David Suzuki talks environment, politics during Green party event in Markham

Yorkregion.com
Laura Finney
Nov. 21, 2017

Former prime minister Stephen Harper should be in jail, said David Suzuki during a recent visit to York Region.

He spoke during a Green party event held at the Markham GO station Nov. 19.

While Suzuki said he was not there as a representative of his Foundation or the Green party, he did not hold back when talking about past and current leaders.

“Stephen Harper should be in jail for not only intergenerational crime, but for wilful blindness,” he said. “This is a man we elected to lead the country into the future, and (he) deliberately avoided anything to do with discussion about climate change. If that isn’t wilful blindness I don’t know what is.”

“He elevated the economy above the very air that we depend on for our survival and our health,” he said.

Suzuki described Justin Trudeau as a “refreshing breeze,” and applauded his performance in Paris.

“But it’s easy to say stuff, the hard part is doing stuff, and now it’s clear he’s become very political and he’s not doing the right stuff,” he said.

It was standing room only during the event which also featured Mike Schreiner, leader of Green party of Ontario, and Jose Etcheverry, GPO candidate in Markham-Stouffville.

Suzuki shared antidotes and jokes but his message was serious.

There's never been a single species as powerful as we are to affect the planet on a geological scale, he said. We are now altering the chemical, the physical and the biological properties of the planet.

We have forgotten that we are embedded in nature, and we are utterly dependent on nature, he said, adding we use human constructs as the reason we no longer act in our best interests.

He shared an experience from the 1980s when he had been asked to help protect a sacred valley after the British Colombian government gave permits to log there.

Suzuki had an accidental run in with the CEO of the logging company and their conversation escalated to a screaming match.

“He finally said, listen Suzuki, are tree-huggers like you willing to pay for those trees? Because if you are not willing to pay for them, they don’t have any value to us,” said Suzuki. “That was an epiphany for me, because I realized he’s absolutely right.”

While the forest helped provide oxygen, prevented erosion and offered a community for other species, those do not have value in economics, he said.

“As long as we stay arguing in an economic system, we are going to lose because the important aspects in those ecosystems are not included in that conversation,” he said.

People have created an illusion that everything is OK by using the legacy of future generations, he argued.

“We are overpopulated; the planet cannot sustain us in the manner that we are living now,” he said. “That is neither sustainable or intelligent.”

He said people need to be politically active and vocal, and he urged residents to ensure elected leaders “think about our children and grandchildren and make some big decisions.”