David Suzuki Legacy Lecture

[Freak By Night]

Last night I saw David Suzuki give a very impassioned lecture at a beautiful church in downtown Ottawa (the same venue at which I will catch the Chick Corea Trio this coming Sunday.

The key messages I took home from the Suzuki lecture were:

Why is "economy" always given more importance than "ecology"?

The Green Party is doing some good stuff, but because they exist, the other political parties ignore environmental matters.

In our consumer-oriented society, people are focused on acquiring more and more things. But, as people approach death, they don't reminisce about all of their fantastic possessions. Their memories are of family, friends, and good times.

People spend more and more time indoors. We are forgetting what it means to be connected to the outside world.

When environmentalists protest the cutting down of a forest for logging or to make way for a new shopping mall, the hue and cry from the ruling class is "why don't the environmentalists buy this land, and they can do with it as they please?" However, the same people are adamantly against a cap-and-trade system, which is essentially the same thing - placing monetary value on the environment.

If you have a chance to see David Suzuki's lecture (in Montreal tonight and in Toronto tomorrow night), don't hesitate to go.