I just had the once in a lifetime opportunity to see David Suzuki talk at one of his stops in his “If YOU were Prime Minister…â€? tour in my home city. David Suzuki is a very passionate and inspiring speaker; he spoke of humanity’s origins and how we have lived on this planet for the last 150,000 years and what our current effects are on the planet. He went over the current issues surrounding global warming as well as some of the data and research backing it up. He discussed a very important study by a prominent economist which presented evidence that the cost to the world of preventing global warming would only be 1% of our GDP, but the cost of doing nothing would be more than world war 1 and 2 combined and it would put us into a depression like we’ve never seen in human history.
He then discussed the poor track records of the Canadian and American governments and the tendency of our leaders to make smoke and mirrors promises and then do nothing to effect real change. He encouraged the audience that we need to make the environment be a bigger issue in the coming election and that we need to force our leaders to set definite targets and timelines and then to follow through on them once they are elected. Suzuki encouraged us by saying that currently, according to many recent surveys and polls, the environment is the number one issue in the minds of Canadians- never before has the environment had center stage like this- and we need to make sure it takes center stage at the elections.
David Suzuki also discussed some changes that we as individuals and that companies and industry can do in order to make a difference. He assured us that there are examples world wide of companies, and municipalities that are ‘going green’ for real and yet are saving and making money- proof that change will not bankrupt the economy. He called all the attendees to action saying that if each of us tells 5 people about what we learned and heard, and each of those people tell 5 people and so on, that we can really have an affect on our country’s future. So, I’m writing about it here and I’ll be emailing friends and family to come and read this. Suzuki asks us all to visit his website: http://www.davidsuzuki.org and find out what we can do. Have your comments emailed directly to the Canadian political party leaders here: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/tour/vote.asp and take the Nature Challenge here: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/
I really feel that now is a critical time in the future of Canada, North America and our entire species. I’m personally disgusted by Canada’s horrid track record, and I’ll be doing my part as well as learning more. If anyone has the opportunity to see David Suzuki talk in person- it’s an opportunity not to be missed.
Hear David Suzuki and Sir Nicholas Stern discuss the economics of fighting climate change: MP3 audio file on davidsuzuki.org.
Please pass this information on to 5 other people, and make a difference today!