James Cameron: Our So-Called Civilization Is Using the Ocean as Its Toilet
The director said deep sea research is "shamefully underfunded" and called for a "global fleet of swarm robotics" to study Earth's oceans.
James Cameron, creator of the films Avatar and Titanic, is speaking out about the "horrific" presence of plastic waste throughout the oceans—right down to Earth's deepest spot, the Challenger Deep—and arguing that research attempts to combat the problem are "shamefully underfunded."
"Our so-called civilization is using the ocean as its toilet," he told Newsweek. "Unless this changes, and fast, ocean ecosystems are going to continue their rapid collapse."
In 2012, Cameron became the first person to reach the deepest part of the ocean on a solo dive. He arrived at the Challenger Deep—in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of Guam—and spent several hours
