William Shatner 1931-2021
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Donna Acacia — 4 years ago(October 13, 2021 02:58 AM)
“What we’ve done, all of us, is bury our head in the sand. It’s so awful to contemplate what’s going to happen. And it’s going to happen.
“Recently I’ve been reading about the city of Miami thinking of erecting sea walls. All those port cities – England is filled with port cities – are going to have to erect walls, the way the Dutch have, to keep out the ocean. No question about it.
“I’ve seen maps of what the ocean is going to do to Bangladesh. There’s 60 million people in Bangladesh? It’s going to be underwater! Where are those people going to go? India already has too many people. Pakistan, are you kidding me?
“That’s going to be the way it’s going to affect the world. And it’s going to be awful.”
No stranger to saving planets, Shatner has a solution: “If somebody invents, Manhattan Project-like, the ability to withdraw the carbon out of the air so that you can make solid carbon out of the carbon dioxide and then bury it maybe we could mitigate the damage.
“The real reason everything is happening is there’s too many people,” he continues. “The planet can’t sustain seven billion, let alone 10 billion. It’s such a complex problem. And nobody’s dealing with it. Nobody!
“’Let’s spend some money on global warming’, says Biden. And the rest of the people say, Oh, we can’t afford it. I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous!
“It is going to be, not the end of mankind, but it’s going to be the decline of mankind.
“We’re going to live on mountaintops and – the trees – trees are already moving uphill. Are you aware of that? Some trees are moving. The trees are dying over here [he points one way] and the seeds are living up there [he points the other way]. The forests are moving uphill into higher and drier climates.”
Fans of Shatner’s unique vocal stylings will be delighted to know another is on the way, Love, Death and Horses. On it he talks about his plans for voyaging to that undiscovered country.
Am I right in saying you want to be a tree?
“That’s exactly right. I am going to be a redwood. I have a place I want to be buried, some land I own, which is just below the sequoia forest in California. Of course, you want to be a sequoia, the biggest tree. But it takes the longest, 1,000 years, so a redwood will be more viable.”
Tree burials – where cremated remains are placed in a pod and a tree planted on top – is a growing trend, especially in Asian countries.
“I want my body, my ashes, to nourish the roots of a young tree and grow. And actually, that’s one of the answers, isn’t it? Instead of taking up land for the dead body: Oh, there goes Uncle Sam, let’s go see Uncle Sam in his grave. Then you stop seeing Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam’s body lies there mouldering. And it’s of no value!
“This way you use the atoms of your body to nourish something living like a tree. I think it makes a great deal of sense. I love it. And I want to be a tree.”
“Everything is changing. The stars are burning. Eventually they’ll burn out, and new stars will form. We age ourselves.
“You’re not aware that things are changing until change is thrust on you. Golly, I can hardly make it up those stairs – I used to run up those stairs. Maybe the oxygen exchange in your lungs and your blood is not as efficient as it was. The end of our DNA begins to wear out as we get older. Our muscles stiffen up and our bones get brittle. I see it, I feel it in my body.
“But what I’m not feeling is intellectual change. I feel as creative and as alive and as perceptive of, for example, you, as I’ve ever been. Or even more so.”
— 4 years ago(October 13, 2021 01:36 AM)