August 6, 2025 • 36 mins
Climate Crisis and Capitalism are at the heart of David Suzuki’s powerful message in this episode. In a candid and impassioned reflection, Suzuki warns that if we continue to prioritize politics and the economy over protecting the environment, we may as well give up on climate action. He challenges the cultural obsession with perpetual economic growth, critiques the short-sightedness of political cycles, and urges a fundamental shift in our collective priorities.
David Suzuki’s call for transformation is both urgent and inspiring. He advocates for placing the environment at the center of all decision-making, recognizing that our survival depends on living within ecological limits. Drawing on decades of experience as a scientist, broadcaster, and environmental activist, Suzuki encourages individuals to embrace systems thinking, reevaluate their relationship with nature, and demand more from leaders who treat the planet as expendable. This is a wake-up call that goes beyond environmentalism—it’s a call for a radical reimagining of our future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In 1988, the world's top scientists warnedus climate change was our greatest threat.
(00:05):
After nuclear war, we heard thealarm, but we hit the snooze button
year after year, decade after decade.
Meanwhile, emissions climbed,ecosystems crumbled, and
tipping points passed quietly.
David Suzuki, once hopeful,now sounds a different note.
It might be too late.
He doesn't blame science.
(00:26):
The evidence has been clear all along.
He blames the systems politicsobsessed with power and economies
addicted to endless growth.
We choose short-term profits overlong-term survival, quarterly
gains over planetary health.
Suzuki says If these systems won't change,then maybe we should stop pretending.
Stop pretending we're gonna solve thecrisis and start bracing for what's coming
(00:49):
because if we keep prioritizing money overnature, giving up might not be a choice.
It'll be a consequence.
We're gonna react to DavidSuzuki's controversial comment on
a CBC news radio station that hemade, and we're gonna talk about.
Maybe he regrets a little of it andsays that we still should keep fighting.
We're gonna talk about all thisstuff on this episode of the How
(01:11):
to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
Let's start the show.
Hey everybody.
Welcome back to another exciting episodeof the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, andthis is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean,how you could speak up for the
ocean, and what you can do to livefor a better ocean by taking action.
And on today's episode, we're gonna betalking about something that is very
(01:32):
familiar to a lot of conservationists,a lot of ocean scientists, and just
wildlife scientists in general.
We're gonna be talking about climatechange and how we feel at certain times.
When we discuss climate change,whether it's in an interview, whether
it is with somebody in our family orin our friend group, and how we talk
about it, because there's sometimeswhere we talk very positively.
(01:53):
We're very optimistic of the changes thatwe're seeing maybe behind the scenes or
in our work, and we see little changes getbigger and bigger and bigger, and every
once in a while we see a huge change,whether it be in policy, a government,
what have you, it doesn't matter.
We start to see this changeand other times we just
start to be really realistic.
And we start to really wonder allthese things that are happening over
(02:14):
time and are happening recently.
Whether we're really serious aboutprotecting the environment and are we
serious about protecting the environmentover the economy and politics?
That seems to have changed what we used todo compared to what we do now and not for
the better and not to help climate change.
There was a recent interview.
(02:35):
That was done by David Suzuki.
If you don't know who David Suzukiis, David Suzuki is a renowned
Canadian geneticist, environmentalist,author and science broadcaster,
best known for his lifelongdedication to promoting environmental
awareness and climate action.
Born in 1936 in Vancouver,British Columbia.
He began his career as a geneticist,earning a PhD in zoology from
(02:56):
the University of Chicago, andlater became a professor at the
University of British Columbia.
Suzuki rose to prominence as the longtimehost of the nature of things, a CBC
television program that brought scienceand environmental issues into Canadian
households for over four decades.
Think about David Attenborough.
That was Canadian.
He authored more than 50 books,including The Sacred Balance and
(03:18):
a co-founded the David SuzukiFoundation, a nonprofit focused.
On the environmental research,education, and advocacy over the
years, David Suzuki has become oneof the most influential voices in the
global environmental movement, knownfor speaking out on climate change,
biodiversity loss, indigenous rights,and the failures of modern political
and economic systems to protect.
(03:39):
The natural world.
His work has earned him numerous awards,including the Order of Canada, the UNESCO
Coalinga Prize for science communication,and multiple honorary degrees.
Despite controversy and criticismfrom some political and industrial
groups, Suzuki remains a fearlessadvocate for urgent climate action,
social justice, and to the protectionof Earth's life support systems.
(04:01):
That is the basis of it.
I grew up watching David Suzuki on thenature of things, a CBC classic, and I
don't know if it still continues today,but David Suzuki has been that voice.
When I first came out with Speak Up forBlue, I had this list of ocean leaders
that I wanted to discuss and I wouldcontact each one of them and say, Hey.
Can I put your name down on mywebsite as an ocean leader where
(04:23):
if they click on your name, it'llgo to the website and give a bio.
So that one was gonna lead tothe David Suzuki Foundation or
others that I really admired, andI had a whole list on the website.
I don't have that now, but I haveto admit, when I contacted David
Suzuki Foundation and David Suzuki.
This was during a verycontroversial time in Canada.
Anyway, the Prime Ministerwas Prime Minister Harper.
(04:43):
Uh, he was a staunch conservative,very right wing, very pro oil and gas
and natural resource exploitation.
And David Suzuki and him had a backand forth over the airwaves and
not like face to face, but theydefinitely were critical of each other.
In fact, prime Minister Harper wantedalmost at one point called them an
eco-terrorist, which was incrediblyirresponsible of a politician when
(05:05):
they don't hear what they want.
We probably heard that before recently.
If they don't hear what they like,they start to criticize and they
start to call people terrorists,especially on the ecological level.
So it was a very tense time inenvironmental and political and economical
sort of time period, if you really thinkabout it back in the early 2010s to about
(05:25):
2015 until the trio government got in.
Now, since then.
It's been very interesting to seethe progression that we've made
towards climate change and changingand reducing climate change, as
well as kind of going away from itat the same time here in Canada.
Our economy is based on natural resources.
Our major natural resourcethat we export is oil and gas.
(05:45):
There are a lot of battles within onthe East coast and on the west coast,
especially on the East coast for, youknow, extracting oil and gas, and of
course in Alberta and even NorthernSaskatchewan, to be able to take out
the natural gas as well as oil, thetar sands, to export more oil and give
more profits, not only the province,but also to Canada in general.
(06:06):
And so when oil prices dipdown, our economy dips down.
When they go up, we go.
And sometimes you can'tmake two sense of it.
I can't make two sense of it a lot of thetimes, and that just happens every once
in a while and we have to deal with it.
Unfortunately, as we progress and wecontinue to see decisions being made
for politics and economical reasonsand not protection of environment seems
(06:26):
to be always third place or even less.
We start to see more climatechange consequences happening.
There was an interview that wasdone on CBC news that I'm gonna
be reacting to in just a moment.
I wanna set it up a little bit.
David Suzuki is speaking to a CBC host.
It's almost looks like CBC radio,but now they're putting all on tv.
Of course, YouTube, I'mputting this on YouTube.
(06:47):
Everything.
A talk show can alwaysbe in video as well.
And you can see throughout the interviewthat David Suzuki is not happy.
He is frustrated.
He is just seeing the reality ofclimate change and the decisions
we've made towards reducingclimate change or lack thereof.
And so he talks about that.
You're gonna see a very frustrated person.
(07:08):
I want you to remember this guy is ascientist, a world-renowned scientist.
He's taught many years.
He lives what he preaches and he'sa very good science communicator.
But you can tell he's older now.
He's in his eighties and he's fed up.
He's fed up with the decisionsand he is been like that since the
Harper Administration has been in.
And it's just been people started tocriticize 'cause he is always negative.
(07:29):
But to be honest, he's been a realist fora long time and if they don't like what
he hears, then they just don't like him.
So we're gonna talk a coupleof themes that we're gonna do.
I don't know if I'll go throughthe entire video, but we are
definitely gonna react to some of it.
So let's get into that and let'sstart reacting to some of it.
I'm just gonna play it from the beginning.
This is from CBC News.
(07:49):
I'll put the link in the show notes sothat you can access it, so that you can
watch it from YouTube or from wherever.
I found this on YouTube.
