Jail
politicians
who
ignore
science:
Suzuki
Environmentalist
denounces
economists'
obsession
with
GDP
"
v
By
Sarah
Babbage,
The
McGill
Daily
(McGill
University)
-
MONTREAL
(CUP)
-
Young
people
and
business
leaders
need
to
reverse
the
demise
of
ecology
at
the
hand
of
shortsighted
economic
theory,
said
David
Suzuki
to
a
packed
house
at
McGill
University
on
Jan.
31.
Suzuki,
an
award-winning
Canadian
scientist,
environmentalist
and
broadcaster,
kicked
off
the
McGill
Business
Conference
on
Sustainabihty
by
addressing
the
conference's
theme
of
"looking
backward
and
moving
forward."
"The
only
guide
for
our
future
is
our
past,
and
we
don't
look
back,"
he
said.
Suzuki
said
that
because
the
past
50
years
have
seen
a
boom
in
technology
and
population
expansion,
ideas
of
economic
growth
have
been
skewed.
"That
means
you
have
lived
your
entire
lives
in
a
completely
unsustainable
period,"
Suzuki
said
to
the
young
audience.
"You
all
think
economic
growth
and
change
is
normal.
It's
not."
He
said
we
need
to
do
more
to
look
forward,
as
well.
He
read
from
a
1992
brochure
entitled
"World
Scientists'
Warning
to
Humanity",
signed
by
over
600
of
the
world's
top
scientists,
that
expressed
the
seriousness
of
modern
threats
to
the
environment.
"No
more
than
one
or
a
few
decades
remain
before
the
chance
to
avert
the
threats
we
now
confront
will
be
lost
and
the
prospects
for
humanity
immeasurably
diminished,"
he
read
from
the
brochure.
He
noted
that
no
major
news
outlets
deemed
the
story
newsworthy
at
the
time.
"If
that
brochure
was
frightening,
the
response
of
the
media
was
terrifying,"
Suzuki
said,
adding
that
the
media
was
instead
preoccupied
with
celebrity
figures.
He
urged
today's
youth
to
speak
out
against
politicians
complicit
in
climate
change,
even
suggesting
that
they
look
for
a
legal
way
to
throw
our
current
political
leaders
in
jail
for
ignoring
science
drawing
rounds
of
cheering
and
applause.
Suzuki
said
that
politicians,
who
never
see
beyond
the
next
election,
are
committing
a
criminal
act
by
ignoring
science.
But
in
a
nod
to
the
hosts
of
his
speech,
Suzuki
connected
the
environment
to
the
economy,
explaining
the
trouble
he
sees
in
mainstream
economists'
call
for
unbridled
economic
growth.
"Ecology
and
economy
have
the
same
root
word
eco,
and
it
means
'home',"
he
said.
"But
what
we
have
done
is
elevate
the
economy
above
ecology."
He
described
speaking
to
children
in
Toronto
who
could
not
explain
where
water
or
food
came
from,
only
that
it
was
supplied
by
the
economy.
"We
think
if
the
economy
is
doing
well,
we
can
afford
these
basic
things."
-
.
r
,
'
15
College
of
New
Caledonia
-
Ion
4