“I told him you can't even tell us the truth how bad it is...we haven't taken this as the opportunity to to really change the way that we behave to get onto a new energy future."
"The secretary general of the United Nations Antonio Gutirez said years ago any further investment in fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness."
"We're digging our own grave and when you're doing that the first thing to do is stop digging but we're still arguing about fossil fuels and the future of our economy"
"When people are having these conversations now it's as though climate change doesn't exist."
"(In 1988) they said global warming...represents a threat second only to an all-out global nuclear war."
"If we had done it we would have saved billions of dollars and many many countless lives and we didn't do anything"
"We have elevated economics and politics above science"
"When you live in a city your highest priority is your job you need a job to make the money to buy the things that you want and...the economy then assumes this importance"
"There are nine planetary boundaries that we as animals must not pass through. We've passed seven of the nine boundaries. If we pass one we should be scared stiff we've passed seven..."
Full interview here:
Most people don't get it. They're either unaware or believe there's a miracle solution.
My response to people declaring that David Suzuki was a 'doomer' and thus 'dooming' on SM (substack seems the only thinking space) -
Suzuki didn't say give up rather he said prepare, plan, wake up, stop praying and wishing and hoping and get active in ensuring your and your community's survival. Protests & demonstrations screaming for action are just a waste of valuable time because it is too late to do anything. Mitigation may reduce the worse effects but adaptation needs to be a focus not a side-thought. Same as declaring a certain % of the population care about climate change while they live, spend, travel, eat, pollute and buy exactly as always. Few are actually revising the choices they are making, they aren't even reflecting on the possible changes they could be actively making in their daily life. I look around me and think until their pants are on fire they will do nothing. All the immediate concerns of comfort, shelter, education, costs, transport, status, health, can hardly be cast aside but they will be as the direct economic threats appear, the clashes over natural resource access, the mass migration of desperate populations, food shortages,... but although we can see it coming in the headlights we aren't really feeling it. We see it on the now daily disasters; things are changing that's for sure but really it's all in some dim distant future. Won't really affect me - you think. You need to start to plan, prepare, make adaptations & talk to those around you.