PCI (Pandora Conservation Initiative )

[Rainbowhawk1993]

So if you didn't know already, the website for the world of Pandora just went live today and they've dropped more hints of lore and world building from its articles. The one that caught my eye was the about page for the PCI:

https://www.visitpandora.com/about#pci

"The Pandora Conservation Initiative (aka PCI) is a collective of scientists, xenobiologists, and conservationists. From the plants and animals to the soil, water, and air, you’ll find members of PCI researching every aspect of this mysterious and alien world.

Because of irresponsible mining and environmental damage caused long ago by the Resources Development Administration, a major role of PCI is habitat restoration. The impact of the RDA is still felt on Pandora, but PCI is committed to improving and restoring Pandora’s ecosystem."

This if most likely just a ploy for the attraction, but that part about the damage done long ago by the RDA is an interesting inclusion. Could this be foreshadowing for what happens after the Sequels after Earth is on the road to recovery and the RDA is shut down for good?

Or is this just a write-off non-canon flick just like Ubisoft's outing with the prequel game?

[Exoblade]

It might be canon.

Its a bit hard to tell because we've had not official word from Cameron but Flight of the Turok took one of the tribes from the Game so it appears they are at least in agreement with one another.

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

it's not just the horrible strip-mining, forest clear-cutting, and massive damage to the land, animals, and atmospheric quality caused by the burning and refining of fossil fuels at hellsgate, what about the murders of hundreds of Omaticayans by the brutal secops thugs? who's going to address and fix that? what about the 20,000 y/o Hometree they blew up and destroyed? you just can't attempt to fix the planetary damage, you have to make amends to it's caretakers and eco-coexisting inhabitants. there is absolutely no justification for the killing of even one bug, beetle, fan lizard, banshee, Na'vi tribesman, in the pursuit of resources for profit...not one!

[Eltu]

More on related aspects of this in the Disney attraction: https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/27/1...y-world-review

The premise is that visitors are on a tourist trip with a company called Alpha Centauri Expeditions, or ACE. Talk to one of the many tour guides populating the land, and they’ll explain that a hundred years have passed since the events depicted in the original film, and that the mining company RDA — the corporate bad guys who tried to blow up the Na’vi — never returned. Instead, Alpha Centauri has begun shuttling people to the planet, focused on studying Pandora’s ecosystem of plants, animals, and other creatures in the name of repairing the damage done to the environment.

Personally I can't help but feel it's a bit contrived - I understand it's for the purpose of immersion, and obviously Avatar has always been all about that, but in a theme park the ludo-narrative dissonance is just too noticeable and makes it have the opposite effect.

It also feels like a shallow premise - the RDA, despicable as they were, still went to Pandora with a specific goal and because they had a specific need to. If a different organization does the same, where do they get the resources to? And considering unobtanium is vital for space travel, as idealistic as those goals are, they seem unfeasible.

Makes sense they don't want you to feel like a visitor who strips Pandora of its resources and I'm sure that's why they went this direction, but I can't help but feel it'd work better if they cut this aspect of immersion entirely rather than think up a contrived explanation for it.

Though I'm also not a huge fan of franchising out an IP for the sake of it, so my views are a bit biased.

[allroock123]

Like others I feel its more the just damage to the environment carried out by the RDA ,, if you notice the AMP suit is presented as being all rusty and covered in dust next to a stack of rusting barrels being slowly reclaimed back into the land , Cant feed the people but we'll feed the growth of those machines , when you are working with aspects of a mirror storytelling even though I drought Disney will likely not touch upon any political perspectives I still gut feel they will through unspoken but felt visual dialog sure reflect upon the underlying aspects of deep seed issues like "Manifest Destiny" that have plagued groups of leaders in power as well as abuse of religion to reflect such viewpoints to attempt to justify such actions overriding our core voice of inner human empathy ,, questioning these strutures and there roots are one of the main reasons I have referenced the history of the Haudenosaunee and there own "Time of great sorrow" in hopes of touching on examples of how Native people have met them with great wisdom and moved past them in there own history.. How humans come to reconcile in Avatars future story path will be of great interest to me having seen the examples of how native peoples dealt with them in there own very real world past history .. Cameron today also spoke a warning in his dialog today about the rise of the machines and there impact on our very recent history , the recent story of the first robotic law enforcement officer working the streets and mall in Dubai that employs face recognition technology being one such example. robots that come to replace thousands of skilled labor positions being another. .
"yet" some of human developed the technology in recent times has greatly reduced our impact upon our impact on
the earths balance strutures and allowed us to see our relation to things not "recognized" before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc1ve16C_Gk

[Dr. Na'vi]

Originally Posted by Eltu

Makes sense they don't want you to feel like a visitor who strips Pandora of its resources and I'm sure that's why they went this direction, but I can't help but feel it'd work better if they cut this aspect of immersion entirely rather than think up a contrived explanation for it.

Well said, they transformed Pandora into a "conflict free" world for the theme park, but I guess this setting won't work for the next movies very well, so it's all non-canon.

[CyanRachel]

Originally Posted by Ja'k Dawsiin

it's not just the horrible strip-mining, forest clear-cutting, and massive damage to the land, animals, and atmospheric quality caused by the burning and refining of fossil fuels at hellsgate, what about the murders of hundreds of Omaticayans by the brutal secops thugs? who's going to address and fix that? what about the 20,000 y/o Hometree they blew up and destroyed? you just can't attempt to fix the planetary damage, you have to make amends to it's caretakers and eco-coexisting inhabitants. there is absolutely no justification for the killing of even one bug, beetle, fan lizard, banshee, Na'vi tribesman, in the pursuit of resources for profit...not one!

^Well said! I agree.

[allroock123]

James Cameron himself has spoken upon a time of peace after the conflicts ,, so I believe the future films will work in that direction ,, His commits about being "Schooled" by south American Kitchwa Clan Grandmother Blanca Chancoso and what he has learned since the first film may also play in that direction as well..

Native peoples of the Amazon taken to see 3D movie Avatar example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwT9O0LjKgM

J Cameron clip- I've been schooled example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP3Z308BNpk&