BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — The Stanley Burbury Theatre at the University of Tasmania was absolutely packed out on March 7 when David Suzuki presented a lecture emphasising the importance of social justice for saving the environment.
Billed as a "good news" lecture — the theme of his latest book — Suzuki began by saying that his fundamental message had not changed. There is still a perilous environmental crisis and urgent and far-reaching change is desperately required.
Suzuki argued that it is imperative that we protect biodiversity and develop ecologically sustainable societies. "We are not just animals, we are social beings", he explained. Humans need the cooperation of other humans in order to make a living. This cannot be achieved without full employment, an end to poverty and freedom from oppression, war and injustice. If we don't have social justice, he argued, we cannot save the environment.
In addition to this unchanged message, Suzuki argued that people need to know that saving the environment is feasible. Hence, a major part of his talk (and the new book he wrote with Holly Dressel from which he quoted) is devoted to elaborating solutions to environmental problems.
He gave numerous examples of business and community endeavours that are sustainable (at least in some respects) and that don't compromise (and in fact often enhance) quality of life, citing profitable forestry enterprises using selective logging practices that have supplied livelihoods to whole communities over decades while simultaneously increasing forest cover.
He argued that common features of these examples included: sustainability being a criteria in decision making, initiatives coming from the broader community, participants approaching activities with humility and flexibility, changes coming from the bottom up and long-term perspectives.
While Suzuki's message is objectively anti-capitalist, he does not draw this conclusion himself. Consequently, he falls back on "solutions" such as reducing consumption (in wealthy countries) which lend themselves to ineffective individual action instead of united political struggle.
From Green Left Weekly, March 20, 2002.
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