By Shane Hopkinson
NEWCASTLE — Well-known environmentalist Dr David Suzuki addressed a packed house here on April 14. Some 1300 people turned up to hear him give the first Citizenship and Governance lecture.
Suzuki began with a grim assessment of how far have we come since the United Nations environment summit in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
He noted that most of the conventions have been ignored: the destruction on the Amazon has increased by 20%, the world's population has increased by half a billion, food production is falling due to the depletion of topsoil, 50,000 species disappear each year, Australia blocked the greenhouse emissions targets, and discussion on the environment has waned.
Why is so little being done? Suzuki gave three reasons: people don't like bad news; increasing urbanisation makes it easier to maintain the illusion of abundance and independence from nature; and people face "information overload".
Suzuki outlined what he described as "four big lies" on the environment. The first is that humans are outside of or above nature. He emphasised that humans, like animals, are part of a web of life: we can survive less than five minutes without air, and only a few days without water, and yet we do not hesitate to pollute both.
The second lie is that technology can solve all our problems — we know only a fraction of the complexity of nature.
The third lie concerns "democracy", which exists in name only. For democracies to be truly representative, Suzuki argued, 50% of politicians have to be women. Parliaments are full of business people and lawyers. Instead, we need everyday people and scientists in order to develop "human institutions" which will manage the planet better.
Suzuki argued that to save the environment we need: long-term plans which reach across political borders; institutions that, instead of organising which multinational company cuts down the forests, manage resources to protect them for everyone.
The final lie is that the economy is the reason for government. Suzuki noted that the economy should serve people's needs. Instead it has become an idol to which we are made to sacrifice everything.
He described the present economy as based on selfishness. The environment is seen as "external" to it. While the economy is driven by profit-making, the environment, not to mention communities, becomes another casualty.
Unemployment must be addressed, he said, calling on people to act on the "wisdom of the elders" and learn to think long term and holistically and to redefine our values.
The speech did not discuss how we might go about achieving such change. But it left many in the audience believing that we need to learn, and learn fast, how to organise and fight.