August, 2013 | Environmental Debt

Seven lessons on sustainability from Star Trek

First published in The Guardian, August 28th 2013

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: You know, Geordi, I spent the better part of my life exploring space. I have charted new worlds, I’ve met dozens of new species. And I believe that these were all valuable ends in themselves. And now it seems that… all this while, I was… helping to damage the thing that I hold most dear.

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: It won’t turn out that way, Captain. We still have time to make it better.

– from Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Force of Nature” (1993)

Spanning five decades and several generations, Star Trek has deeply influenced many of us. Each of its incarnations – six television series and 12 movies – opined about courage, humility, friendship, ambition, myriad social and political structures, problem solving and the environment.

The adherence to protection of every kind of species and habitat runs through all of Star Trek, and its principles give it great relevance to sustainability professionals of today. Here are some of Star Trek’s lessons for sustainability:

On biodiversity

Dr. Miranda Jones: I understand, Mr. Spock. The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.

Mr. Spock: And the ways our differences combine, to create meaning and beauty.

– from Star Trek, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” (1968)

Spock: To hunt a species to extinction is not logical.

Kirk: Ironic. When man was killing these creatures, he was destroying his own future.”

– from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

The Prime Directive, in essence, states: Don’t meddle in other planet’s peoples, history, culture or environment. This remains incredibly relevant to the world today. Our use of resources far and wide is wiping out species at an extraordinary rate (30% – 50% of all species may be

How West’s throwaway culture destroys basic freedoms in China

First published in The Guardian, August 23rd, 2013

Photo: People walk on Tiananmen Square as heavy pollution lingers in the air. Photograph: Diego Azubel/EPA

I recently had the good fortune to meet a Chinese student, Wei Qing, who grew up in Luoyang, an ancient Chinese city famous as the capital city for thirteen dynasties.

Luoyang is nowhere near the largest pollution zones of China and Qing is proud of the culture she learned as a child and student. She’s a well-educated young woman, getting her masters degree in Environmental Education at an American university. She has the energy and enthusiasm of those ready to roll up their sleeves and do great work in the world.

As we enjoyed and admired the Nova Scotia skies together, Qing noted, “There are never blue skies in most of China.” I demurred, “Never?” She said, “Well, perhaps one or two days a year, but basically, the sky is never blue where I grew up.”

Again, I was taken aback as Qing explained that a blue sky was a great luxury for her. (I was only able to find anecdotal data to quantify the actual days of blue skies over Chinese cities.) The acceptance of the unacceptable remains: Qing does not expect to see what we count as a core part of our basic wellbeing.

The natural next step in my mind was to recognise that it is the production of our cheap goods that is the largest cause of this horrifying condition. We must urgently reconsider the true costs of our everyday behaviour.

It is one thing to read statistics such as 3.5% of China’s GDP is caused by environmental degradation, almost certainly a low estimate, or see pictures on the worst air pollution days in Beijing,