The Incidental Tourist Read online

  That was the focus of our 2015 visit to Hong Kong as participants in the 4th Nobel Laureates Symposium on Global Sustainability ‘4C: Changing Climate, Changing Cities’. These Nobel symposia are the brainchild of Johan (John) Schellnhuber, the founding Director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The first was held in Potsdam. Supported by Prince Charles, the second was at St James’s Palace, London, and we attended the third in Stockholm, hosted by the King and Crown Princess of Sweden. Now, ideally situated for a conference focused on urban growth, we were meeting at the Asia Society Hong Kong (ASHK) Centre. Though the participants were entertained at Government House by the Hong Kong Chief Executive Chun-ying Leung, supported by the Secretary for the Environment KS Wong, the principal, local organiser was the ASHK Co-Chair, Ronnie Chan.

  Housed in what was the (now much modified) Admiralty building under the old British Imperial regime, the ASHK was founded in 1990 by forward-looking members of the local business community and the then Chair of the Hang Seng Bank. The ASHK website explains that it is a leading regional knowledge-based platform for furthering the understanding of the countries and cultures of Asia and global issues that impact the region. It is also proud of its extensive regional and international networks of leaders and scholars, and recognised expertise in business and policy, arts and culture, and educational programming for a diverse range of audiences.

  Though I serve as a Board member of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, an intense, broad-ranging meeting focused on urban planning and sustainable cities was well out of my customary range. Many of the participants had no doubt heard each other speak before, though a lot of the content was new to us. Even so, I had the perception that some of the locals, both from Hong Kong and other regions in the People’s Republic, were not normally on the international circuit, and it was particularly intriguing to listen to their presentations.

  Normally, while the ordinary delegates may be moved around en masse in buses and mini-buses, any substantial conference involving government executives and members of the oligarchy will be served by a fleet of big, black, Audi, BMW or Mercedes Benz VIP cars. At this event, the VIP experience was to climb into a tiny all-electric BMW i3. Electric transport is big on the Hong Kong horizon. Apart from electric trains and trams, transit company executive Evan Auyang told us that the Hong Kong government has allocated $180 million for trialling thirty-six single-deck electric buses. In addition, there are positive incentives for people to move to electric cars, including the provision of numerous charging stations. Hong Kong already has the lowest incidence of automobile ownership for any major city.

  With so many electric vehicles, the obvious question is: how is the power generated? Currently, the energy mix for Hong Kong is coal (53 per cent), nuclear (23 per cent), natural gas (22 per cent) and renewables (2 per cent). Jiang Kejun from the Energy Research Institute of The National Development and Reform Commission told us that the aim across the People’s Republic is to reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired plants by 70 per cent before (likely long before) 2050, with (for Hong Kong) a 50 per cent drop in energy generation from coal by 2020. The intention is that nuclear and natural gas will fill the immediate demand, with the long-term strategy being dependent on expanding renewables. Though natural gas is still a fossil fuel, it’s less polluting as electricity generation can be fired up at short notice.

  China clearly sees the stakes as being very high. Veteran Hong Kong architect Peter Cookson Smith summarised how massive numbers of people in the heavily (and recently) industrialised Pearl River Delta are now at risk from any combination of high tides and storm surges, especially typhoons. The threat will, of course, be progressively increased by a sea level rise, which (with the steady warming of the oceans) is currently proceeding globally at an average rate of about three millimetres a year. That could worsen fast with the progressive melting of Greenland ice, then the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Ryōji Noyori, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, also discussed the extreme danger of typhoon-augmented ocean and river flooding in the Tokyo–Yokohama region, where millions of people are vulnerable to inundation.

  The purpose of this meeting was not, though, to emphasise doom-and-gloom scenarios, but to focus on solutions. While Mary Ritter, the International Ambassador and former CEO of Climate-KIC, pointed out that the building industry is very conservative, and structures (where we live and work) account for about 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions, Peter Cookson Smith and Ronnie Chan talked (both formally and informally) about innovative, energy-efficient design. Then Dutch–American sociologist Saskia Sassen argued that every surface in a city should have an environmental function, with obvious objectives being energy generation and insulation. Christchurch’s Roger Dennis, the Founder of Sensing City, discussed the ‘sensor city’, where positioning detectors in the built environment can serve many functions, from earthquake warning and protection to energy efficiency. We’re all familiar with modern buildings that turn lights on and off when nobody is moving around. Combining sensors and LED street lights can, for instance, achieve massive savings for municipal dollar and carbon budgets.

  The basis of Ben Barber’s advocacy in his 2013 book If Mayors Ruled the World: Disfunctional nations, rising cities, for the view that positive change can be facilitated, is the fact that cities have to deal with immediate problems and their administrations are (of necessity) close to the citizenry. The Mayor of the coal-town Bottrop, near Essen in the Ruhr Valley, Bernd Tischler, related how, with the final phase-out of all subsidies, their last mine will close in 2018. He discussed the strategies they are using to develop alternative economic opportunities. Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs, Morton Kabell, told us how Copenhagen is set to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital in 2025. He talked about promoting the use of bicycles (the city is flat) and wind power, banning chimneys in buildings, using a central heating/cooling plant powered by burning waste, and investing in biofuels. We saw some of that on a recent windy, wintry visit to Denmark, including masses of cyclists rushing by on cleared paths, though we didn’t see a pedal-powered snow plough!

