James Cameron Warns Of Impending Reef Destruction Unless Climate Change Is Addressed
Avatar director James Cameron is urging the world to take the topic of climate change seriously, and that unless we do, the Great Barrier Reef will die. Cameron says that we have a limited amount of time to “course correct” or we are dooming ourselves to a doomed reef system around the world which will be symptomatic of what is going on in our own ecosystem.
Buzzfeed News says that Cameron, a deep-sea explorer when he is not directing movies, recently spoke to journalists about reef bleaching, which is a side effect of our self-inflicted climate change.
“The heating, even a few degrees, can cause the symbiotic algae in coral to depart and coral bleach, and then it becomes an unhealthy reef system, and then it ultimately fails. This is something that if we don’t course correct with regards to the carbon we are dumping into the atmosphere, it’s going to become an inevitability. The Great Barrier Reef will die, it’s that simple.”
Cameron, not one to mince words, says that the earth’s reef system will continue to degrade until we find a way to stabilize the temperature fluctuation on the planet.
Filmmaker James Cameron explains the bleak future of the Great Barrier Reef https://t.co/duu0vqnWcW pic.twitter.com/GPjiz4aBB5
— The TeCake (@TheTeCake) May 28, 2018
James Cameron is currently in Australia to open a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney called Challenging the Deep. Though Cameron is passionate about deep sea exploration, he believes that we need to study all of the ecosystems in our oceans. He says it’s critical to be aware that all of the world’s ecosystems are interconnected.
“I think those deeper ecosystems have survived for millions of years and will survive millions of years longer. It’s that thin skin of life up near the top of the ocean we need to put our focus on now. We need to think not about saving the ocean by going into the ocean more, but we need to think about saving the ocean by how we behave here on the land.”
He believes that everyone can live a greener, planet-friendly lifestyle, and stop using the world as our own personal dump. Cameron, 63, a Canadian, says he personally has changed the way he lives on his farms in his home country of Canada and also in New Zealand. He says he is trying to live a greener life and is resolved to limit the waste he creates on his property.
“The ocean has become the toilet of human civilization.”
Understanding how a “small group of businessmen” got the largest grant ever given to the Great Barrier Reef. https://t.co/Y9AfwMjIxK
— The Saturday Paper (@SatPaper) May 25, 2018
Tecake says that people need to curb their own consumption from our oceans as well as resolve to produce less waste with an eye on awareness of where things end up. Cameron says that saving the oceans start by how we all behave on land with the understanding that our actions have consequences for the balance of the overall ecosystem of the planet.
“Between our consumption from the ocean and our waste cycle into the ocean, we have pretty much condemned the ocean to a highly degraded state, if not utter doom if we don’t acknowledge that and course correct.”