Suzuki on the solution to climate change (and why we ignored it)

If I tend to quote the iconic David Suzuki fairly often, it’s because I think there are few people who can nail a point as effectively and eloquently as he can. Particularly within the world of science, where the vast majority of the writing tends to be pretty dry.

For example, take this excerpt from his foreword to a recent book by Tim Flannery called Now or Never. Here, Suzuki looks back on the enthusiastic but ultimately ineffective environmental hype of 1988:

“That year, 300 scientists met in Toronto to discuss the atmosphere. They were convinced there was evidence that global warming was occurring and that people were causing it. In a press release, they declared that global warming represented a threat to human survival second only to nuclear war, and they called for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1988 levels in fifteen years. Scientists had spoken, the public was concerned, and politicians had gotten the message.

“Had we acted accordingly,” Suzuki states, “we would be far beyond the Kyoto target and well on our way to the deep reductions we now know we have to make.”

So why didn’t we act accordingly? “Politicians didn’t have the stomach to take the criticism for spending big bucks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when they wouldn’t even be around to take credit for it fifteen years later. Many environmentalists, including me, felt it was a ‘slow-motion catastrophe’ and there was time to focus on more urgent issues like clear-cut logging.

“But most egregiously,” Suzuki notes, “corporations began to spend millions on a campaign to confuse the public, calling climate change ‘junk science,’ supporting articles and Web sites to dispute the evidence, and funding a few ‘skeptics’ to spread disinformation. And it worked…”

“For too long,” he continues, “we have pulled our punches to avoid being dismissed as sensationalists, alarmists, or extremists, even when the science warranted extreme statements. We have urged individual actions like changing lightbulbs and turning off computers while economies, energy use, and emissions continued to rise.

“The scientific foresight that enables us to look ahead,” Suzuki emphasizes, “now demands that we take the gloves off and tell it like it is. We are heading toward a precipice at breakneck speed and we have to slow down and, very soon, turn onto a different road.”

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