Canadian and world environmental groups have taken out a full-page ad (left) in Variety, the Hollywood trade magazine, to endorse the movie Avatar for the best picture Oscar. The green groups say the ad is part of a campaign, largely being mounted in the United States, to halt expansion of Alberta's oil sands.
“We want Hollywood, and the powerful thought leaders there, to know Avatar does a great job of exposing the Tar Sands,” said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, one of 55 groups that signed the ad. “It's the world's most destructive project – Pandora's unobtanium is Canada's Tar Sands.”
One of the images in the ad is a 797B Heavy Hauler, one of the first trucks used to mine the oil sands, which the green groups say is identical to some of the trucks used in Avatar. The ad “also shows the vast open pit mines and tailings ponds that cut across what was once pristine Boreal forest – the same forest that stretched across [Canadian-born Avatar director James] Cameron's hometown in Ontario.”