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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (89345)	11/20/2006 1:05:03 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361026

David Suzuki on life, freedom and the environment (big PDF) Christian Martin, Cascadia Weekly “Why would anyone be interested in my life?” asks David Suzuki in the preface to his new autobiography. It is a question he indirectly answers over the next 400 pages-pages that teem with fascinating stories, insightful reflections, fortuitous encounters and global travels that trace the author’s journey from youth to world-famous environmental guru. A third-generation Canadian, Suzuki was born in Vancouver in 1936. At the age of six, he and his family were interned during World War II in a remote British Columbian camp. From this decidedly low point in his life, Suzuki went on to graduate with honors from Amherst College in 1958 and earned his PhD in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He began his professional career as a geneticist, but his involvement in the birth of the environmental movement led him beyond the laboratory and into the world as both teacher and advocate. Suzuki’s roles are wide-ranging and have garnered him much acclaim. David Suzuki: ... whoever succeeds [George W. Bush as U.S. President] will mark a sea change because the environment has become the issue of our time. The tragedy is that things are much worse today than they were in 1988. CW: Any specific suggestions on how the environmental movement can stay relevant? DS: Greens have got to link the issues that we're concerned about to issues of human health. It is so crystal-clear that the skyrocketing medical costs are related to the fact that we are poisoning the planet. The things that keep us alive-air, water, fire-are being used as toxic dumps. What the heck do we think is going to result from that? What the hell do we expect? What we put into the environment, we're putting directly into ourselves. I also think we have to really examine the underlying destructive notions of conventional economics. We live in a world that is finite. The biosphere does not go on indefinitely. It's finite. And yet we have a system within that biosphere called the economy that thinks it can grow forever. If we didn't have nature, we wouldn't even have economies, and we wouldn't have people. Nature is the very source of our survival, of our health, of all of our productivity. We must stop this crazy, suicidal idea that we must have growth forever. Growth forever is the creed of the cancer cell and the economists. It is not possible. CW: What is your hope for the future? DS: My hope is that we'll be able to make the big changes in time. I feel like we're in a giant car heading at a brick wall at a million miles an hour. Someone's got to say, "For God's sake, put the brakes on and turn the wheel!" But everybody in the car is arguing about where they want to sit. It's a lot easier to save things by putting on the brakes and turning the wheel than it is to smash in to the wall and then pick up the pieces afterwards. (15 Nov 2006) The PDF at the link is for the entire issue - so the file is large and awkward. The article about Suzuki starts on page 14. cascadiaweekly.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (89345)	11/20/2006 1:57:48 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361026

"We need a 10 year moratorium on all immigration. We need to get our own house in order. We need to care for our people, our civilization and our future. We need to create jobs for 14 million of our unemployed Americans. We need to solve our 1.5 million homeless peoples’ problems. We’ve got to deal with 13 million of our children living below the poverty level. We must solve our energy crisis as we exceed our ability to produce enough oil and gas for our own citizens. We’ve got to solve our $700 billion annual trade deficit and $60 billion cash remittances being wired out of our country annually by these new “loyal” immigrants. We must find 11,000 MS-13 gang members and stop their drug distribution to our children." I agree.