With the blockbuster film Avatar’s themes relating to the environment and to conservation, and with the story of a society whose culture involves such strong linkage to the flows of the natural world, it’s not a stretch to understand that director James Cameron might have a personal interest in the events taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. But it is the technical knowledge of the underwater environment he developed during the making of two other hit films that apparently renders him able to lend perspective and direct assistance.
As AOL and other media outlets are reporting, the Canadian-born Cameron recently accepted an invitation to meet with federal officials in a strategy session focused on the ongoing oil leak and on pathways to putting a cap on it. Cameron’s roster of films include The Abyss in 1989 and Titanic in 1997, the making of which have turned the filmmaker into one of the leading experts in underwater filming and the robotic technologies that make chronicling the marine environment possible.
AOL’s Michelle Ruiz cites Associated Press (AP) reports that Cameron traveled to Washington D.C. Tuesday for a meeting at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters with federal government officials representing the Department of Energy and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — three agencies whose role in monitoring the unfolding crisis and in designing responses to it are pivotal.
The AP indicates that attendees also included representatives of the Coast Guard, officials from World Wildlife Fund and members of the academic community from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Barbara).
The meeting was convened following clearly established indications that British oil giant BP‘s efforts to halt the spill through the “top kill” method were unsuccessful. Details of the discussion have not been made public, but have been characterized as having been of a “highly technical” nature according to AOL. EPA officials, in a statement provided to AP, characterize the perhaps surprising meeting of the minds as “part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to hear from stakeholders, scientists and experts from academia, government and the private sector as we continue to respond to the BP oil spill.”
Photo by Angela George via Wikimedia Commons.