So here, let's just listenin and see what is happening.
I think the science has been in nowfor decades, and yet, uh, look at us.
Um, you know, uh, when we had thebest environment minister we've ever
(08:10):
had in Canada, in Steven Guilbeault.
Um, you know, I, I told him you can'teven tell us the truth how bad it is.
There's, uh, we, we haven't takenthis as the opportunity to, to
really change the way that we behave,get onto a new, uh, energy future.
Uh, we've got now a prime Ministerwho thanks to Mr. Trump, uh, got
(08:34):
elected to everyone's surprise.
Now I wanna talk a littlebit about this part here.
As I said, I'm gonna bestopping a couple of times.
You know, before this last electionwhere Prime Minister Carney became
the official Prime Minister, hewas appointed Prime Minister.
Once Prime Minister Trudeau resigned,and then he came in, but then he
had an election pretty much withinlike three months after he was
(08:56):
appointed because he wanted to makesure that the people wanted him in.
It was a surprise win for sure,and it was very interesting.
The reason why he got in was because,you know, Trump was in power since
January of 2025, depending on whenyou're watching this, and he decided
that he was going to attack Canada andthe world apparently through terrorists.
(09:17):
But he kept talking about how not only wasCanada, you know, quote unquote unfair in
terms of the trade that we were doing withthe United States, which was interesting
because, you know, Trump did negotiate thelast, you know, north American free trade
agreement between Mexico, Canada, and theUnited States and he's basically saying
it was the worst trade deal of all time.
Even though he's the one who negotiated,came out of that time, like in his
(09:39):
first term and said, Hey, this wasthe best negotiated trade deal ever.
You know, it is what it is.
This is what Trump does, and I don'twant to go into that aspect of it, but
it really shaped the election for Canada.
We had somebody that was running forPrime Minister, for the liberals who,
and for you guys in the United States.
It's like the Democrats forCanada, who was a banker.
(10:01):
He had a lot of international experience.
He had worked with the GreatBritain during the Brexit that time.
And that transfer over, and theyloved him there for the most part,
except for one Prime Minister who wasa Prime Minister for about 45 days.
She didn't like him, buteverybody else seemed to like him.
He has a pretty good rapportthere and reputation.
He was the chair of the Bankof Canada at one point, and
(10:22):
now he's the Prime Minister.
He became the Prime Minister becauseof the pressure from Trump, because of
his international economic experience.
And that was a confidence vote.
For us, the person he was runningagainst, pure poly F did not have that
international economic experience.
He wasn't a banker.
He was more of a lifelong politician.
So people are like, Hey, you know what?
Even though liberals weren't projected towin before this started, they became the
(10:42):
fan favorite because of this type of deal.
Now, with that said, Mark Carney as aprime minister is pretty much center left.
You know, some can arguecenter right at times.
He's a banker, so he is veryconservative in what he moves.
He wants to equate everything.
He likes to be socially and fiscallyresponsible, so that's most conservative
(11:02):
as well as liberal, even, you know, NDPstype of work and new democratic party.
So a little bit more to theleft, depending on what he's
looking at, which seems fair.
Canada, well.
Apart from the last like 10, 15years or so, has been usually
center left or center right.
We don't really fare that far off fromthe center, but the problem is, is
now because of the pressure of Trump,Trump 1.1 Canada to be the 51st state,
(11:25):
obviously that got rejected right away.
I think what became a joke became kind ofserious and the Trump sort of rhetoric of
the people were refuting that right away.
But it definitely united Canadaduring this election in making
sure that the right people gotvoted in or what Canada thought was
the right people to get voted in.
Sure, there's some people whowill disagree with that, but
regardless, that's what happened.
But because of that pressure fromthe South that Davis Suzuki's talking
(11:47):
about here is we had to start to lookelsewhere for a oil and gas partner,
because the US was going to put 10%tariffs on us that wasn't gonna do so.
We had finished a pipeline under theTrudeau government that started when
he first started, where the pipelinewent out to the eastern market.
So China and other Asiancountries, Japan, and so forth.
(12:08):
So that was good for us.
And then now there's talk that whatwas shut down earlier was an Eastern
pipeline to go from Alberta all the wayout to the east coast across Canada,
which is a big place if you don't know.
And that would gotowards European markets.
So the start of talking aboutbuilding that is happening.
And so now we are promoting more fossilfuel extraction, which we were hoping to
(12:31):
get away from under the last government.
Here's the problem is that we starttalking about the economy, and this
is where Davis Suzuki starts talkingabout the economy and politics.
And he's got a point here, andthere's no one that I've met who's,
uh, who knows more, uh, about theclimate crisis than Mark Carney.
(12:51):
I mean, he's written about it,um, before he became a politician.
Um, but he's stilltalking about pipelines.
You know, the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations.
Antonio Gutierrez said yearsago, any further investment
in fossil fuel infrastructureis moral and economic madness.
(13:14):
What have we been doing?
You know, how many billions havewe spent on the, uh, the pipeline?
The Southern pipeline, theTransmountain pipeline?
Yeah.
We're talking about more, you know, like.
One of the things that Antonio Gutierrezis one of the few people up there
with prominence saying it like it is.
You know, we're digging our own grave.
(13:34):
And when you're doing that, thefirst thing to do is stop digging.
Now here's, I wanna talk anotherpoint that he makes, which I, I agree.
Not only has Canada come out withprioritizing these types of energy
projects, so, you know, even thoughCanada's trying to balance the energy
projects with fossil fuels as wellas renewables, or they're saying they
(13:56):
are, there's definitely more investmentright now or some investment into.
Oil and gas more than what weanticipated before this election.
Not surprising because of thepressure from the south and the
fact that they're putting tariffsand we need to start relying on
other countries and not just US.
I think it's like 90 to 95% of ouroil is exported to the US so there
(14:17):
are main client in that respect.
They get a lot of their oil and gasfrom us, so we wanna make sure that
we're not just stuck with that.
Our prices are low because ofthat and because our economy is
tied so much to the oil and gas.
That makes a big deal.
So when we're talking about the future,so now you know, you're starting to
see the pressure of more oil and gastalk happening, and again, it comes
down to, even though Mark Carney andothers are wanting to lower and reduce
(14:41):
climate change, how much can we do it?
How much can we do?
We continue to develop oil and gas andnot reduce it as that we were told a
while ago and under the Paris Agreement,that's what we should be doing.
But we continue to do that and there'sa lot, this is not an easy thing.
It's not just a matter of like, let'scut oil and gas down to like 30% of
(15:03):
our energy use because it's easy.
You know, it's not easy.
There are a lot of jobsthat are tied to it.
There's a lot of politics tied to it.
There's a lot of lobbygroups tied to this.
And on the other side, there's a lot ofenvironmentalists and conservationists
who are trying to reduce that amountbecause we care about the planet.
And you know, otherscare more about profit.
Some people care about theirjobs and their livelihoods,
(15:24):
and that's where it gets reallycontested when it comes into this.
So it's never an easy decision.
And for those of you who are gonnacomment, this is an easy decision.
Either way.
It's not an easy decision.
It's a very complexproblem that Canada's in.
It's put themselves in for a long time.
Even though a lot of our energy, about80% of our energy is renewable, we still
use and export a lot of fossil fuels,and if we're continuing to develop that
(15:45):
to export them more, we're gonna becontributing more towards climate change
worldwide because we're exporting andwe're developing our market so that we're
gonna be producing more oil and gas.
That's my understanding of it.
If it's a differentunderstanding, please let me know.
Love to have you on theshow to discuss that.
That's what he's talking about here.
We're digging our own graveand continuing to do that.
So let's continue onwith what he had to say.
(16:05):
We're still arguing about fossil fuelsand the future in our economy and,
and tell me about that because herewe are, of course, we have this threat
of terrorists from the United States.
We have everyone agreeing that Canadaneeds to be more self-sufficient,
more independent, and and more clearof the United States when it comes to
trading and to find better partners.
(16:26):
Part of that is we need to exploit theresources that we have in this country.
Whether those are mineral resources,whether it's natural gas, or whether
it's bitumen, buried in the dirt.
Um, and when people, you cansee David Suzuki starting to get
frustrated by this because this hasbeen the rhetoric for a long time.
