David Suzuki

The Douglas fir, says David Suzuki, should be viewed as a model for sustainability. With this metaphor in mind, it's not hard to understand why he made this west-coast giant the subject of his biography Tree. We had the opportunity to talk to David about what else is on his mind these days.

Why the Douglas fir? Why now?

The Douglas fir is one of the impressive sights on the west coast and has been the key commercial species for the forest industry. This book has been on my mind for several years but at this point in my life, I think it's important to reflect on the rest of life on earth and perhaps acquire a sense of humility about what we are as a species and how little we know. A tree can live for hundreds of years stuck in one place and extracting everything it needs to grow and reproduce out of water, earth, air and sunlight. Look at what it takes to keep modern industrial society going, we can't even begin to match what a tree does.

What are the key issues regarding forest preservation?

It is a terrible conceit and a dangerous one, to think that we are smart enough to manage forests. What foresters talk about in a second growth or "normal" forest, is, in fact, a plantation, not a forest. In order to manage anything, we need a minimum of two things: an inventory of everything and a blueprint of how everything in the inventory is interconnected. We may know 10 or 15% of all the biodiversity that is in a forest and we know almost nothing about those in any detail.

How widespread is the problem of forest destruction?

A large part of the cause of the catastrophic rate of species extinction today is caused by the way we are destroying our forests. And it's not just in the developing world like Brazil, Congo and Papua New Guinea; it's in the terrible practices of large-scale clear cutting in North America. We have failed to understand that human life is intimately dependent on the flourishing of the rest of life on earth.

How is the government policy – in Canada and the United States – impacting our natural resources?

In Canada and the United States, federal and state governments seem to believe that all of nature must perform according to our economic needs. So when there is an economic downturn, we relax laws on pollution, thereby allowing more effluents into air, water and soil; we increase the quotas on fish so fishing fleets can extract more; we relax export laws prohibiting export of raw logs so we can cut and ship more trees; we weaken hard won regulations governing forest industry practices; we put greater faith into the grand claims of scientists that they will make advances that will enable us to increase nature's productivity. Instead of applying the precautionary principle, we charge ahead putting the economy in front of everything.

Any specific examples?

Scientists, including many Nobel Prize winners, have repeatedly stated that the Bush administration has been distorting the use of science and attempting to coerce scientists to support political policies. In British Columbia, the Campbell government has opened the province up for development, relaxing forest practices and pushing for expansion of fish farms, canceling the three decades old moratorium on offshore exploration for oil and reopened the possibility of a controversial dam on the Peace River. These administrations simply do not understand human dependence on the health and diversity of natural systems.

Are there any positive examples of logging practices and forest preservation in that could serve as a model elsewhere?

The frustrating thing about logging is that there are numerous examples of sustainable logging practices, from Merv Wilkinson's 100 acre woodlot that has more fibre now than when he began logging over 50 years ago, to Collins Pine, a family owned forest company that has existed for 150 years, does over a quarter of a billion dollars of business a year and does not do any clear cutting, to native communities in Washington and Wisconsin that have sustainably used their forests for traditional needs and logging. None of the forest companies in BC where over 90% of all logging is still in old growth and almost all by clearcutting, has been in existence long enough to "harvest" the products of their own planting so how do they have any idea whether they are managing forests sustainably?

What are they key accomplishments of the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF)?

The DSF was a major force in the drive to have the Kyoto Protocol ratified and after he signed the protocol, Prime Minister Jean Chretien wrote a formal letter thanking us for the role we played. The DSF was the major reason the Turning Point Initiative was born and flourished. It is an organization of First nations along the central and north coast of BC who have pledged to cooperate with each other in the drive to obtain recognition of sovereignty over their territory with a commitment to use traditional and scientific rationales for the sustainable management of their resources. BC's then-Premier, Ujahl Dosanjh, signed an agreement to negotiate with the Turning Point signators on their territory.

The DSF has developed a list of ten simple things that every Canadian can do to lighten their ecological impact. We call it the Nature Challenge and have more than 100,000 Canadians, including dozens of mayors and many celebrities like Bruce Cockburn, Ron Maclean and Margaret Atwood who have agreed to do at least three of the suggestions over the next year.

The DSF's latest initiative is called Sustainability within a Generation. We have outlined a vision for Canada of clean air, water and soil, flourishing biodiversity, clean food, livable cities, etc that provide a target to aim at over the next 25 years.

Our on-going activites include developing principles of sustainable forestry and fisheries, opposing the destructive practices of salmon aquaculture and pushing to curb urban sprawl and the excessive dependence on cars.

What are your personal highlights from the past year?

Certainly having a private audience with the Dali Lama was a huge honour and opportunity for me and my family. Teaching the Tibetan monks about science and environmentalism was a wonderful experience and I have been asked to return next year.

I delivered a keynote address at the United Nations Environment Program meeting on Biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur in February. In March, I attended a board meeting in Nairobi of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the most ambitious and largest attempt to assess the state of the world's ecosystems.

David Suzuki

Gildes Slade talks to David Suzuki in anticipation of the Bali Summit. Suzuki says the cuts to emmissions need to surpass the Kyoto tragets. He argues for decisive action, "The sense of urgency is what we need most of all. We can’t piss around anymore. We have to make those deep cuts."

Visit the David Suzuki Foundation for more information and great links regarding the Kyoto Protocol and Bali Summit.