Avatar Director James Cameron Offers A New Way To Fight Climate Change

- John Gaudiosi

In addition to writing, developing new technology for, and preparing to shoot the three new Avatar films, Oscar-winner James Cameron has remained firmly entrenched in environmental issues. The director took the stage on September 15, 2015, at the first-ever U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit to raise awareness about the impact of animal agriculture on climate change through his talk, “Food for Sustainable Nations.”

Cameron co-founded the Food Choice Taskforce to investigate how raising 70 billion cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other animals humans eat every year are contributing to 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. As Cameron emphasized in his presentation, keeping global warming below dangerous levels isn't possible if a growing global population mirrors the current American diet and consumes the amount of animal-sourced foods eaten in the U.S.

The 61-year-old director discovered that switching to a plant-based diet not only cuts one’s carbon footprint in half, it’s also healthier – as referenced by the recent blue zone regions around the world that have the largest collection of centenarians (who live a mostly plant-based diet). So, Cameron went plant-based almost four years ago, and now he’s using his stature to get the message out to the public about the connection between animal agriculture and climate change.

Cameron talks about these environmental issues, and discusses how sustainability is being integrated into Disney World’s Pandora: The Land of Avatar in this exclusive interview.

Innovation & Tech Today: How have you been involved in making a change when it comes to Food Systems?