You know, we have these natural resources.
(16:46):
We need to get them out of theground for our economy to stabilize.
So this is gonna be an interesting answerwhile we're having these conversations.
Now it's as though climatechange doesn't exist.
I agree.
I agree.
And you know, when, uh, um, whenthis whole 51st State issue came
up and, uh, you know, peoplebegan to say, buy Canadian.
(17:07):
And I said to my wife, okay, you'regoing shopping for groceries this week.
Only get food that is grownand, and, uh, made in Canada.
We'll starve then.
You know, you look at, we are one ofthe bread baskets of the world, and
we can't even feed our own people withfood grown in, in our own country.
(17:27):
Why?
Because of globalization.
Globalization is, is,uh, is a problem now.
And, uh, you know, the most powerful,the richest country in the world is
elected a man who is a climate denier.
And, um, you know, we'reat this critical point.
This happens a lot too.
It's not just down south where you knowDonald Trump is a climate change denier.
(17:50):
This happens in a lot of cases whereone party over the other thinks
that climate change is not real.
The other party thinks it's real,not just in the US, not just in
Canada, but you have a lot of othercountries who do the same thing.
And there governments flip flops everyso often, whether it's four years, five
years, 10 years, whatever that might be.
They flip flop every so often.
(18:12):
And the changes in policies youcan see are either done or undone.
And we saw that with Trump.
Every time he comes in, he takes theUS out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
He reduces a lot of the regulationsfor the EPA, for NOAA and a
number of different environmentalorganizations within the government.
Does whatever he can to deregulate.
And to make sure that oil and gasand fossil fuel companies can do
(18:34):
better and can develop more becausethey think that's the way to go.
That's the old school way of thinking.
You know, develop fossil fuelsand exploit natural resources and
we will be able to do it so well.
Now in Canada, we had the federal andOntario provincial governments both
put in policies that actually allow thederegulation of species at risk act for
(18:56):
both federal and the Ontario provinceand allows more development to happen.
So in the federal government, it'll be oiland gas projects and pipeline projects.
'cause there's a lot of environmentalregulations that you have to go
through to make sure that you are notdestroying the environment as you're
putting in these pipelines everytime you cross a water, a river, or a
stream or a lake, you have to make surethat you go under the proper process.
(19:19):
If they're in a species atrisk, it slows down the process.
And every time it's slow.
It's slow.
It's slow for a reason to make surethat we're not destroying the habitat
of these species, but also to makingsure that we're not destroying the
environment for our general health.
And so a lot of people just see thatfrom the business side, Hey, we're
just gonna forget the environment.
We want to move faster on this.
It's better for the economy, andthat's the excuse that they use
(19:42):
over and over and over again.
And even there's, I think they're bothBill C-5s for the federal government
and the Ontario government where they'reactually stomping on indigenous rights
to take away the decision making forindigenous peoples and to be able
to, you know, put that together.
So it's a really interesting situationthat we're in where we're seeing
a lot of environmental regulationsget deregulated to allow for this
(20:06):
push of fossil fuel industries.
And you know, David Suzuki's tired of it.
A lot of us are tired of itand we kind of saw this coming.
I kind of agree that we haveto do this, but I hate it.
I hate the fact that we haveto do this because it's gonna
ruin our environment even more.
The science has been in for decades in1988 at a major international conference
(20:30):
in Toronto, the delegate, uh, opened bynewly elected, uh, prime Minister Brian
Mulroney keynote address by the PrimeMinister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland,
Steven Lewis chaired the sessions.
At the end of that, in 1988, theysaid global warming, we called
it global warming, back thenrepresents a threat second only
(20:51):
to an all out global nuclear war.
And that was it.
They made a call for a 20% reduction ingreenhouse gas emissions in 15 years.
If we had done it, we would'vesaved billions of dollars and
many, many countless lives, andwe didn't do anything, you know.
(21:11):
That really hit me.
I forgot about that because Iwas a kid when that happened.
And if we had been able to, you know,reduce our emissions back then by 20%,
maybe we could have been on a better path.
But what happened during that timewas where the misinformation level
increased by fossil fuel companies.
That's where you started to see companieslike Imperial Oil and others start to
(21:35):
shell out these reports that climatechange wasn't actually happening.
Really getting into the politicalparties and you know, having one
political party just deny it.
Other political parties are for reducingclimate change and to really put a
divide politically in how you voted.
So if you are a Democrat or a liberalhere in Canada, if you weren't gonna
(21:56):
vote for conservatives because theywere anti-climate, if environment
was an anti-climate action.
if the environment was important toyou, if the economy was important
to you, that was going againstthe environment 'cause that's how
the fossil fuel economists saw it.
It's like, hey, you'reimpeding job creation, you're
impeding money for Canada.
You're impeding money for yourcountry, wherever country you do.
This happens all the time.
(22:17):
And they were shown to say, yeah, we lied.
Like we allowed thismisinformation to get through.
And some of them are paying theprice in courts right now as they're
getting sued for that misinformation.
But they did it for decades and itworked instead of taking those 15 years
from 1988 and onwards and reducingour emissions by 20% therein, right?
Just solving the problem at that pointor getting closer to solving the problem.
(22:40):
We would've been in a muchbetter situation than we are now.
Now we are seeing the consequences.
Now we are seeing the consequences ofour lack of action over the last 40,
50, 60 years when climate change wasfirst sort of discovered and ignored
throughout that entire time, and nowwe're starting to see the consequences in.
More earthquakes, more volcanoes, tsunamiwarnings, especially since recent, we're
(23:03):
starting to see increased sea surfacetemperature, coral reef bleaching.
We're starting to see stormsurges are increasing.
Sea level rises increasing.
Storms are increasing in intensity, andthere are happening more frequently.
So a thousand year, 100 year, 10year storms are no longer, you
know, relevant at this point.
That was how we used it in the past.
(23:24):
We are seeing those more than ahundred years since the last a
hundred year storm or 10 years.
We're seeing those every like 2,3, 4 or five years, and they're
happening more and more often, andthey're creating more in damage,
which we have to pay the money for.
We never really talk about how muchmoney is paid for that and wasted
on paying for, you know, cleaning upsomething that we could have cleaned
up before is clean up the consequencesof stuff we cleaned up where we
(23:45):
wouldn't have seen those consequences.
We rarely talk about those.
Now, I'm not gonna continue onbecause this is gonna be a longer
video, but David Suzuki does goon and say, Hey, you know what?
We continue to prioritize politicsand economy over the environment.
That seems to be what he's saying here.
Until we stop doing that, we're notgonna see a change in climate change.
(24:06):
We're not gonna be ableto go back and be okay.
We're in a time now.
If we continue on this path,we're just gonna have to adapt.
Just suffer the consequences untilwe can't do anything after that.
You know?
Only one thing we can do is justaccept the consequences after a certain
time, because at some point there'sa tipping point where we just can't
go back and we're getting closerand closer to that tipping point,
(24:27):
whether you agree with me or not.
That's just the fact is happeningand we're seeing it now.
We're starting to see all thesedifferent consequences that are coming
up and coming up, and we're seeinglarger and larger scale consequences.
Case in point, the tsunami thatwe had recently because of an 8.8
magnitude earthquake, which ispretty rare in the sea at this point.
You know, last time it happened was in2011 where we had a tsunami in Japan that
(24:51):
killed hundreds of thousands of people,plus almost caused a nuclear power plant
to go on the fritz, which I'm saying thatlightly because that's not what we want.
Regardless, this is whathe continues to say.
Now he hid a lot ofcriticism because of it.
You know, people aresaying, Hey, you know what?
He got a lot of flack for it.
Why is he talking about this?
He's just an old man.
You know, he is justgrumpy and this and that.
It's because he is beenfighting all this time.
(25:13):
But because of that flack, there wasanother video done on CBC, and this
is where I find it really interesting,where you see conservationists,
activists, and environmentalists startto really go back and forth between
reality and pessimism and optimism.
And it depends on some of thesereasons and the personal reasons.
(25:33):
So I'm gonna show you another clip.
This is on TikTok that I found this.
It's with CBC again.
It's actually David Suzuki speakingwith his daughter, Sarika Cullis-Suzuki,
about the comments that he made andhim just being like, did I say that?
