Lecture – “Earth day”

"Star Trek as an Inspiration"

By RoBobby McMillan

Welcome everyone!

In the last week, you've been overwhelmed with everyone saying how important it is to save the Earth, to recycle, to contribute to a cleaner, healthier, environmentally friendlier planet. You've also been told that if we just keep on treating the planet like we have in the last century, our children and grandchildren won't have a planet left to live on. The entire week, people have been reminding you of the importance of the planet, and about what you can do to help out.

And they're right, of course. Planet Earth is our home. And until we can terraform other planets and build ships to get us there, Earth is all we got.

Of course, you already know this. So rather than repeat everything that's been said before during this week, I will tell you how the Star Trek universe dealt with pollution, ecological crises and environmental problems. Perhaps we can learn from that, and find a way to integrate it into our daily lives.

Social commentaries

The Star Trek shows have never been afraid to discuss problems and dilemma's of today, by letting the crew if the Enterprises, DS9 or Voyager react to them. Whether it was the cold war ("TOS: A Private Little War", and others), racial or social equality (TOS: "Cloud Minders", TNG: "The Measure of a Man", and others), the horrors of war (DS9: "Nor the Battle to the Strong", VOY: "Nemesis", and others) or even torture (TNG: "Chain of Command") and the way we look at sick people (DS9: "The Quickening", ENT: "Stigma", and others), Star Trek has always shown us what humanity is about, and how we can learn from that... how we can change that.

It should be noted though, that there aren't many Star Trek episodes which are about  the environment, global warming, pollution and such. There are some, but most are about social issues, not environmental. Of course this can be explained by saying that stories about the environment aren't as interesting, from a producer point of view, as stories about people.

Still, there are several episodes which do deal with what we've been talking about all week. Let me go through a few of them with you.

Some examples

The first and most famous is, of course, not an episode. It's a movie: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

In this movie, Earth is under attack from an alien probe, sending out some sort of signal. When it doesn't get a proper response, it causes a catastrophe on Earth. The weather changes, oceans start to evaporate, storms appear all over the planet and Earth seems doomed.

Admiral Kirk and his crew, returning to Earth in a Klingon Bird of Prey, discover that this probe is calling for an extinct species: humpback whales. They were hunted to extinction in the late 20th early 21st century. So, Kirk makes a decision: they have to travel back in time to get some humpback whales.

Ultimately they get the whales – after saving them from a ship that's hunting them down already – and return to their own time, where the whales respond to the probe.

This movie is an outspoken commentary on how humanity deals with the environment and ecological diversity. Everything about it tells us that we have to be careful with our planet: not just with the animals, but also with our atmosphere: Spock makes a reference to the high amount of smog, polluting the Earth.

But what can we learn from this movie? Well, first of all, by watching it, you automatically root for the good guys: the heroic Starfleet crew who have to go to the past to fix a mistake humans have made before they knew better than to hunt species to extinction. Throughout the movie, there are references to how the planet is in a bad state, and how humans continue to make it worse. Subconsciously, you start thinking about it... since you see what could happen when we do nothing.

Furthermore... everyone knows this scene! It's the scene where Kirk decloaks the Bird of Prey over the whaling ship, preventing the hunters from killing these two whales. It doesn't only show that Kirk and company are willing to do what it takes to protect the whales (read: the ecological difference) but it also immediately switches the role this whaling ship has: from being the hunter, to becoming the hunted! Most people who see this, instinctively get a grin on their face, as it just feels right! That in turn will make you think about what's happening at open seas right now, and will make you less supportive of such whaling ships.

Bottom line: Star Trek IV shows us what could happen with our planet if we're not careful with it!

An episode of Star Trek TNG also shows a possible future, if we don't stop polluting our planet.

This episode, called "True Q", is actually not an environmental show at all: it's about a girl, Amanda Rogers, who turns out to be a Q. Q shows up and tests her, while the Enterprise is on a mission to help out a heavily polluted planet, Tagra IV. In the end, Amanda accepts that she's a Q and helps out the Enterprise and the planet by removing all the pollution, and returning its ecosystems to their natural state.

