AVATAR comes right in time when science and environmental activists herald Climate Armageddon – a total catastrophe that will backlash against our civilization. COP 15 in Copenhagen which seemed to be the last chance to save the climate failed to deliver. No legally binding agreements were made. Time is passing quickly. It is still not too late to act but the action should come now, some say.

In the atmosphere of alarm and moral panic, Hollywood produces a 3D mega hit, with an official budgeted at $237 million. A breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology grapples with a topic of human relations to the Nature. And while a reference to climate change is not obvious in the film, one can easily relate to the post-Copenhagen pessimism. Being a harsh critic of our civilization, AVATAR tries to give us a message. What is this message about? Can it be of any help for us now at the time of the climate crises?

The Sky People (humans) have no green. They killed their Mother Earth. And as we see in the film they go on killing Mother Natures of children far away in the universe. Motivated by insatiable greed they want to turn another piece of Nature into a commodity. The unobtainium, a concept known in engineering and fiction as any extremely rare, costly, or physically impossible material, can be found on Pandora. Pandora is a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus. That’s where the RDA corporation from the Planet Earth is mining. And the stakes are high – one kilo of unobtainium is worth $20 million. Armed with the latest developments of science and military technologies, RDA is waiting for the indigenous people, the Na'vi, to relocate. Their Home Tree, a village they live in, is located on the top of a huge deposit of unobtainium, preventing humans to reach out for this treasure.

AVATAR turns into a lucid diagnosis of what human civilization is like today. It is however not a revelation. It is just a repetition of what we’ve heard thousand times during the war in Iraq or after each failed United Nations Climate Change Conference. To make such a diagnosis we need no Dr. House of the social sciences, no Sherlock Holms of global power relations. It is out there in the media and now has made its way to Hollywood. If that is all, why bother repeating a gloomy statement about the condition of humanity on a big screen? Don’t we get enough of a 3D misery, aggression and inequalities in our lives?

Let’s first pay a short visit to Pandora before we try to decipher Cameron’s message to us. Pandora is all about magic; but not a Harry Potter’s kind of magic. It is rather a kind of magic Alice encounters in the Wonderland – but still a bit different. It is not so straightforwardly communicative, more spiritual and hiding multiple meanings. However, it certainly invites us to explore more. It is a magic of an intact forest, luring with oval shapes and fluorescent colors. Pandora is a place I would certainly like to visit once or twice in my lifetime – a dream holiday destination, a honey moon or a survival camp location. I would take a crazy ride on a dragon-looking-bird and learn how to shoot a bow.

How can we get there? AVATAR gives us some false hope. We can get there. Both science and military technology can get us there. Neither of them, however, will enable us to enjoy a dragon ride and shooting a bow properly. A deeper transformation is needed – a transformation that not every one of us can undergo. Only the chosen one can become a full-fledged inhabitant of the Pandora at a high price of his human death.

An individual transformation is however hedged with conditions. Only a pure heart, empty head and a childish bravery can grant us a new life on Pandora. While an individual can change, a human species is condemned to persist in its ignorance. Humans will never transform to 'feel the nature' and respect the balance of eco-energy. Not only does our culture prevent us from doing so but we are also biologically underequipped. Unlike the Na'vi, we have no ‘connectors' by the means of which we would be able to connect to other living creatures and become one thinking-and-feeling-body with them. Humans will always remain external to their Mother Earth, as the 'Waiting for the Barbarians' blog states. We will always make Her suffer.

Pessimistic, isn’t it? I would say: disappointedly pessimistic. The film leaves us with no program for environmental politics. It leaves us with a choice between death of us cultural beings or death of the Nature. Neither science nor technology will redeem us. Driven by an urge to ask questions and find answers science can get us closer to the Nature but will always fail to unite us with the eco-system. It is rather a quasi-religious, spiritual experience that can teach us to ‘feel the Nature’. Erasing what we have learnt as humans and opening up for new ways of perception – this is the ultimate message. This is, however, not a project for a group or a society, I am afraid. This is a project of an individual transformation only.

So what does the film leave us with? Nothing of much help I would say. A civilizational drop out does not seem a great program for the next Climate Change Conference. Meditation might not bring US Senators closer to ambitious emission reduction targets. As in case of some environmental NGOs, we are left with a project of an individual transformation and no politics of nature. Maybe it’s time to turn back to our civilization and start digging within it for something to which we would proudly stick to? Is there anything we still like about ourselves? Does being a human really condemn us to screw one thing after another? True, unlike the Na'vi, we don’t have a biological connector to the world around us but maybe we don’t need one?

Let’s get back to our human strategies. Maybe we won’t screw up things this time?