returned to Sao Paulo this week to promote the DVD version of his blockbuster hit Avatar, in which the fictitious Na'vi tribe fights to protect their homeland, the forest-covered moon Pandora, from mining by humans. Accompanying Cameron is Sigourney Weaver, one of the actors involved in the movie.