SUSTAINABILITY

STUDIES

GROUP-1
Nidhi | Ashita | Anushree | Megha | Deekshika | Samridhi

Fresh feasts,
great treats
 Moral Aspect of the movie:
Avatar, which went into theaters to the general public in honor of Earth Day. Since its
release in 2009, Avatar has struck a cord with the general public and the
environmental community.

Avatar tells the story of a moral awakening by a former marine, Jake Sully, who is a
mercenary for an interstellar corporation.

What has not been discussed is Avatar’s critique of speciesism or human prejudice
against non-human beings. Avatar is not just a metaphor for how we treat other people
on this earth. Nor is it simply an allegory for wide-ranging ecological destruction here
and now. It is a cautionary tale about the harm done by our instrumental worldviews of
people, animals, and nature. Avatar is pushing the boundary of moral concern,
demanding that we consider the well-being of creatures and communities that are
both human and non-human. It offers us a vision of other people, another place, and
another way of life with such a profound sense of moral connectedness, that we
cannot help but compare it to the situation on our own planet, and find it wanting.

The interconnectedness of life is not simply a scientific fact, but a moral value that
ought to guide our behavior to others, human and non-human alike.
The environmental message of the Movie:

The environmental message in Avatar is one which promotes balance and harmony between humans and
nature.

However, this balance is

represented by the film’s
essentialized Indigenous
population. Thus, as a foil for
Earth's technology-dependent
resource-intensive society, the
Na'vi are represented as a
stereotypical Indigenous
population; they are cast as closer
to nature in their role as the
"ecological Indian."
The economic aspect of the movie:
In the movie, the problem of regulating the private monopolies of the
Resources Development Administration(RDA) caused massive issues.
The RDA believed they control the privatization of the Pandora forest;
however, they unwisely have tried to destroy the forest for profit.
RDA takes the supply from the indigenous people in order to boost
their own quantity of supply.
They create the private monopoly to set a higher price for consumers
so that they are able to maximize their own profit. However, the
external cost was the destruction of the natural environment which is
totally not beneficial for long-term investment.
The RDA as a shareholder should not have just focussed for short-
term profit and should have avoided investing in long-term projects.
It was important for the government to help to maintain the balance
of nature by regulatory processes to prevent abuse of monopoly
power.
The Political aspect of the movie:

Avatar’s release coincided with the final days of the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen

While political efforts to mitigate

climate change thus failed,
Cameron’s film about the 22nd
century, in which humanity, having
largely destroyed the Earth’s
biosphere, wreaks havoc on the
distant moon Pandora before
being defeated by the natives,
succeeded beyond all
expectations.
The Social Sustainability potrayal in the movie

Avatar did not sweep up the Oscars, but with 75%

of Oscar tweets referring to Avatar, it has certainly
swept up public interest
The film took $0.8 billion at the North American box
office and $2 billion outside North America; the
total earnings of $2.8 billion accounted for almost
10% of all the money spent on tickets for the
thousands of movies shown in cinemas around the
world in 2010.
People have interpreted Avatar in all kinds of ways. The enormous popularity of “Avatar,” on track to be the biggest
movie of all time, makes us think about the power of popular
Some have seen it as a retelling of the Pocahontas
culture to change opinions and behavior in subtle, perhaps even
story in space. Some see anti-feminist leanings. subconscious ways.
Thank
you!!