David Suzuki

Ashley and I went to see David Suzuki read from his new book, Good News for a Change, at Chapters last week. Perhaps “read” is the wrong word. “Rant” might be more appropriate. Suzuki, well known for his passionate calls to change the way we live, has focused his latest book on the positive things we could be doing to save the environment rather than re-iterate the visions of doom many have come to expect from environmentalists.

That said, his presentation did still have some of his trademark comments on some of the more disturbing threats to our environment:

• According to Suzuki, one of the most disturbing statistics he had seen recently stated that though Canadians are now having half as many children as the previous generation, they’re living in houses twice the size. This means each person is using four times as much space as the previous generation. How much is enough? This point was reiterated several times over as Suzuki pointed out the disparity in wealth distribution, not only in the world at large, but even just within North America itself.
• Suzuki highlighted the misdirected nature of economists’ infatuation with the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as an indicator of the success of the country’s economy, in particular pointing out that economic theory considers the environment an “externality” to the economy. When the environment is factored in by counting the services that nature provides for free and what it would cost us to duplicate those services, the result is an index that, unlike the GDP, peaked in the 70’s and has been in decline ever since. At one point in the presentation, Suzuki points out angrily that environmental disasters like the Exxon spill in Alaska caused to GDP in the US to go up, as do murder and crime. Is this our definition of “progress”?
• In his presentation, Suzuki also touched on the threat of global warming and the potential impact of not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. Currently the provinces are taking the position that Kyoto will cost too much to implement, and result in job untold economic damage. Suzuki noted that these predictions discounted the potential for much greater economic prosperity as new companies are created to meet the demand for more environmentally friendly products and solutions.

With a wry smile, Suzuki recognized his own hypocrisy for condemning society’s obsession with buying more “stuff” while appearing at Chapters to hawk his own book. Unfortunately, Dr. Suzuki’s presentation didn’t leave much time for questions; otherwise I would have asked him why he hadn’t made the book available for free on the Internet. Such a move would have not only deflected any criticism for him peddling “stuff”, but also would probably had greater potential to get his message out to a wider audience, which I think is something he probably cares about more than money.

Oh well, I just faxed him the question in the end anyway.