Let’s speak up for the country we want

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

We’ve just had our federal election and, if nothing else, the environment did become an issue. Unfortunately, global warming and other environmental issues were overshadowed by an economic crisis and, no doubt, by the fear people have of the word tax, so much so that they didn’t notice the word cuts was also in there.

Now it’s up to all of us to make sure the environment doesn’t get lost in all the noise about the economy. The new government has some important choices to make in the near future.

Where’s the real money?

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

Less than a day to go to the election and, as I feared, the environment has disappeared from election discourse. All the leaders are scrambling to respond to a tanking global economy. But who has considered this crisis to ask some really important questions like how did politicians sell us out to forces of the global economy that are out of our control? I was astounded at the panic in the U.S. government that led that it to pass, in a matter of days, a bill committing $700 BILLION to banks that merrily made oodles of money in a phoney scheme that was built on nothing. It looks as though even 700-billion big ones will not be enough to pull us out of a severe recession, if not a full-blown depression. I’m already in full-blown depression about where we are heading.

Knowledge is power for 21st-century students

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

Hand-washing signals shift

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

I have found that the most difficult challenge is getting people to change behaviour. When I walk down the street, I often see people hunch their shoulders and look at me sheepishly as if to say, “I know, I know. I have to sell my SUV.” Hey, I’m not Mr. Perfect, giving everyone else shit for not being like me. I’m a sinner too.

Who’s responsible for the global market?

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

The great British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote that there are many things that nations should share – sports, culture, music, art, etc. – but, he warned, “Keep your economy profoundly domestic.” We didn’t pay much attention as governments around the world, and especially in Canada, rushed to benefit from the vaunted claims of the global economy.

What’s up with this economy stuff?

By David Suzuki - 21 months ago

I’m not an economist, so when I read the news these days, I find myself going crazy because I just don’t understand what’s going on. For years, two great superpowers, America and the Soviet Union, went head-to-head, one advocating free-enterprise capitalism, the other communism – and the good guys won.

For decades, North Americans have been told that anything smacking of socialism was bad. Indeed, in the U.S. some even feel government itself is an enemy of the people. So government regulation is bad. Socialized medicine is bad. Welfare is bad. Regulation is bad. Trust the free market, we are told.

Putting humans in their place

By David Suzuki - 22 months ago

By David Suzuki

Andrew Weaver’s recently published book, Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World, is an urgent call to action that some of the folks running for the privilege of leading us into the future seem to be ignoring. Dr. Weaver, a world-class climatologist who is putting the University of Victoria on the global map, was one of the lead authors on papers put out by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In that role, he shared with other panel members the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

True security means reducing reliance on fossil fuels

By David Suzuki - 22 months ago

By David Suzuki

Everybody uses the term sustainability these days, and that’s great. As biological creatures, we depend on resources and energy to live, as do all other species. For most of human existence, we’ve used materials from our surroundings: wood, animals, water, rocks, etc. Much of it was renewable. Nature replenished what we used. Today, we should use these renewable resources at a level at which they can be replenished year after year. We should use materials that aren’t renewable, like minerals, very carefully and efficiently, and we should recycle them.

We must listen to the scientists

By David Suzuki - 22 months ago

When I give speeches, one of my main messages is that the key to our remarkable success as a species is foresight – the ability to look ahead, to see where the dangers and opportunities lie, so that we can then act accordingly. It is one feature that distinguishes us from all other animals. It’s worked for us. In only a hundred thousand years, we went from being just another species on the plains of Africa to the dominant animal on the planet.

My love affair with America

By David Suzuki - 22 months ago

I have to admit, I love America. My parents and sisters and I were born and raised in Canada, yet we were incarcerated as threats to Canada during the Second World War, and then expelled from British Columbia at war's end because we wanted to remain in our country, not take a one-way trip to Japan.

We ended up destitute in Ontario where my parents pounded home the message that education was the key to escaping our poverty. Dad's biggest threat when he was mad at me was to say he would pull me out of school and set me to work. University was out of the question for me until Amherst College in the U.S. gave me a scholarship worth more than my father earned in a year. You see, they believed that foreign students added to the education of American students. As a result, I received an elite education that wasn't possible in Canada.