Is that something I said?
Oh wow, you have kids.
I want their grandkids notto have to go through this.
And it scares me every time thatI hear about this type of news,
(25:55):
so I want you to just kind of seethis happening and we're just gonna
kinda listen to it as we go through.
So here it is.
Sometimes I hear yousay, what's the point?
And then, um, your actions speaksso much louder than your words.
You're always on the front lines,you're always saying something.
You're always making these showstalk about important issues
like you haven't given up.
(26:15):
No, of course not.
Because when you have children andgrandchildren, you have no choice.
My agony now is that I know there'sgonna be a turbulent life ahead for
your your children, and I'm not gonnabe there to help fight for them.
I remember when I told you I waspregnant for the first time and
(26:36):
you couldn't even look at me.
You were so upset.
Is that true?
Yes.
For the whole, so you, I'm sorry youwere, the next day I said to you, I
mean, I know you're not gonna be happyabout it, but why are you so mad at me?
And you said.
Sarika, if you believe everything that Ihave told you during your life, why would
you bring another person into this world?
(26:57):
Wow.
Really?
Did I say that?
Yes.
You said that.
Oh my God.
And I, I understand what you meant becauseyou've devoted your whole life to this
fight, and that's why it destroyed mewhen the twins were born and you we're
holding them and you started crying andsaid, I just realized that these children
(27:23):
will not be able to live out their lives.
And then I realized that I don'thave to think that way, that I
can envision a different future.
And if I devote my life tofighting for that future,
that maybe.
Maybe there will be adifferent future for them.
(27:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I still have hope.
I believe that hope is action.
We're affirming hope by doing.
If you don't do and yousay, well, it's too late.
There's nothing I can, you've given up.
Mm. Basically.
Mm-hmm.
Nope, I haven't given up.
You can't, I can't.
You cannot.
You can't give up.
That's the crux of it, right, is howdo we balance the realism that we see
(28:07):
as scientists and as conservationists?
And we see these reports come in fromthe IPCC, from different government
organizations, like differentgovernment departments all over the
world and other nonprofit organizationsand think tanks and so forth.
That's continue to talk about theconsequences of climate change and
the inaction that we've taken orthe the steps back that we've taken.
If we've progressed a little bit,there've been some step backs
(28:29):
depending on who's in power.
We're at a point right now in the worldwhere there are a lot of conservative
governments that are in power.
They have taken a number of stepsback from a lot of different things
that are surround climate change.
You know, there's eco justice, there'sa diversity, equity and inclusion
initiatives that help with climate changeaction and voicing up those actions
(28:51):
and listening to different people.
There's actually just the defunding ofscience, the defunding of monitoring
systems that will help adapt to theseconsequences such as tsunamis and
storm surges and increased storms indetecting those storms to make sure
that we are in a position where wecan help and the government as well
as other entities can help informpeople of when to evacuate, when not to
(29:13):
evacuate, and how to prepare for storms.
These are all at risk.
And so when you have people likemyself, like David Suzuki, like anybody
who is working in this world, eventhough you have hope and you have to
continue to fight, and we all haveto continue to fight, there are times
where we're just like, what the hell?
What is wrong with us?
(29:34):
Why do we continue to do this?
We are going after short-termgains with long-term consequences
coming down the road when thepeople in power are not gonna pay
for those long-term consequences.
They are going to put in the peoplethat they want, they are going to
make a mockery of climate change.
You know, scientists andpeople who want climate change
action, they're gonna deny it.
They're gonna pay for misinformationto be put on social media.
(29:58):
Bots to be put in comments willprobably be in my comments here.
Or people who are a product ofthat misinformation who are gonna
be in these comments saying thatAndrew, you know, like all this is
bias and all that kind of stuff.
That's what's gonna happen, andwe're gonna see that and we're
gonna continue to see that.
But we have to continue to fight.
And at some point there's gonna betimes where we're gonna have low
points and we're gonna be like, Jesus,what the hell are people thinking?
(30:21):
What are we thinking here?
You have, you know, people in my provincethat are in charge, the premier who
is helping his billion dollar friendsmake more billions by encroaching on
a green zone area that is not supposedto be touched because it is absolutely
crucial to our systems here, just northof Toronto, to put another highway so
(30:41):
that they can put in homes in that areato benefit his billionaire friends.
He doesn't have to putit in this green zone.
He doesn't have to.
He could put it somewhere else,but they don't own land there,
so why would you do that?
Right?
Because they're benefitingscandals and they're out in the
open and nobody's paying for it.
Nobody's being held accountablefor these decisions, and they're
not gonna be held accountable in10, 15, 20 years down the road.
(31:03):
And nobody's gonna remember who they are.
They're just gonna be remember how theyare dealing with this crap, how they
are dealing with the consequences ofclimate change because of bad political
decisions all the way stemming that backto 1988, and even, you can argue further
when governments continue to ignorethe science that has always been there.
You heard David say.
It's always been there.
It's been right for a long time.
(31:25):
It's been there for a longtime and refuse to do it.
So when you get scientistslike myself, like David Suzuki,
obviously I'm not comparing.
We are definitely not thesame type of scientist.
He is way above my intellectas well as experience.
But when you start to see people likehimself, David Attenborough, others
start to speak out and be like,we are actually very frustrated.
(31:45):
We are looking back at our lives and weare seeing how many times governments made
the wrong decisions and wrong decisionsagainst the environment to prioritize
political power and economic growth.
Unlimited economic growth.
And this is the frustration that we have,and this is why I'm taking so long to put
this video together because it is a painin the ass to deal with all this time.
(32:08):
And then, you know, somebody likeDavid Suzuki gets flacked for
coming out and saying real stuff.
Like he says all the time.
You know, he's beenlabeled an eco terrorist.
He's been enabling an enemy of Canada bydifferent political parties and different
organizations like in companies who don'tlike what he says, but to be honest,
he's just saying what the science says.
And he is trying to navigate waysthat we can do better, right?
(32:32):
That's really what it comes down to,and he is getting punished for it.
And you can even see at times he struggleswith hope because hope turns into action.
And also the realism that we see based onthe decisions that we continue to make.
And sometimes they're not easy decisionsthat these governments are making.
But we continue to see that theeconomy and that political power is
(32:54):
prioritized over the environmentalprotection of just our planet.
And it's extremely frustrating.
So I can understand whatDavid Suzuki is going through.
I can understand the controversy,like, you know, when my daughters at
some point, they will have, you know,maybe daughters or sons, and I'll
have grandchildren and they'll havechildren and they'll have grandchildren.
I want them to enjoy their life.
(33:14):
I don't want them to haveto worry about floods.
I don't want them to haveto worry about droughts.
I don't want 'em to have to worry aboutanything that's climate change related.
Any natural disasters that areexacerbated by climate change,
I don't wanna see that happen.
I don't wanna even knowthat's gonna happen.
That doesn't give me hope.
That gives me a lot of pessimism.
You're starting to see people whodo not want to have kids because
(33:34):
of climate change and the effectthat it's gonna have on our planet
in the next couple of decades.
So that's the reason.
So I'd love to hear yourthoughts on all this.
If you're a scientist or aconservationist or environmentalist
in any type of field, do you havethis same type of battle between the
realism and the optimism as well?
I would love to hear from peoplewho are not in the conservation
(33:55):
industry or science industry or field.
I would love to hear what you think.
Do you think all like what DavidSuzuki is going through is legitimate?
Are you go through the same thing?
I would love to hear, you know, yourthoughts on putting the comments
in the YouTube comments down below.
Or if you're listening to this onaudio, just hit me up on Instagram
at How to Protect the Ocean.
Or you can go to speak upfor blue.com/contact and
(34:18):
you can contact me there.
Just fill out the form.
It goes right to my personalemail and you wanna take action?
Join the Undertow.
It's an online communitythat we are creating.
The app is coming, but we arecreating this online community to
help guide you to do better action,to protect the ocean and the planet.
All you have to do is go tospeakupforblue.com/jointheundertow.
I wanna thank you so much for having thepatience to listen to me rant and raving,
(34:41):
and go through this video, and just thelove that you're giving me on YouTube,
as well as on audio, and the fact thatyou listen to these podcast episodes.
