I wish I lived on Pandora

21 hours ago
2 min read

By Joanna Cowan

Recently, the "I wish I lived in Pandora” trend went viral on the internet. People began to criticize those who said they wished to live in the Avatar world, despite its being almost identical to Earth. To put this into perspective, I have collected some data about the biggest climate change events in this past century:

Earth’s temperature is rising 1.2% since pre-industrial times
3.6 billion people are vulnerable to climate change
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year
The most impacted countries from climate change are contributing to it the least
Roughly 900 species are officially documented as extinct since the 1500’s
Over 1 million species are threatened with extinction over the next few decades
Australia has the highest rate of extinction in the world with 68%

The reality of colonisation in our world is even more concerning. Watching humans destroy the world of Pandora on screen is heartbreaking, and yet throughout human history, we have stood back and watched as colonial powers destroy First Nations cultures across the globe. This issue is not yet left in the past, and has continued to everlastingly impact our globe.

In Australia, particularly, the Indigenous community are:

Oldest living civilisation on earth

Only make up 3.8% of Australia's population

40% live without 2 or more essentials for a decent standard of living (housing, clean water, food)
Median weekly household income is 28% less than a non-indigenous peoples.
57% aged 20+ have a year 12 certificate or higher
Make up 0.7% of leadership across Australian employers
First nations Australians account for 37% of all prisoners
Since 2016 the number of prisoners has increased by 6,000
Median age of death is 71.9 years (2022)
71% of adults of obese and 41% experience food insecurity
Leading cause of death is mental health/substance abuse (23%)
One in six have diabetes and 25.7% have high cholesterol
31% of First Nation's adults reported high or very high levels of psychological distress
In 2022 suicide was the 5th leader cause of death amongst first nations peoples

SO, this raises the question: Why do we love Pandora, and find it new and exciting, but we don’t appreciate what we already have? Well, it all comes down to the theory of enjoying what is new. We as humans are always excited for the new, rather than appreciating what we have already.