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It is time to get really serious about this. Suzuki was not this bleak
when I discussed this general topic at the G-7/P-7 Conferences here a few
years ago.
Monday, January 11, 1999
The Halifax Herald Limited
Tim Krochak/Herald Photo
David Suzuki, host of CBC television's, The Nature of Things, in Point
Pleasant Park while on a book tour stop in Halifax.
Suzuki recycles columns for book
By Dennis Bueckert / The Canadian Press
Ottawa - David Suzuki skips the subtleties in explaining how his
career as a newspaper columnist ended a few years ago.
"They (the editors) canned me," he says. "They said, 'Look, this is a
science page and you're ending up spending all your time writing about
the environment.'
"But I think the major problem with me was I kept dumping on their own
columnists."
He tells the story casually, as if getting fired is a trivial matter.
Now he has recycled his columns in a new book, Earth Time.
The essays are spliced together for an impact they didn't have as
separate pieces, but the themes are familiar to anyone who has
followed Suzuki's work.
Scientists have a moral obligation to make their findings
comprehensible to ordinary people.
Science can quickly identify the benefits of new technology but
usually can't identify its long-term consequences.
Scientific knowledge is like a jigsaw puzzle: no one can put all the
pieces together. Massive resource consumption is putting the planet on
a collision course with nature, but there is still time to avert
disaster.
The columns have been edited in telling ways - the barbs directed at
his fellow journalists have been removed.
But the basic tone of pending apocalypse remains intact.
"I have been to four conferences in the United States on biodiversity
this year and they are terrifying," Suzuki says.
"I sat in Washington at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences
and people were saying, 'Well, if 90 per cent of all species go
extinct over the next 100 years, do you think humans could survive?'
"This is what they're talking about. It's a crisis, it's
inconceivable. And the problem is these damn scientists end up talking
to each other. They know how bad it is but they haven't a clue how the
hell to get the message out."
Suzuki says environmentalists have themselves to blame for losing
public support over the past decade.
"We made a massive error in being so concerned with saving seals and
whales, and protecting wilderness, and stopping logging, that we
forgot that each of these battles had enormous repercussions for
people.
"We got caught up in this adversarial thing. We've got to come back
together and say, look, we live on the same planet. We've got to put
people back into the equation."
Now at an age when many people start taking stock of their
accomplishments, Suzuki's appraisal is bleak.
"I feel like a total failure. Certainly I don't see any fundamental
impact that I've had."
That doesn't mean he's about to quit.
He continues to host The Nature of Things, one of the longest-running
programs in CBC history.The David Suzuki Foundation which he founded
with his wife, Tara Cullis, has a $1.5-million annual budget funded
almost entirely from small donations.
He predicts public sentiment will swing back toward the green agenda
as evidence accumulates.
"I don't feel lonely. I know I'm not going to save the world, but if
you add together millions of people and tens of thousands of
organizations maybe that adds up to something.
"I don't think there's any question that we're going to see a massive
shift back to environmental issues."
[3] Back
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1999 The Halifax Herald Limited
_________________________________________________________________
References
0. http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/altdisplaystory?1999/01/11+143.raw+altEntertainment
1. http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/altsecfront?1999/01/11+altEntertainment#143.raw
2. http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/altdisplayphoto?1999/01/11+143.raw+1006+altEntertainment
3. http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/altsecfront?1999/01/11+altEntertainment#143.raw
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