You know, whether it's this one, Howto Protect the Ocean or Beyond Jaws.
I really appreciate the fact thatyou listen all the way through
'cause you have to listen allthe way through to hear this.
But I really do appreciate you and I'dlove to hear from you and engage with you.
(35:02):
'cause that's what forms this community.
That's what makes it really great.
So I wanna thank you again and thishas been another episode of the
How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin fromthe True North Strong and Free.
Have a great day.
We'll talk to you next timeand happy conservation.
In 1988, the world's top scientists warnedus climate change was our greatest threat.
(00:05):
After nuclear war, we heard thealarm, but we hit the snooze button
year after year, decade after decade.
Meanwhile, emissions climbed,ecosystems crumbled, and
tipping points passed quietly.
David Suzuki, once hopeful,now sounds a different note.
It might be too late.
He doesn't blame science.
(00:26):
The evidence has been clear all along.
He blames the systems politicsobsessed with power and economies
addicted to endless growth.
We choose short-term profits overlong-term survival, quarterly
gains over planetary health.
Suzuki says If these systems won't change,then maybe we should stop pretending.
Stop pretending we're gonna solve thecrisis and start bracing for what's coming
(00:49):
because if we keep prioritizing money overnature, giving up might not be a choice.
It'll be a consequence.
We're gonna react to DavidSuzuki's controversial comment on
a CBC news radio station that hemade, and we're gonna talk about.
Maybe he regrets a little of it andsays that we still should keep fighting.
We're gonna talk about all thisstuff on this episode of the How
(01:11):
to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
Let's start the show.
Hey everybody.
Welcome back to another exciting episodeof the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, andthis is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean,how you could speak up for the
ocean, and what you can do to livefor a better ocean by taking action.
And on today's episode, we're gonna betalking about something that is very
(01:32):
familiar to a lot of conservationists,a lot of ocean scientists, and just
wildlife scientists in general.
We're gonna be talking about climatechange and how we feel at certain times.
When we discuss climate change,whether it's in an interview, whether
it is with somebody in our family orin our friend group, and how we talk
about it, because there's sometimeswhere we talk very positively.
(01:53):
We're very optimistic of the changes thatwe're seeing maybe behind the scenes or
in our work, and we see little changes getbigger and bigger and bigger, and every
once in a while we see a huge change,whether it be in policy, a government,
what have you, it doesn't matter.
We start to see this changeand other times we just
start to be really realistic.
And we start to really wonder allthese things that are happening over
(02:14):
time and are happening recently.
Whether we're really serious aboutprotecting the environment and are we
serious about protecting the environmentover the economy and politics?
That seems to have changed what we used todo compared to what we do now and not for
the better and not to help climate change.
There was a recent interview.
(02:35):
That was done by David Suzuki.
If you don't know who David Suzukiis, David Suzuki is a renowned
Canadian geneticist, environmentalist,author and science broadcaster,
best known for his lifelongdedication to promoting environmental
awareness and climate action.
Born in 1936 in Vancouver,British Columbia.
He began his career as a geneticist,earning a PhD in zoology from
(02:56):
the University of Chicago, andlater became a professor at the
University of British Columbia.
Suzuki rose to prominence as the longtimehost of the nature of things, a CBC
television program that brought scienceand environmental issues into Canadian
households for over four decades.
Think about David Attenborough.
That was Canadian.
He authored more than 50 books,including The Sacred Balance and
(03:18):
a co-founded the David SuzukiFoundation, a nonprofit focused.
On the environmental research,education, and advocacy over the
years, David Suzuki has become oneof the most influential voices in the
global environmental movement, knownfor speaking out on climate change,
biodiversity loss, indigenous rights,and the failures of modern political
and economic systems to protect.
(03:39):
The natural world.
His work has earned him numerous awards,including the Order of Canada, the UNESCO
Coalinga Prize for science communication,and multiple honorary degrees.
Despite controversy and criticismfrom some political and industrial
groups, Suzuki remains a fearlessadvocate for urgent climate action,
social justice, and to the protectionof Earth's life support systems.
(04:01):
That is the basis of it.
I grew up watching David Suzuki on thenature of things, a CBC classic, and I
don't know if it still continues today,but David Suzuki has been that voice.
When I first came out with Speak Up forBlue, I had this list of ocean leaders
that I wanted to discuss and I wouldcontact each one of them and say, Hey.
Can I put your name down on mywebsite as an ocean leader where
(04:23):
if they click on your name, it'llgo to the website and give a bio.
So that one was gonna lead tothe David Suzuki Foundation or
others that I really admired, andI had a whole list on the website.
I don't have that now, but I haveto admit, when I contacted David
Suzuki Foundation and David Suzuki.
This was during a verycontroversial time in Canada.
Anyway, the Prime Ministerwas Prime Minister Harper.
(04:43):
Uh, he was a staunch conservative,very right wing, very pro oil and gas
and natural resource exploitation.
And David Suzuki and him had a backand forth over the airwaves and
not like face to face, but theydefinitely were critical of each other.
In fact, prime Minister Harper wantedalmost at one point called them an
eco-terrorist, which was incrediblyirresponsible of a politician when
(05:05):
they don't hear what they want.
We probably heard that before recently.
If they don't hear what they like,they start to criticize and they
start to call people terrorists,especially on the ecological level.
So it was a very tense time inenvironmental and political and economical
sort of time period, if you really thinkabout it back in the early 2010s to about
(05:25):
2015 until the trio government got in.
Now, since then.
It's been very interesting to seethe progression that we've made
towards climate change and changingand reducing climate change, as
well as kind of going away from itat the same time here in Canada.
Our economy is based on natural resources.
Our major natural resourcethat we export is oil and gas.
(05:45):
There are a lot of battles within onthe East coast and on the west coast,
especially on the East coast for, youknow, extracting oil and gas, and of
course in Alberta and even NorthernSaskatchewan, to be able to take out
the natural gas as well as oil, thetar sands, to export more oil and give
more profits, not only the province,but also to Canada in general.
(06:06):
And so when oil prices dipdown, our economy dips down.
When they go up, we go.
And sometimes you can'tmake two sense of it.
I can't make two sense of it a lot of thetimes, and that just happens every once
in a while and we have to deal with it.
Unfortunately, as we progress and wecontinue to see decisions being made
for politics and economical reasonsand not protection of environment seems
(06:26):
to be always third place or even less.
We start to see more climatechange consequences happening.
There was an interview that wasdone on CBC news that I'm gonna
be reacting to in just a moment.
I wanna set it up a little bit.
David Suzuki is speaking to a CBC host.
It's almost looks like CBC radio,but now they're putting all on tv.
Of course, YouTube, I'mputting this on YouTube.
(06:47):
Everything.
A talk show can alwaysbe in video as well.
And you can see throughout the interviewthat David Suzuki is not happy.
He is frustrated.
He is just seeing the reality ofclimate change and the decisions
we've made towards reducingclimate change or lack thereof.
And so he talks about that.
You're gonna see a very frustrated person.
(07:08):
I want you to remember this guy is ascientist, a world-renowned scientist.
He's taught many years.
He lives what he preaches and he'sa very good science communicator.
But you can tell he's older now.
He's in his eighties and he's fed up.
He's fed up with the decisionsand he is been like that since the
Harper Administration has been in.
And it's just been people started tocriticize 'cause he is always negative.
(07:29):
But to be honest, he's been a realist fora long time and if they don't like what
he hears, then they just don't like him.
So we're gonna talk a coupleof themes that we're gonna do.
I don't know if I'll go throughthe entire video, but we are
definitely gonna react to some of it.
So let's get into that and let'sstart reacting to some of it.
I'm just gonna play it from the beginning.
This is from CBC News.
(07:49):
I'll put the link in the show notes sothat you can access it, so that you can
watch it from YouTube or from wherever.
I found this on YouTube.
So here, let's just listenin and see what is happening.
I think the science has been in nowfor decades, and yet, uh, look at us.
Um, you know, uh, when we had thebest environment minister we've ever
(08:10):
had in Canada, in Steven Guilbeault.
Um, you know, I, I told him you can'teven tell us the truth how bad it is.
There's, uh, we, we haven't takenthis as the opportunity to, to
really change the way that we behave,get onto a new, uh, energy future.
