Leung Man-tao is famous for his sharp and thought-provoking critique on cultural, social and economic policies. In between hosting a number of talk shows on television and re-inventing cultural education at Cattle Depot, the headmaster tells us about his life as a touring scholar and how his flight-heavy carbon footprint serves as a wake up call to the increasingly energy-intensive Hong Kong way of life.
First and foremost the environment is one of the issues that concern me most. Climate change is an issue that has implications on policy-making and social equality. I agree we must start from ourselves-to take charge of areas in our daily lives where we can cut emissions, but the issue is beyond individual responsibilities, to be able to reduce emission significantly we have to consider it collectively. Emissions can be checked by individuals only to the extent that the sources are controllable them, but in a lot of areas it is the infrastructure and policies that dictates whether we can cut. It is important to voice out our concern and press for better legislations.
Indeed I do not spend a lot of time here in Hong Kong these days. I'm always between lectures, conferences and studios. When I do stay in Hong Kong I take care to reduce my emission as much as possible. I seldom use the air-conditioner, and I do not leave appliances on standby. I am a heavy taxi-user, however, due to my tight schedule I am always in a hurry. I choose to take a taxi rather than drive partly because I need the time between meetings to rest and it is a nightmare to try to park in Hong Kong.
I think this is an important part of the discussion around what we should do about climate change. I consider my work flights pattern symbolic to what would increasingly become common place commuting for the people of Hong Kong. In that past it is only businessmen at the top level who are associated with the jet-set lifestyle. But as you said I work in culture, still I fly that much and almost all of my flights are within Asia. As China's economy continues to boom and Hong Kong now operating more and more as a city in China, many Hong Kong people have to travel from city to city frequently. A couple of decades ago we thought with the advent of computers and the internet, we would have a paper-less society with flights greatly reduced. But neither usage of paper nor flights have dropped. Isn't this time for us to reconsider the way forward? If it is proven that people really need to have personal contact, that either IT can't solve all our problems or that human nature can't fully adapt to technology, then it makes sense for us to put more efforts in infrastructure and transport.
Whether it's improving high-speed train service across China, raising airport taxes for passengers (so that it's only the users who pay for the operation of the airport, without subsidy from the general tax-payers) or improving building energy efficiency, we have to actively look at ways to reduce the demand for polluting means of transport such as flying. Climate change is an issue that accentuates social injustice. Within a society it is the people with higher than average income, above average living standard who are creating a vast amount of damage to the environment, and all other people have to share this burden with them.
We have a different relationship and perception of the environment here, and our society has a different perception of what is quality of life. We're at a state where we consider nice cars, luxurious handbags as 'must-have' items. Clean air, free time, quiet space may not be valued as highly as individual possession. We still believe in the myth that environmental protection is a luxury for developed countries, as though the energy-intensive, American way of development is the natural and only model of socio-economical progression. Perhaps for Hong Kong to act quickly, we need to make environmental protection a trend-a trend with more depth to it than just the look, of course.
Personally I will take the time to think long and hard about all my future trips-to better judge whether it is worthwhile to fly there, or whether I can organize a few meetings in one place so that I can fly less. As for the intelligentia-I think everyone ought to get together and propose a new design for life. This is the time for Hong Kong's second modernization. Neither the people, the businesses nor the industries are getting much steam out of the leftovers from our 1st modernization anymore. We need to set a common agenda to revisit our values, our lifestyles and aim to push forward a new design for life.
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