Politics

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Waste Of Money

This week the World Health Organization released “shocking” results confirming that, yes Virginia Slims, second hand smoke causes cancer. Really. Not to be too sarcastic, but in the words of Denis Leary: “These things are bad for you?!? …I thought they were good for you! I thought they had Vitamin C in them and stuff!”

What amazes me is that we’re still spending money on this type of research. It’s not like we don’t already know smoking and cancer are linked, the evidence has been piling up since the “Cancer by the Carton” article appeared in Reader’s Digest fifty years ago. People are starving halfway around the world, and we’re spending money dissecting the implications of smoking with such forensic detail that had the same been done with the invention of fire, we’d only just have wrapped up the research necessary to safely conclude that it was hot and burned things. Haven’t we got other, more important, things to spend money on?

Of course, as I say this most of the world is mobilizing the most advanced communications technology for the purpose intently watching twenty-two men kick a ball around a field, or some guy put a small ball in a hole. Sports. It’s always about men and their balls, and money is no object.

And it’s not like governments are faring any better. Just this week the US House of Representatives approved H. Res. 269, which states:

“That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged.”

Sure, the US Government can’t come up with a way to reduce pollution, but there’s plenty of time to spend taxpayers’ money to debate a bill to recognize Meucci, despite the fact that doing so has very little impact on the world at large.

Every day it becomes a little more apparent that mankind is doomed to destroy itself because we’re too stupid/under motivated to actually get off our asses and do anything about it. That said, it’s time to go home and do nothing all weekend.

in Opinion / Politics 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

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.

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