Uh, we've got now a prime Ministerwho thanks to Mr. Trump, uh, got
(08:34):
elected to everyone's surprise.
Now I wanna talk a littlebit about this part here.
As I said, I'm gonna bestopping a couple of times.
You know, before this last electionwhere Prime Minister Carney became
the official Prime Minister, hewas appointed Prime Minister.
Once Prime Minister Trudeau resigned,and then he came in, but then he
had an election pretty much withinlike three months after he was
(08:56):
appointed because he wanted to makesure that the people wanted him in.
It was a surprise win for sure,and it was very interesting.
The reason why he got in was because,you know, Trump was in power since
January of 2025, depending on whenyou're watching this, and he decided
that he was going to attack Canada andthe world apparently through terrorists.
(09:17):
But he kept talking about how not only wasCanada, you know, quote unquote unfair in
terms of the trade that we were doing withthe United States, which was interesting
because, you know, Trump did negotiate thelast, you know, north American free trade
agreement between Mexico, Canada, and theUnited States and he's basically saying
it was the worst trade deal of all time.
Even though he's the one who negotiated,came out of that time, like in his
(09:39):
first term and said, Hey, this wasthe best negotiated trade deal ever.
You know, it is what it is.
This is what Trump does, and I don'twant to go into that aspect of it, but
it really shaped the election for Canada.
We had somebody that was running forPrime Minister, for the liberals who,
and for you guys in the United States.
It's like the Democrats forCanada, who was a banker.
(10:01):
He had a lot of international experience.
He had worked with the GreatBritain during the Brexit that time.
And that transfer over, and theyloved him there for the most part,
except for one Prime Minister who wasa Prime Minister for about 45 days.
She didn't like him, buteverybody else seemed to like him.
He has a pretty good rapportthere and reputation.
He was the chair of the Bankof Canada at one point, and
(10:22):
now he's the Prime Minister.
He became the Prime Minister becauseof the pressure from Trump, because of
his international economic experience.
And that was a confidence vote.
For us, the person he was runningagainst, pure poly F did not have that
international economic experience.
He wasn't a banker.
He was more of a lifelong politician.
So people are like, Hey, you know what?
Even though liberals weren't projected towin before this started, they became the
(10:42):
fan favorite because of this type of deal.
Now, with that said, Mark Carney as aprime minister is pretty much center left.
You know, some can arguecenter right at times.
He's a banker, so he is veryconservative in what he moves.
He wants to equate everything.
He likes to be socially and fiscallyresponsible, so that's most conservative
(11:02):
as well as liberal, even, you know, NDPstype of work and new democratic party.
So a little bit more to theleft, depending on what he's
looking at, which seems fair.
Canada, well.
Apart from the last like 10, 15years or so, has been usually
center left or center right.
We don't really fare that far off fromthe center, but the problem is, is
now because of the pressure of Trump,Trump 1.1 Canada to be the 51st state,
(11:25):
obviously that got rejected right away.
I think what became a joke became kind ofserious and the Trump sort of rhetoric of
the people were refuting that right away.
But it definitely united Canadaduring this election in making
sure that the right people gotvoted in or what Canada thought was
the right people to get voted in.
Sure, there's some people whowill disagree with that, but
regardless, that's what happened.
But because of that pressure fromthe South that Davis Suzuki's talking
(11:47):
about here is we had to start to lookelsewhere for a oil and gas partner,
because the US was going to put 10%tariffs on us that wasn't gonna do so.
We had finished a pipeline under theTrudeau government that started when
he first started, where the pipelinewent out to the eastern market.
So China and other Asiancountries, Japan, and so forth.
(12:08):
So that was good for us.
And then now there's talk that whatwas shut down earlier was an Eastern
pipeline to go from Alberta all the wayout to the east coast across Canada,
which is a big place if you don't know.
And that would gotowards European markets.
So the start of talking aboutbuilding that is happening.
And so now we are promoting more fossilfuel extraction, which we were hoping to
(12:31):
get away from under the last government.
Here's the problem is that we starttalking about the economy, and this
is where Davis Suzuki starts talkingabout the economy and politics.
And he's got a point here, andthere's no one that I've met who's,
uh, who knows more, uh, about theclimate crisis than Mark Carney.
(12:51):
I mean, he's written about it,um, before he became a politician.
Um, but he's stilltalking about pipelines.
You know, the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations.
Antonio Gutierrez said yearsago, any further investment
in fossil fuel infrastructureis moral and economic madness.
(13:14):
What have we been doing?
You know, how many billions havewe spent on the, uh, the pipeline?
The Southern pipeline, theTransmountain pipeline?
Yeah.
We're talking about more, you know, like.
One of the things that Antonio Gutierrezis one of the few people up there
with prominence saying it like it is.
You know, we're digging our own grave.
(13:34):
And when you're doing that, thefirst thing to do is stop digging.
Now here's, I wanna talk anotherpoint that he makes, which I, I agree.
Not only has Canada come out withprioritizing these types of energy
projects, so, you know, even thoughCanada's trying to balance the energy
projects with fossil fuels as wellas renewables, or they're saying they
(13:56):
are, there's definitely more investmentright now or some investment into.
Oil and gas more than what weanticipated before this election.
Not surprising because of thepressure from the south and the
fact that they're putting tariffsand we need to start relying on
other countries and not just US.
I think it's like 90 to 95% of ouroil is exported to the US so there
(14:17):
are main client in that respect.
They get a lot of their oil and gasfrom us, so we wanna make sure that
we're not just stuck with that.
Our prices are low because ofthat and because our economy is
tied so much to the oil and gas.
That makes a big deal.
So when we're talking about the future,so now you know, you're starting to
see the pressure of more oil and gastalk happening, and again, it comes
down to, even though Mark Carney andothers are wanting to lower and reduce
(14:41):
climate change, how much can we do it?
How much can we do?
We continue to develop oil and gas andnot reduce it as that we were told a
while ago and under the Paris Agreement,that's what we should be doing.
But we continue to do that and there'sa lot, this is not an easy thing.
It's not just a matter of like, let'scut oil and gas down to like 30% of
(15:03):
our energy use because it's easy.
You know, it's not easy.
There are a lot of jobsthat are tied to it.
There's a lot of politics tied to it.
There's a lot of lobbygroups tied to this.
And on the other side, there's a lot ofenvironmentalists and conservationists
who are trying to reduce that amountbecause we care about the planet.
And you know, otherscare more about profit.
Some people care about theirjobs and their livelihoods,
(15:24):
and that's where it gets reallycontested when it comes into this.
So it's never an easy decision.
And for those of you who are gonnacomment, this is an easy decision.
Either way.
It's not an easy decision.
It's a very complexproblem that Canada's in.
It's put themselves in for a long time.
Even though a lot of our energy, about80% of our energy is renewable, we still
use and export a lot of fossil fuels,and if we're continuing to develop that
(15:45):
to export them more, we're gonna becontributing more towards climate change
worldwide because we're exporting andwe're developing our market so that we're
gonna be producing more oil and gas.
That's my understanding of it.
If it's a differentunderstanding, please let me know.
Love to have you on theshow to discuss that.
That's what he's talking about here.
We're digging our own graveand continuing to do that.
So let's continue onwith what he had to say.
(16:05):
We're still arguing about fossil fuelsand the future in our economy and,
and tell me about that because herewe are, of course, we have this threat
of terrorists from the United States.
We have everyone agreeing that Canadaneeds to be more self-sufficient,
more independent, and and more clearof the United States when it comes to
trading and to find better partners.
(16:26):
Part of that is we need to exploit theresources that we have in this country.
Whether those are mineral resources,whether it's natural gas, or whether
it's bitumen, buried in the dirt.
Um, and when people, you cansee David Suzuki starting to get
frustrated by this because this hasbeen the rhetoric for a long time.
You know, we have these natural resources.
(16:46):
We need to get them out of theground for our economy to stabilize.
So this is gonna be an interesting answerwhile we're having these conversations.
Now it's as though climatechange doesn't exist.
I agree.
I agree.
And you know, when, uh, um, whenthis whole 51st State issue came
up and, uh, you know, peoplebegan to say, buy Canadian.
(17:07):
And I said to my wife, okay, you'regoing shopping for groceries this week.
