William Shatner is a Canadian actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in the film “James T. Kirk”. StarCraft.So is he Going Bold: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder.
When the Enterprise first sailed across our screens more than half a century ago, science fiction was filled with stories of space pioneers racing to explore new frontiers in the universe, and their authors imagining what the future might look like.
As the voice of one of the pioneers in space for nearly 30 years, I have a message for world leaders: imagine a future without plastic.
If Captain James Kirk were to visit Earth today, he’d probably be back on the plastic planet. From the highest mountaintops to the deepest ocean trenches, to the air we breathe and the blood that flows through our bodies, timeless matter has proven to be the ultimate winner in the race for longevity across time and space. Plastic waste and microplastics in the ocean can now even be mapped from space.
What started as a strange invention turned into a global crisis. Over the past half century, the amount of plastic produced in the world has increased from approximately 15 million tons to more than 300 million tons. In terms of animals, we’ve produced 80 million blue whales’ worth of plastic since the 1950s. How many starships can this fill?
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I wish I could say this is all science fiction, but it’s not.
The reality speaks for itself. Only about 9% of all plastic produced in Canada and abroad is recycled each year. The rest ends up in our landfills, incinerators, waterways and parks, becomes tangled with our wildlife, and becomes incorporated into our bodies. Marginalized communities, including Canada’s Indigenous communities, face disproportionate health impacts from the plastic industry. For example, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation is located near a petrochemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario, that produces plastic products.
As the clean energy transition threatens the oil and gas industry’s wallets, they are turning to plastic production as their lifeline. After all, 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuels. The pipeline from Big Oil to Big Plastic is alive and flowing. In fact, if the industry develops smoothly, plastic production could triple by 2050.
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But we have a golden opportunity to break free from their harassment and focus on solutions commensurate with the scale of the crisis. Solutions include reducing plastic production to keep oil and gas in the ground and keep climate warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, especially since plastics pollute at every stage of their life cycle. Solutions include abandoning the fairy tale of recycling and instead building easy-to-use, more sustainable reuse systems that leave no one behind. Solutions that center, affirm and uphold the rights of Indigenous communities and pave the way to a just, plastic-free future.
That’s what’s at stake at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Ottawa at the end of April, where members of the United Nations Environment Program will discuss a global plastics treaty. This is the fourth of five meetings and the clock is ticking. We need governments to support solutions based on science and justice: the treaty must cut plastic production and end the use of single-use plastics to solve this global crisis.
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It starts in Canada. As the host nation, our federal government has the responsibility and opportunity to inject new energy into the talks and set an ambitious North Star. And it’s well positioned to do so. It already supports greater environmental protection and is committed to better climate crisis targets, including a target of zero plastic waste by 2030. A strong treaty to help achieve these goals. Like the determined Captain I played, Canada and its guest nations must stay the course even in the face of strong opposition. They must continue to be guided by the overwhelming majority of people concerned about the impact of plastic pollution on the environment. Canada must support urgent, bold action to end the plastic era. All eyes will be watching.
The INC-4 will be a choose your fighter moment. Will the government choose industry or community? People and the planet, or plastic? More than 48,000 Canadians and 2.2 million people around the world have made their choice and signed a petition for a Global Plastics Pact that would cut plastic production. We know what Captain James T. Kirk would choose.
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