David Suzuki Turns 90, Says We're All Screwed!

It's not easy being green.

Dr. David Takayoshi Suzuki — an author, environmental A-lister and original host of CBC’s long-running documentary series The Nature of Things — marked his 90th spin around the sun at a star-studded gala Friday night in Vancouver. Jane Fonda and Al Gore were among the VIPs who flew in to show the old tree-hugger some love and enjoy performances from Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Cockburn, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, and even a surprise set from Neil Young.

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Dr. Suzuki may not be a household name outside of Canada and maybe Japan but he came in a solid fifth place in a big CBC contest back in the early aughts to name the best Canadian ever, ahead of the more problematic Don Cherry and Wayne Gretzky, the only other living finalists to make the top 10.

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Imagine if Bill Nye the Science Guy and Sir David Attenborough had a baby and you’re on the right track. The hot ticket event was livestreamed for free but hasn’t yet been uploaded anywhere, presumably to cut down on the footprint from permanent data storage, so we may never know if he had anything interesting to say about attending a lavish celebration of his life’s work when it has widely fallen on deaf ears.

He was pretty blunt when asked about his hopes for the future in a recent interview with Piya Chattopadhyay where he said hunkering down in communities is our best shot at survival now that we’ve reached the point of no return:

For years I was told on The Nature of Things, “you can’t say that, that’s too depressing.” So I’ve been held back from telling the truth. And now, when the science has said “we have passed a tipping point, we cannot go back,” people are going “oh well, what the hell, it’s too late.” It’s true we are now headed for a catastrophic way and it’s unavoidable. The science is telling you that. So do you just throw up your hands? If you have children or grandchildren, you can’t do that. So you have to hunker down and say “it’s coming.” Because when the emergency comes, we don’t know what it will be. Government won’t be able to respond with the speed and the scale that you’re going to need so get your act together. The reality is the science says we’ve come to that point, and so I believe that the unit of survival is going to be your local community.

This is coming from a father of five who watched Justin Trudeau sign the Paris Climate Accords to limit the rise of global temperatures and then turn around to buy a new frickin pipeline two years later. And now the new prime minister has essentially declared war on the environment by tossing regulations aside to fast-track new projects because Donald J. Trump poses a more immediate threat to the country than Mother Nature does.

Mark Carney recently announced plans for a potential new bitumen pipeline from Alberta to somewhere in the Pacific, with construction expected to begin as early as September 2027 if they can find anyone to put build it. “This is Canada working, this is co-operative federalism, this is Canada building,” he told reporters at a press conference with Alberta preem Danielle Smith. “In effect, it creates an energy transition — all aspects of energy — but really sets the stage for an industrial transformation.”

There isn’t even a proposed route to a seaport through mountainous British Columbia yet, let alone permission from any First Nations territory it would need to run through, and it’s entirely possible this is just a rope-a-dope to get whiny Alberta separatists off his back by pinky-swearing another precious pipeline that may never see actual shovels in the ground. But Carney also put out a so-called “discussion paper” proposing the feds should totally be allowed to approve major infrastructure projects without the previous levels of environmental scrutiny, including on impacted species that could go extinct like those damned hummingbirds that slowed down the Trans-Mountain.

The public consultation, titled Getting Major Projects Built in Canada, called the red-tape slog to build things like mines, ports, airports and pipelines “slow, expensive, and confusing,” and suggested a number of potential solutions to speed things along, which include jettisoning hard-fought environmental laws.

Which means any endangered orcas would be on their own if there’s a sudden increase in traffic on the Pacific coast, and oil tankers are a lot harder for them to sink than sailboats. But at least they’ll still have the David Suzuki Foundation by their side even after the boss is gone.

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[Sunday Magazine / The Narwhal / Global News / Wonkette Blueskies]