Only get food that is grownand, and, uh, made in Canada.
We'll starve then.
You know, you look at, we are one ofthe bread baskets of the world, and
we can't even feed our own people withfood grown in, in our own country.
(17:27):
Why?
Because of globalization.
Globalization is, is,uh, is a problem now.
And, uh, you know, the most powerful,the richest country in the world is
elected a man who is a climate denier.
And, um, you know, we'reat this critical point.
This happens a lot too.
It's not just down south where you knowDonald Trump is a climate change denier.
(17:50):
This happens in a lot of cases whereone party over the other thinks
that climate change is not real.
The other party thinks it's real,not just in the US, not just in
Canada, but you have a lot of othercountries who do the same thing.
And there governments flip flops everyso often, whether it's four years, five
years, 10 years, whatever that might be.
They flip flop every so often.
(18:12):
And the changes in policies youcan see are either done or undone.
And we saw that with Trump.
Every time he comes in, he takes theUS out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
He reduces a lot of the regulationsfor the EPA, for NOAA and a
number of different environmentalorganizations within the government.
Does whatever he can to deregulate.
And to make sure that oil and gasand fossil fuel companies can do
(18:34):
better and can develop more becausethey think that's the way to go.
That's the old school way of thinking.
You know, develop fossil fuelsand exploit natural resources and
we will be able to do it so well.
Now in Canada, we had the federal andOntario provincial governments both
put in policies that actually allow thederegulation of species at risk act for
(18:56):
both federal and the Ontario provinceand allows more development to happen.
So in the federal government, it'll be oiland gas projects and pipeline projects.
'cause there's a lot of environmentalregulations that you have to go
through to make sure that you are notdestroying the environment as you're
putting in these pipelines everytime you cross a water, a river, or a
stream or a lake, you have to make surethat you go under the proper process.
(19:19):
If they're in a species atrisk, it slows down the process.
And every time it's slow.
It's slow.
It's slow for a reason to make surethat we're not destroying the habitat
of these species, but also to makingsure that we're not destroying the
environment for our general health.
And so a lot of people just see thatfrom the business side, Hey, we're
just gonna forget the environment.
We want to move faster on this.
It's better for the economy, andthat's the excuse that they use
(19:42):
over and over and over again.
And even there's, I think they're bothBill C-5s for the federal government
and the Ontario government where they'reactually stomping on indigenous rights
to take away the decision making forindigenous peoples and to be able
to, you know, put that together.
So it's a really interesting situationthat we're in where we're seeing
a lot of environmental regulationsget deregulated to allow for this
(20:06):
push of fossil fuel industries.
And you know, David Suzuki's tired of it.
A lot of us are tired of itand we kind of saw this coming.
I kind of agree that we haveto do this, but I hate it.
I hate the fact that we haveto do this because it's gonna
ruin our environment even more.
The science has been in for decades in1988 at a major international conference
(20:30):
in Toronto, the delegate, uh, opened bynewly elected, uh, prime Minister Brian
Mulroney keynote address by the PrimeMinister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland,
Steven Lewis chaired the sessions.
At the end of that, in 1988, theysaid global warming, we called
it global warming, back thenrepresents a threat second only
(20:51):
to an all out global nuclear war.
And that was it.
They made a call for a 20% reduction ingreenhouse gas emissions in 15 years.
If we had done it, we would'vesaved billions of dollars and
many, many countless lives, andwe didn't do anything, you know.
(21:11):
That really hit me.
I forgot about that because Iwas a kid when that happened.
And if we had been able to, you know,reduce our emissions back then by 20%,
maybe we could have been on a better path.
But what happened during that timewas where the misinformation level
increased by fossil fuel companies.
That's where you started to see companieslike Imperial Oil and others start to
(21:35):
shell out these reports that climatechange wasn't actually happening.
Really getting into the politicalparties and you know, having one
political party just deny it.
Other political parties are for reducingclimate change and to really put a
divide politically in how you voted.
So if you are a Democrat or a liberalhere in Canada, if you weren't gonna
(21:56):
vote for conservatives because theywere anti-climate, if environment
was an anti-climate action.
if the environment was important toyou, if the economy was important
to you, that was going againstthe environment 'cause that's how
the fossil fuel economists saw it.
It's like, hey, you'reimpeding job creation, you're
impeding money for Canada.
You're impeding money for yourcountry, wherever country you do.
This happens all the time.
(22:17):
And they were shown to say, yeah, we lied.
Like we allowed thismisinformation to get through.
And some of them are paying theprice in courts right now as they're
getting sued for that misinformation.
But they did it for decades and itworked instead of taking those 15 years
from 1988 and onwards and reducingour emissions by 20% therein, right?
Just solving the problem at that pointor getting closer to solving the problem.
(22:40):
We would've been in a muchbetter situation than we are now.
Now we are seeing the consequences.
Now we are seeing the consequences ofour lack of action over the last 40,
50, 60 years when climate change wasfirst sort of discovered and ignored
throughout that entire time, and nowwe're starting to see the consequences in.
More earthquakes, more volcanoes, tsunamiwarnings, especially since recent, we're
(23:03):
starting to see increased sea surfacetemperature, coral reef bleaching.
We're starting to see stormsurges are increasing.
Sea level rises increasing.
Storms are increasing in intensity, andthere are happening more frequently.
So a thousand year, 100 year, 10year storms are no longer, you
know, relevant at this point.
That was how we used it in the past.
(23:24):
We are seeing those more than ahundred years since the last a
hundred year storm or 10 years.
We're seeing those every like 2,3, 4 or five years, and they're
happening more and more often, andthey're creating more in damage,
which we have to pay the money for.
We never really talk about how muchmoney is paid for that and wasted
on paying for, you know, cleaning upsomething that we could have cleaned
up before is clean up the consequencesof stuff we cleaned up where we
(23:45):
wouldn't have seen those consequences.
We rarely talk about those.
Now, I'm not gonna continue onbecause this is gonna be a longer
video, but David Suzuki does goon and say, Hey, you know what?
We continue to prioritize politicsand economy over the environment.
That seems to be what he's saying here.
Until we stop doing that, we're notgonna see a change in climate change.
(24:06):
We're not gonna be ableto go back and be okay.
We're in a time now.
If we continue on this path,we're just gonna have to adapt.
Just suffer the consequences untilwe can't do anything after that.
You know?
Only one thing we can do is justaccept the consequences after a certain
time, because at some point there'sa tipping point where we just can't
go back and we're getting closerand closer to that tipping point,
(24:27):
whether you agree with me or not.
That's just the fact is happeningand we're seeing it now.
We're starting to see all thesedifferent consequences that are coming
up and coming up, and we're seeinglarger and larger scale consequences.
Case in point, the tsunami thatwe had recently because of an 8.8
magnitude earthquake, which ispretty rare in the sea at this point.
You know, last time it happened was in2011 where we had a tsunami in Japan that
(24:51):
killed hundreds of thousands of people,plus almost caused a nuclear power plant
to go on the fritz, which I'm saying thatlightly because that's not what we want.
Regardless, this is whathe continues to say.
Now he hid a lot ofcriticism because of it.
You know, people aresaying, Hey, you know what?
He got a lot of flack for it.
Why is he talking about this?
He's just an old man.
You know, he is justgrumpy and this and that.
It's because he is beenfighting all this time.
(25:13):
But because of that flack, there wasanother video done on CBC, and this
is where I find it really interesting,where you see conservationists,
activists, and environmentalists startto really go back and forth between
reality and pessimism and optimism.
And it depends on some of thesereasons and the personal reasons.
(25:33):
So I'm gonna show you another clip.
This is on TikTok that I found this.
It's with CBC again.
It's actually David Suzuki speakingwith his daughter, Sarika Cullis-Suzuki,
about the comments that he made andhim just being like, did I say that?
Is that something I said?
Oh wow, you have kids.
I want their grandkids notto have to go through this.
And it scares me every time thatI hear about this type of news,
(25:55):
so I want you to just kind of seethis happening and we're just gonna
kinda listen to it as we go through.
So here it is.
Sometimes I hear yousay, what's the point?
And then, um, your actions speaksso much louder than your words.
You're always on the front lines,you're always saying something.
You're always making these showstalk about important issues
like you haven't given up.
