Avatar's James Cameron Inspires at Earth Day Fest

"What kind of ancestor do you want to be?" This is the question James Cameron says we need to be asking ourselves.

Academy Award winning director, James Cameron, made an appearance at the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival on Sunday, speaking to the sun-drenched crowd of his life-long concern for the environment.

The Community Environmental Council, who hosted the event, honored him with their Environmental Hero Award for bringing environmental awareness to millions thru his eco-inspired film AVATAR.

Cameron said that his concern for the environment was awakened by the devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969. He hopes to awaken in others a similar concern for the environment and a deeper connection to the beauty of nature through his film work and environmental activism.

Cameron spoke passionately about how we as a society must awaken to the reality of global warming, that this is the problem of this century and that there is a fundamental disconnect. He said its "the big disconnect that we as a society don't believe what the scientists tell us," that we must become 'science-literate' and that education is the key.

Cameron, who had just returned from a trip to Brazil to stop the third largest damn in the world from being built and dislocating thousands of indigenous people, ended with an inspiring quote he was given from the indigenous North American leaders there, "walk lightly upon the earth for the faces of future generations gaze up at us." Coincidentally in the photo here, captured by photographer Sarah Fretwell, the face of a future generation gazes up at a man who is walking lightly.

Photo provided by Sarah Fretwell