CARI Convention: Suzuki Urges Foresight

Thinking ahead is what separates humankind from the animals, TV personality and author David Suzuki noted to attendees of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) Convention in Toronto.

If that is the case, the species had better do some planning on the global environment soon, Suzuki told the 200+ assembled recyclers and suppliers who attended the CARI Convention in Toronto June 11-13.

The host of “The Nature of Things,” seen on both the PBS and CBC networks, commended recyclers for helping sustain the Earth’s resources. “You’re the group right in the trenches where the action is; I’m an academic,” said Suzuki. “Recycling is one of the crucial components toward where we have to go for a sustainable society.”

But the bottom-line oriented practices of a number of industries—and of society in general—were questioned by Suzuki. He remarked that economic growth has “come to be seen as the source of everything that matters,” but that the planet can no longer afford this point of view.

The 69-year-old Suzuki pointed to the interconnectedness of the planet’s air and water as reasons why political and business leaders from throughout the world must quickly address harmful emissions practices.

Noting that the atmosphere is merely a couple of miles of breathable air that separates Earth from the “nothingness” beyond, Suzuki asked, “How can an intelligent creature think that it’s okay to use that atmosphere as a dump?”

He commented that 1 in 5 Canadian children has asthma, and yet when some of these children are dropped off at urgent care centers with severe attacks, they arrive in the family sport utility vehicle (SUV). Suzuki said the failure to see such connection has proven harmful to society’s ability to make wise long-term decisions.

Condemning such practices as salmon farming, Suzuki also remarked that the Earth’s water is constantly picked up and dropped off by weather fronts to different points on the planet, so that no water pollution is strictly local.

Suzuki urged leaders to use such means as the tax code to reward corporate and individual actions that preserve the Earth while punishing those that harm the atmosphere or water supply. But he was not optimistic that this is happening now. “Our so-called leaders in business and government don’t seem to be interested.”

Currently, Suzuki and his foundation are urging Canadians to sign up for the Nature Challenge and agree to take at least three out of 10 listed actions to help protect the planet’s resources. More on the Nature Challenge can be found at www.davidsuzuki.org.