I have been writing off and on for over thirty years about global warming, climate change, the extinction of species. Including ours, sooner than later. This from January 3, 1990 – JDW
I was invited and I actually went to a holiday brunch this past weekend and I found myself in conversation with one of my favorite politicians. Yes, Virginia, there are a couple I’ve come to admire. A little.
As I concluded a lengthy discourse on some of the problems which face this city, she opined, “My, but you are cynical, aren’t you?”
The phrase lingers with me.
I don’t think I am.
“Cynical” has become a pejorative appellation. I am awake, I am aware, I am angry. I am only “cynical” if you don’t agree with my opinions. I’m only cynical if you think the people in Portland and Salem and Washington, D.C., are doing what’s best for this city, this state, this country.
I don’t think they are.
David Suzuki doesn’t think they are either. Suzuki, professor of genetics at the University of British Columbia and an renowned television host of environmental programs, has published over three hundred popular science articles and thirteen books. His latest, just released, Inventing The Future, is a collection of essays on science, technology and nature.
Dr. Suzuki appeared in Portland under the auspices of the Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy. Noted monkey nuzzler Jane Goodall visits in April.
“Our planet is dying!” are the words with which Suzuki began his talk. And then he offered a litany of concerns.
Ninety million humans are added to the world’s population every year.
Twenty-five billion tons of topsoil are lost annually.
Forty thousand children die every day in the Third World, due to malnutrition and preventable disease.
Every five minutes of every day, a major shipment of nuclear materials crosses a national border to be stored or dumped.
At the current rate of global deforestation, at least twenty thousand (20,000) species of plants and animals become extinct yearly. By 2020, there will be no wilderness anywhere on Earth. “We are the last generation,” Suzuki believes, “who will have any decisions to make about wilderness.”
On a worldwide basis, about twenty million dollars ($20,000,000.00) is spent EVERY SECOND on military defense.
“Acid rain, as you know, is a fact.” And let us not forget the depletion of the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, air and water pollution, and the hits just keep on coming.
How did we get in this mess? “We remain blind to the reality of the hazards,” Suzuki explains,”because we never question the fundamental beliefs of our society.” The sacred truths.
We can begin just by reexamining what we mean by the word progress. Politicians, for example, are forever telling us they will ensure steady growth, if only we’ll keep them in office. That’s their idea of progress. It is not Suzuki’s.
“Only the cancer cell grows indefinitely!” the professor notes. “Growth has become an end to itself and so there is no end to growth. We have too much and we have to do with less.” Bitter pill.
No wonder we’re in trouble. You imagine a politician – whose idea of ‘the vision thing” is winning his next election – offering a platform of a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. But only three times a week? Me neither. Suzuki says there is no other answer.
“Economics is a total perversion,” the good doctor says, and you know in your heart of hearts, he’s right. “Economics, as it is practiced today, makes no ecological sense.”
And what is economics after all but a human creation which places a value on everything based on what it means to us, what it can do for us.
Suzuki calls this phenomenon “species chauvinism.”
“There may be as many as thirty million (30,000,000) species on this planet; we’ve only discovered 1.4 million of them,” he says. “And we think we should be able to decide which among them survives based on our utilitarian needs. How bizarre.”
Which brings us to one of this country’s most enduring sacred truths, “that we are special because we were made in God’s image and that we somehow lie outside of nature, which exists to serve us.”
Suzuki’s point – please pay attention – is that we are a part of nature , not apart from it.
We are the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. We are, each of us, made up of atoms, that were, for instance, once a part of the forests we’re clear-cutting and the oceans we’re polluting. And if we don’t take care of the Third World, if we don’t take care of the environment, then we are not taking care of ourselves and our children, our grandchildren and their children.
And that is the simple truth. Sacred or not.
Dr. Suzuki recalls something Ralph Nader told him. “If one person thinks they don’t count, they don’t count. If a million say they don’t count, they don’t count. And no one would say a million people don’t count.”
Each of us counts. Every one of us can help save our world from impending catastrophe. Suzuki offers some suggestions.
Inform yourself. Convince yourself of the reality of environmental degradation. Reexamine some of your most deeply held beliefs. Be a conservationist in your daily behavior. Use your power as a consumer. Exert your influence as a citizen and voter, and take an active role in elections. Work for laws which will stop pollution and reduce waste. Support environmental groups.
Finally, remember the children. “Surely the opportunity for youngsters to anticipate a rich and full life in balance with the complex community of life on this planet is the reason for society and governments,” Suzuki states. “Profit is not the reason.”
Dr. David Suzuki believes we can save our planet and ourselves if we but only understand we are one and the same.
“We need to nurture a sense of spiritual connection with the land, a sacred connection,” he says. “That, I believe, is the key to the successful survival, in harmony, of our planet.”
Let’s all start to worship the ground we walk on.
