The UN has two days upcoming that reflect their ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the Environmental crisis facing the planet. World Environment Day on Sunday 5th June and World Oceans Day following close behind that on Wednesday 8th.
World Environment Day is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. You can learn more at their dedicated website, but Star Trek has been a leading champion of environmental concerns for decades.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘True Q’ features a mission to Tagra IV which has become heavily polluted. Before she heads off to join the Q Amanda Rogers muses: “It’s amazing to think that they go to such lengths to clean the air instead of regulating the emissions that cause the problem.” This is a clear reference to the problems we have visited on our own planet.
In Voyager the Malon are seen offloading their waste into an area of space away from their home, without thought of the consequences to the local inhabitants. The dumping of Western rubbish on African and Indian coastlines is the comparison point here.
Star Trek: Discovery looked at the havoc inflicted on the Mycelial Network by the “alien” Doctor Culber’s presence in the Jah Shep’s environment. Overmining and poor safety cause the explosion that destroys the Klingon moon, Praxis mirroring the strip-mining of large parts of Australia, Eastern Europe, and Ohio.
We looked at species exploitation for the International Day for Biological Diversity in May. The key Star Trek text for the oceans is of course Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, with its focus on our close cousins the Cetaceans. World Ocean Day looks to support the preservation of marine habitats. The ocean covers over 70% of the planet Earth.
It is our life source, supporting humanity’s sustenance and that of every other organism on earth. Star Trek has featured many aquatic species, from Livingston, Picard’s pet Lionfish, to the Xindi-Aquatics in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Over a Torrent Sea is a Star Trek: Titan novel set on the planet Droplet which has no solid ground of any sort. The Squales who live on Droplet is a species of pre-warp but intelligent ocean creatures who have evolved biotechnology (including slower than light spaceflight), and complex society.
Over a Torrent Sea also focuses on the Titan‘s navigator Aili Lavena, who is an aquatic Pacfican, or Selkie. This species is mentioned often in both books and shows and would be an interesting storyline for the franchise to pick up at some point.
The continuing focus from all the Star Trek media on various aspects of the environment and ways in which sentient species either respect or exploit it will throw light onto our efforts to undo the issues caused over the last two centuries and even to introduce people to Earth species that they know nothing about.
For instance, the Khwopans our heroes meet in the Lower Decks episode ‘Much Ado About Boimler’ was clearly inspired by our Axolotl.