  We heard that cities are the great centres of social networking and innovation. There was discussion of various carbon pricing schemes that are being trialled in China and Japan, and how, if we are to make real progress in any of this, we have to return to ideas of shared fates and collective responsibility. Even in a centrally controlled state like the People’s Republic, that idea is not so easy to sell and, with the continued domination of short-term thinking, it’s even more difficult in the democracies. At the conclusion of the meeting, the attendees produced and signed a declaration entitled Changing Climate, Changing Cities: The great urban transformation memorandum. The opening sentence is: ‘We are at a watershed moment.’ We can only hope that more citizens, mayors and national governments will take up the challenge.

  The most vivid memories of these few days are visual and auditory. The future was very much in mind as we listened to informed presentations, viewed the incredible city of Hong Kong from on high, and heard the unique sound of a local jazz quartet featuring Jessie Hou playing the bowed, two-string Erhu. East meets West in ways emphasising the extraordinary richness and diversity that’s at risk if we fail to achieve global sustainability. Our greatest challenge is to preserve and protect for future generations. Whatever our cultural background or national affiliation, all human beings inhabit this one small planet. Particularly for policymakers and business entrepreneurs, the challenge/opportunity is to look to the future and embrace that reality.

  CHAPTER 8

  Beware the sparkler

  ARRIVING IN LOS ANGELES, after fifteen hours flying across the Pacific, the last thing you need is to be identified as a possible security risk. Negotiating US airport security, having already cleared immigration and customs and heading on to that ‘anywhere in America’ next flight, is intimidating enough when you’re tired and a bit disoriented. But then you face
long lines and the need to remove your jackets, shoes and everything from your pockets, before progressing inexorably to that enclosed whirligig irradiator. Here you are instructed to hold ‘hands over head’, locked in, then released, but told to wait for possible further inspection. When finally cleared to go, the imperative is to collect your stuff off the belt, double-check you haven’t picked up someone else’s Mac Air and get dressed again. Just when you’re thinking, ‘home free, now for a visit to Starbucks’ – or collapsing in an airline lounge (for frequent flyers) – a uniformed guy, or gal, might just stop you as you walk away from the belt and say, ‘random check’, or words to that effect.

  What this involves is having the inside and outside of your carry-on and the surface of your portable computer wiped over with a disposable swab that’s then analysed for explosive residues in a gas reader. This is the same technology that the military use to find landmines, and it has also been tested in the medical world for detecting chemical signatures from dangerous bacteria in the expired breath from some poor unfortunate who has severe pneumonia. The likelihood of being pulled aside for this is highest when the airport is quiet and the security people are bored through not much to do. It’s not an infrequent experience or too resented, as nobody really wants to share a flight with a mad bomber.

  So far, nothing has ever come up positive for me, but Penny had a very different experience on a trip where I’d flown on ahead and we were to meet up later. She’d cleared the personal irradiator but was then told to wait while they put her carry-on back on the scanner belt for a second look. That done, she was again taken aside while her hand baggage was subjected to the swab test. Horror on horror, it came up positive! I guess they did a bit of forbidden ‘profiling’ and decided that Penny hardly looked like a major threat, so the armed response unit wasn’t activated. But there were the obvious questions. Had she been handling a gun? We’ve never owned one and, throughout her whole life, she hasn’t even fired an air rifle. Then queries about hand creams and standard heart medications like nitroglycerine. No, she wasn’t using any of those.

  Further swabs identified the source of the danger as the small point and shoot camera Penny carried (before iPhones became ubiquitous) to take family photos. Then she twigged to what may have happened. At a grandchild’s birthday party the week before, she’d taken some photos when the kids were waving sparklers around. Sparklers have been an Australian party feature since I was a child. Lengths of wire are dipped in a grey mix of magnesium salts that, when lit, give off continuous, bright shooting star-like sparkles for a minute or so till the combustible material is exhausted. Some of the chemical aerosol had obviously settled on Penny’s camera

  Realising there was no danger, but having recorded a positive, the security guy had to fill out a long form to record the incident. Penny was told there would be no further consequences, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. For several years, the boarding pass for her flights as she transited through a US security check at an international airport would have three bold black ‘S’ symbols, a bit like the Nordic runes used by the Nazi SS. These identified her for a ‘female security check’, which involved being escorted sternly to a secure space and patted down. She was now on a ‘dangerous grannies’ security list because of some sparklers at a kid’s party.

