Dr. David Suzuki - EnvironmentalistWe decided on a whim last night to go and see Dr. David Suzuki speak at Georgian College (which is great ’cause we live about a 10 minute walk from Georgian). Ok, well it wasn’t really a whim so much as we knew about it for weeks but I was too lazy to purchase tickets ahead of time. Lucky for us, there were tickets available when we walked over (although the place was fairly packed regardless).

Dr. Suzuki is a highly respected Canadian Ecologist. His work through his foundation, speaking tours, scientific study and activism has made him a leading expert on “ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us”.

There was a huge line to have books signed by Dr. Suzuki when we walked into the room and the poor guy was writing as fast as he could while scarfing down some food at the same time so that he could start his talk on time….

There were a handfull of people who put in their 2 cents prior to his talk, 2 of which were really annoying local eco-maniacs. There was a great message from a local mother and a couple of students who were actually the catalyst for having Dr. Suzuki return to Barrie so soon (he was here just a few months earlier).

When David actually made it to the stage, he was amazing. His talk was informative, powerful and he didn’t pull any punches. The message was simple: We can not sustain our ecology in our current state. Society in general is too concerned with Consuming Crap and growing Economically that we’ve completely ignored the most important piece of the pie which is ecology.

He went futher into explaining how in Latin Ecology essentially means “home / environment” and Economy essentially means “management of home/environment”. Somehow we’ve been tricked into thinking that increasing the economy is more important that taking care of the enviroment when in fact it’s entire goal should be the sustainability of our environment.

He also talked about the fact that there are many small things that everyone can do in their day to day lives to contribute to sustainability and improving our home environments:

  • Switch to Compact Flourescent lightbulbs (I know they are a problem when it comes to recycling due to the mercury in them but hey are still much better than standard incandescent)
  • Leave your car at home at least one day a week.
  • Buy your groceries locally as much as possible (Hell I live in Ontario which has an abundance of locally grown produce for at least 6-8 months of the year).
  • Don’t eat meat at least one day a week.
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
  • Compost (We have Organic Waste pickup here in Barrie and it’s been great for us. We produce less than a bag of garbage a week between Recycling and Organic pickup).

He has created a movement called “The Nature Challenge” that gives individuals the motivation and the information to make these changes for themselves. It’s greatly informative and just feels like the right thing to do these days.