While this episode is not about the dangers to the environment, it does show what *could* happen. Or, more to the point, what is *already* happening: while Earth's atmosphere isn't like that of Tagra IV, there are heavily populated cities which have to deal with smog clogging up their air. The air becomes toxic, people are recommended to stay inside, and cars are banned from the streets, at least until the air clears up again. I bet the people of Tagra IV had this happening as well. They didn't stop it in time, so they needed the Enterprise to come to their help with Baristatic filters: a device that removes pollution from the atmosphere. Sadly though, we don't have such a device... so we'll have to minimise pollution, ourselves.

One of Deep Space Nine's episodes – a fan favourite – briefly gives some advise to 'hoomaans', in the form of Quark.

 He, Rom, Nog and Odo crash-land on Earth, in Roswell, 1947. The episode I'm talking about is, of course, "Little Green Men". In it, Quark gives the General in charge of the military base, some 'free advise': to stop polluting with cigars and atom bombs.

I'm pleased to say that it seems we listened... there are far less cigars and cigarettes out there, at least where I live. Also, there hasn't been an atom bomb test in many years. Of course, the nuclear weapons problem still exists... but thankfully world leaders do recognise this problem as well.

Deep Space Nine also shows what could happen if we put the acquisition of money above the fate of the planet, in "The Dogs of War".

In it, Quark receives a message from Grand Nagus Zek, which is filled with static. Zek claims that this is because of an accident at a power plant: a contractor used substandard relays to save money. Those exploded, causing the rain to become toxic.

This is, of course, a real danger here on Earth as well. In most parts of the world, making money is still more important than taking care of the environment. The meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 is a good example of this. Think of the meltdown at the Fukushima powerplant as well: even though it was caused by an earthquake and a tsunami, Greenpeace states that the plant could have been upgraded to prevent such an accident.

Such terrible catastrophes were also shown in episodes such as VOY's "Time and Again" and "The Omega Directive".

One episode that was mostly about the environment, was TNG's "Force of Nature".

 It was about the dangers of warpdrive, where the warp engines actually ripped through subspace, damaging it. Subspace was, of course, a stand-in for the ozone layer. The hole in the ozone layer kept getting bigger and bigger, and as a result, harmful radiation from the sun kept coming through. Today, that hole is still there, and it's still contributing to global warming... but thankfully we're on the right track: developed and developing countries alike have decided to bring the expulsion of ozone-destroying chemicals, to a minimum. Scientists believe that the ozone layer should recover to pre-1980 levels, by the year 2060. Just in time for First Contact...

There are more examples: part of TNG's "The Host" shows the dangers of global warming, ENT's "Civilization" deals with what would happen to the people if groundwater is polluted, and DS9's "Past Tense", which paints a rather grim image of the future nearby future indeed: not just socially, but also ecologically.

While most Star Trek episodes are about something else than the environment, they do show the importance of our planet. Not necessarily in their storylines, but in what those characters do, how they behave and the technology they created. For instance, take the replicators.

They're the ultimate recycling devices. They take waste products – and with waste, I mean *waste* - and change the molecular sequencing to create any food you want. No longer do people in the 23rd and 24th century have to slaughter animals to get their meat: they just create it from waste and leftovers!

Also, the characters all take care of the environment: never do you see any of them casually throwing a paper wrapping on the floor, or something like that. They are the humanity we should aspire to become. And that, I think, is what's most inspiring about Star Trek: its positive outline of the future. They're saying that even though we've got our problems now, if we work hard, we will overcome them.

The same is true with the environment. It won't be easy to fix these problems we're facing, especially since we're facing a lot of them. But if we all contribute, if we all work together towards a common goal, then our children and grandchildren will inherit a better Earth.

So while we don't have replicators, we can recycle. While we don't have a weather control system, we can affect the climate. And while we don't have baristatic filters, we can prevent any more pollution from filling up the air.

Let's take Star Trek as an example. Let it be our inspiration for years to come. Because if we do, I'm certain that one day, we'll not only leave this world to explore others... but we'll do so while leaving behind a clean, prosperous Earth.

Thank you very much for listening.