  After several years, Penny was suddenly forgiven by the system. Was it some sort of apology? Her boarding pass came up stamped TSA, or pre-approved for a less rigorous security check, where there’s no need to remove clothing or personal computers, and it’s possible to just walk through the simple X-ray machine rather than being enclosed in the gadget that reveals every part of you. Our roles were now reversed, and she would have to wait for me on the secure side. Having turned seventy-five, I’m now also TSA approved. That seems to be one of the few benefits of increasing age. Old people evidently have little enthusiasm for blowing themselves up. But the message is clear: all that glitters is not good (at least when you’re planning to travel), so beware the sparkler!

  CHAPTER 9

  The practiced traveller

  ON THE SUBJECT OF travelling hurdles, let me sidestep a bit to give some practical advice. Roving as much as I do, I’ve picked up a few tidbits along the way that make it all so much easier, and then I also have some ‘I wish this existed’ moments. One area that has always been troublesome is the luggage aspect. It would be great if reason finally triumphed and I could abandon my obsessive–compulsive search for the ideal roll-aboard suitcase, the perfect carry-on. But the problem is obvious: it’s all about volume. That is, the volume of a rectangular box versus the volume of clothes and other bits and pieces that can be stuffed into it.

  The rules are clear. Those frames in departure lounges indicate that our carry-on can be whisked away to the aircraft hold if its external dimensions exceed 56 x 45 x 25 centimetres, including the handles and wheels. Could there be a better design? I speculate that space could be saved if the handles could be ‘sewn-in’ and flat to the sides so they don’t project, and might the wheels be retractable? But that’s useless if they take up internal space: maybe fold-flat wheels? The illusion that, like Dr Who’s Tardis, the inside of this hypothetical roll-aboard can be much bigger than the outside is, of course, absurd. Then there’s also the issue of weight limits.

  Though the airlines I fly tend to avoid weighing carry-ons – probably to avoid enraging US tourists who are accustomed to taking everything on board – you can never tell what might happen at check-in. And, even if you do get away with something that’s heavier than regulations stipulate, you still have to lift and lug the bag. I’ve given up on the idea that hotel rooms will provide a mechanical compacter, much like those on garbage trucks or on the trunk (boot) lid of a Cadillac we once rented – it had a hydraulic press that crushed the suitcases into the available space! If you’ve purchased (or are given) more stuff than you anticipated, checking it in on the way home may be inevitable, unless you’re prepared to discard such acquisitions in your hotel room.

  The major problem with checked luggage is that it sustains damage. Imagine your case being picked up by a 120-kilogram bodybuilder and hurled directly at a large, projecting spike! That elegant, shiny, ultra-lightweight plastic stuff might just be too vulnerable for this! As a pathologist by early training, I think about penetration injuries, and the bits that can be ripped-off the cases if they’re caught up in machinery, belts or some other obstruction. We have had some very sad (and sometimes incomprehensible) things happen to larger cases that travel in the hold. There’s a point beyond which Super Glue and duct/gaffer tape just can’t do the job!

  It makes sense then to purchase a roll-aboard that is both tough and has a zip for expansion. In the baggage world, some of the really cheap products are (as might be expected) pretty tacky, and so best avoided unless you’re thinking only in terms of disposable and single use. Name brands are generally fine – the older models can often be bought at a discount – but for those who prize appearance it may not be a great idea to select elaborate luggage that makes a visual statement about your importance and personal wealth. The trick is to be anonymous. Sophisticated thieves are not unknown on the ‘secure’ side of airports – I once foolishly displayed some money that was then stolen from my backpack.

  After years of partially successful experiments, I now have a second, smaller carry-on – an under-the-seat-in-front one – that is a computer backpack with a strap at the back to slip over the extended roll-aboard handle, and D rings outside that can be used to attach a couple of light karabiners – great for securing further small packs (a light camera, or lens case), a hat with a strap or even a pair of sneakers. The airlines don’t seem to be bothered by this – nobody wants to handle your well-worn running shoes!

  If there’s the possibility that you might need to check in your roll-aboard, it’s a good idea to also have a lightweight pack as an alternative container for any valuables. Outdoor stores sell tiny, plastic backpacks that fold into their o
wn pocket to be no bigger than a golf ball. Then it’s also true that, while the airlines care a great deal about the number of pieces you carry onto the plane, they don’t worry one little bit about how many you carry off! Perhaps you’ve layered a pullover or two, a scarf, a formal jacket and a top coat to wear on (fine for boarding in a cold climate) but, if you’re landing in (say) the Australian summer, there’s nothing to stop you dropping the polar traveller act to stuff some of this into that compact extra pack for disembarking.

  The obvious advantage of a roll-aboard is that you don’t have to hang around waiting for checked bags. At a very few airports there’s even a fast line through immigration for people travelling with only a carry-on. At a minimum, though, you must hand carry anything that contains lithium batteries, which includes most modern portable computers, and there’s a lot of personal stuff, like pills, jewellery, cameras and so forth, that does not belong in checked luggage. Bringing a roll-aboard also guarantees that you won’t have to spend even one night in a hotel without a change of clothes. With modern electronic tracking, the likelihood that your checked bag will go to the wrong place is less than it was in the past, but those white airline tags can be torn off, perhaps by catching in some machinery or other, or the wrong tag can be attached to your bag at check-in – people do make mistakes.