Book review: Sacred Mountains, by Allerd Stikker

by Allerd Stikker
Bene Factum

Cities are draped in smog for ever-longer periods and rivers are turning black, red and yellow as waste is dumped in. Meanwhile, algae merrily sprout, writes green business guru Allerd Stikker in his spiritually slanted assessment of China's pollution crisis.

The solution, he writes, is a riddle-rich faith with roots stretching deep into Chinese culture: Daoism (or Taoism), the ancient religious philosophy. "You could argue that the [Taoists] are the pioneers of nature conservation. In an entirely natural way, they are the very first protectors of nature."

Previously responsible for two other ecological tracts, Stikker was converted to the green cause by business trips to Taiwan at the end of the 1970s. Back then, he ran RSV, a Dutch shipbuilding company that produced naval kit. Taiwan introduced him to Taoism and severe pollution.

"At that time, the country was known as the Economic Miracle of the Far East. But I felt it was turning into the Ecological Disaster of the Far East," he writes, mentioning smog that forced people to wear masks. Economic growth and a rising living standard left little space for ecological niceties, it seemed, although eventually the Taiwanese government addressed the mess, persuaded by public protests.

In turn, Stikker hopes Beijing will clean up the mainland, spurred by Taoism. Despite Mao Zedong's stabs at quashing the faith, it is rebounding, especially popular among the younger generation born after the Cultural Revolution. Do not dismiss Taoism as a backward superstition, Stikker says.