(26:15):
No, of course not.
Because when you have children andgrandchildren, you have no choice.
My agony now is that I know there'sgonna be a turbulent life ahead for
your your children, and I'm not gonnabe there to help fight for them.
I remember when I told you I waspregnant for the first time and
(26:36):
you couldn't even look at me.
You were so upset.
Is that true?
Yes.
For the whole, so you, I'm sorry youwere, the next day I said to you, I
mean, I know you're not gonna be happyabout it, but why are you so mad at me?
And you said.
Sarika, if you believe everything that Ihave told you during your life, why would
you bring another person into this world?
(26:57):
Wow.
Really?
Did I say that?
Yes.
You said that.
Oh my God.
And I, I understand what you meant becauseyou've devoted your whole life to this
fight, and that's why it destroyed mewhen the twins were born and you we're
holding them and you started crying andsaid, I just realized that these children
(27:23):
will not be able to live out their lives.
And then I realized that I don'thave to think that way, that I
can envision a different future.
And if I devote my life tofighting for that future,
that maybe.
Maybe there will be adifferent future for them.
(27:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I still have hope.
I believe that hope is action.
We're affirming hope by doing.
If you don't do and yousay, well, it's too late.
There's nothing I can, you've given up.
Mm. Basically.
Mm-hmm.
Nope, I haven't given up.
You can't, I can't.
You cannot.
You can't give up.
That's the crux of it, right, is howdo we balance the realism that we see
(28:07):
as scientists and as conservationists?
And we see these reports come in fromthe IPCC, from different government
organizations, like differentgovernment departments all over the
world and other nonprofit organizationsand think tanks and so forth.
That's continue to talk about theconsequences of climate change and
the inaction that we've taken orthe the steps back that we've taken.
If we've progressed a little bit,there've been some step backs
(28:29):
depending on who's in power.
We're at a point right now in the worldwhere there are a lot of conservative
governments that are in power.
They have taken a number of stepsback from a lot of different things
that are surround climate change.
You know, there's eco justice, there'sa diversity, equity and inclusion
initiatives that help with climate changeaction and voicing up those actions
(28:51):
and listening to different people.
There's actually just the defunding ofscience, the defunding of monitoring
systems that will help adapt to theseconsequences such as tsunamis and
storm surges and increased storms indetecting those storms to make sure
that we are in a position where wecan help and the government as well
as other entities can help informpeople of when to evacuate, when not to
(29:13):
evacuate, and how to prepare for storms.
These are all at risk.
And so when you have people likemyself, like David Suzuki, like anybody
who is working in this world, eventhough you have hope and you have to
continue to fight, and we all haveto continue to fight, there are times
where we're just like, what the hell?
What is wrong with us?
(29:34):
Why do we continue to do this?
We are going after short-termgains with long-term consequences
coming down the road when thepeople in power are not gonna pay
for those long-term consequences.
They are going to put in the peoplethat they want, they are going to
make a mockery of climate change.
You know, scientists andpeople who want climate change
action, they're gonna deny it.
They're gonna pay for misinformationto be put on social media.
(29:58):
Bots to be put in comments willprobably be in my comments here.
Or people who are a product ofthat misinformation who are gonna
be in these comments saying thatAndrew, you know, like all this is
bias and all that kind of stuff.
That's what's gonna happen, andwe're gonna see that and we're
gonna continue to see that.
But we have to continue to fight.
And at some point there's gonna betimes where we're gonna have low
points and we're gonna be like, Jesus,what the hell are people thinking?
(30:21):
What are we thinking here?
You have, you know, people in my provincethat are in charge, the premier who
is helping his billion dollar friendsmake more billions by encroaching on
a green zone area that is not supposedto be touched because it is absolutely
crucial to our systems here, just northof Toronto, to put another highway so
(30:41):
that they can put in homes in that areato benefit his billionaire friends.
He doesn't have to putit in this green zone.
He doesn't have to.
He could put it somewhere else,but they don't own land there,
so why would you do that?
Right?
Because they're benefitingscandals and they're out in the
open and nobody's paying for it.
Nobody's being held accountablefor these decisions, and they're
not gonna be held accountable in10, 15, 20 years down the road.
(31:03):
And nobody's gonna remember who they are.
They're just gonna be remember how theyare dealing with this crap, how they
are dealing with the consequences ofclimate change because of bad political
decisions all the way stemming that backto 1988, and even, you can argue further
when governments continue to ignorethe science that has always been there.
You heard David say.
It's always been there.
It's been right for a long time.
(31:25):
It's been there for a longtime and refuse to do it.
So when you get scientistslike myself, like David Suzuki,
obviously I'm not comparing.
We are definitely not thesame type of scientist.
He is way above my intellectas well as experience.
But when you start to see people likehimself, David Attenborough, others
start to speak out and be like,we are actually very frustrated.
(31:45):
We are looking back at our lives and weare seeing how many times governments made
the wrong decisions and wrong decisionsagainst the environment to prioritize
political power and economic growth.
Unlimited economic growth.
And this is the frustration that we have,and this is why I'm taking so long to put
this video together because it is a painin the ass to deal with all this time.
(32:08):
And then, you know, somebody likeDavid Suzuki gets flacked for
coming out and saying real stuff.
Like he says all the time.
You know, he's beenlabeled an eco terrorist.
He's been enabling an enemy of Canada bydifferent political parties and different
organizations like in companies who don'tlike what he says, but to be honest,
he's just saying what the science says.
And he is trying to navigate waysthat we can do better, right?
(32:32):
That's really what it comes down to,and he is getting punished for it.
And you can even see at times he struggleswith hope because hope turns into action.
And also the realism that we see based onthe decisions that we continue to make.
And sometimes they're not easy decisionsthat these governments are making.
But we continue to see that theeconomy and that political power is
(32:54):
prioritized over the environmentalprotection of just our planet.
And it's extremely frustrating.
So I can understand whatDavid Suzuki is going through.
I can understand the controversy,like, you know, when my daughters at
some point, they will have, you know,maybe daughters or sons, and I'll
have grandchildren and they'll havechildren and they'll have grandchildren.
I want them to enjoy their life.
(33:14):
I don't want them to haveto worry about floods.
I don't want them to haveto worry about droughts.
I don't want 'em to have to worry aboutanything that's climate change related.
Any natural disasters that areexacerbated by climate change,
I don't wanna see that happen.
I don't wanna even knowthat's gonna happen.
That doesn't give me hope.
That gives me a lot of pessimism.
You're starting to see people whodo not want to have kids because
(33:34):
of climate change and the effectthat it's gonna have on our planet
in the next couple of decades.
So that's the reason.
So I'd love to hear yourthoughts on all this.
If you're a scientist or aconservationist or environmentalist
in any type of field, do you havethis same type of battle between the
realism and the optimism as well?
I would love to hear from peoplewho are not in the conservation
(33:55):
industry or science industry or field.
I would love to hear what you think.
Do you think all like what DavidSuzuki is going through is legitimate?
Are you go through the same thing?
I would love to hear, you know, yourthoughts on putting the comments
in the YouTube comments down below.
Or if you're listening to this onaudio, just hit me up on Instagram
at How to Protect the Ocean.
Or you can go to speak upfor blue.com/contact and
(34:18):
you can contact me there.
Just fill out the form.
It goes right to my personalemail and you wanna take action?
Join the Undertow.
It's an online communitythat we are creating.
The app is coming, but we arecreating this online community to
help guide you to do better action,to protect the ocean and the planet.
All you have to do is go tospeakupforblue.com/jointheundertow.
I wanna thank you so much for having thepatience to listen to me rant and raving,
(34:41):
and go through this video, and just thelove that you're giving me on YouTube,
as well as on audio, and the fact thatyou listen to these podcast episodes.
You know, whether it's this one, Howto Protect the Ocean or Beyond Jaws.
I really appreciate the fact thatyou listen all the way through
'cause you have to listen allthe way through to hear this.
But I really do appreciate you and I'dlove to hear from you and engage with you.
(35:02):
'cause that's what forms this community.
That's what makes it really great.
So I wanna thank you again and thishas been another episode of the
How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin fromthe True North Strong and Free.
Have a great day.
We'll talk to you next timeand happy conservation.
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