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I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was that great. It was visually stunning, just beautiful. Zoe Saldana was wonderful. But the characters had no depth and limited development. There were no difficult moral dilemmas and the Noble Savage meme was really overplayed. The bad guys were irredeemably awful, the good guys were idealistic and pure-as-the-driven (and the scientists were right, godammit… I liked that part, but it did irritate me). Above all, the natives were supremely harmonic and peaceful and in balance and such. It was Pocahontas in space. The only thing I didn't quite anticipate was the ending being as treacly as it was. I didn't think Cameron was going to go there. He did. Ordinary white man goes into the woods, learns to paint with all the colors of the wind, gets the girl, out-natives the natives and then saves the world.


So, in sum: absolutely gorgeous, but ultimately a rather transparent white-guilt-redemption fantasy. I came home unsatisfied.


The internet!Right, with hilarious predictability, flips out.


Congratulations, libertarian/contrarian commentators: you are smarter than all of us. You’re wise to the hippie leftist, socialist, pinko-commie Marxist agitprop being churned out by Hollywood in their evil plot to... what was it again?


Linking this to climate change was a smooth move too. Climategate proved beyond doubt that global warming is a liberal fantasy. No truth behind it whatsoever. Even if there is, it’s just science, right? Skinny nerds in the pay of the blue elite pumping out misinformation in a desperate bid for grant money. It’s not really as bad as the pantywaist fearmongers would have us believe. Yeah, ok.


I have some questions about that after the jump.

1.     Does the composition of the atmosphere affect the climate of the Earth?

a.      CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, which means that when it is present in the atmosphere it acts like the glass walls of a greenhouse, reflecting radiated heat back towards Earth and keeping it warmer. If not for the greenhouse effect, the current average surface temperature of the Earth would be about 33° C colder (60° F). Have human beings added more CO₂ to the atmosphere?

b.     If the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere determines the temperature of the planet, would adding more have an effect on the surface temperature?

2.     Does the color of the Earth affect its climate?

a.      The temperature of the Earth is also determined by its albedo, which is a measure of reflectivity. A completely reflective surface (white, shiny) has an albedo of 1. A black object has an albedo of 0. An object that reflects radiation is colder than an object that absorbs it. If the white, shiny ice caps melt, and less of the Earth is covered in snow during the year, will the Earth’s albedo go down? Does that mean that the average surface temperature will rise?

3.     Do the oceans affect Earth’s climate?

a.      As the temperature of a liquid-gas solution goes up, more of the dissolved gas will escape. A great deal of the gas dissolved in the water of the world’s oceans is CO₂. Does that mean that, as temperatures rise, more CO₂ will escape into the atmosphere (see question 1b)?   

b.     If the temperature of the Earth goes up, will more of the ice stored in the polar ice caps melt?

                                               i.     If less of the water on Earth is bound up in the polar ice caps, will global sea levels rise?

                                             ii.     Will people living in low-lying countries be displaced by rising sea levels? Could a huge influx of destitute refugees cause problems for a host country?

c.      Global sea currents are driven by differences in temperature, density and salinity: dense, cold, salty, nutrient-rich water sinks and warmer water rises. These currents circle the globe and have strong effects on local climates and ecosystems. For example, the Gulf Stream heats much of Northern Europe. At those latitudes, without significant warming from the Gulf Stream, much of the UK would be uninhabitable. And their government likes us. Currents like El Nino replenish the nutrients in the coastal waters of the Pacific, supporting fish populations. Might these currents be disrupted or even shut down by a huge influx of cold fresh water from melting polar ice caps? Might changing currents have an impact on local climates and make certain food sources unavailable?

By some coincidence, the answer to every last one of these questions is YES. If you think any of them would be better answered by a NO, perhaps I’ve been unclear. 

One of the major objections to doing anything about climate change is that it’s happening anyway, due to natural causes – Milankovitch cycles or sunspots or the like. Who are we to question nature? Why should we cut down emissions when global warming is happening independent of us?

But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t come from the Biblical side - “the Earth is yours: take it, rape it, it’s yours” and then say that we should let nature take its course. We’ve been geoengineering since the advent of agriculture. Why not do it a little more? Even if you think that we’re not the cause of the suffering that a meter’s rise in sea level will cause, we have the means to cut down on the damage. 

We know for a fact that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are correlated to surface temperature, and although our data on this is somewhat more ambiguous, we can be fairly certain that this cycle can work in a causal way. Less CO2, lower temperature. Then again, I suppose accepting that would be tantamount to swallowing the whole thing hook, line, and sinker. Pride does not permit.

Should we do anything about this? It might involve swallowing some of the international community/government’s medicine (don’t worry – a spoonful of Kool-Aid helps it go down smoother) and taking a few for the team. Does that mean we shouldn’t do it? Do emission caps infringe on your personal liberties? Is cap-and-trade encroaching on your day-to-day existence (like the tide on Bangladesh)? If it did, would that really be so bad? Is everything the government does evil? I’m sure your position is more nuanced and thought-out than that (ever carried a firearm to a teabagger rally just because you could?). Are we that selfish as a species?

I don’t think the movement to prevent global climate change is a sinister government plot designed by hippies (or liberal fascists – which is it?) to infringe on your sacred liberties.

But you are a beautiful, unique little snowflake for saying so.