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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 -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- You received this because you are subscribed to "sust-mar", the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list. To unsubscribe, send email to <majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca> with "unsubscribe sust-mar" (without quotes) as the body of your message. To post a message to sust-mar subscribers, send it to <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca> Posts that are off-topic or excessive length (10K) will be rejected. For help contact <sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
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