Suzuki Speaks

There’s this horrible disconnect for me between my gut feelings regarding the direction the planet is going in (supported by frequent updates from the world’s top scientists) and a mainstream point of view represented acutely in The Daily Mail.

So in the last few weeks, while we hear on one side that we’re eating the world, that global ecosystems face collapse, that irreversible environmental damage is now inevitable on the other side the Mail group and its ilk run middle class scare stories about how the nanny state wants to fine you for recycling, or make you pay more to drive a gas-guzzling 4x4 (this and this are fairly typical). Like, HELLO – as I believe they say in the USA. While we look towards horrendous calamity for the future of life on Earth and the human race, people are moaning about dividing paper from metal, or getting shirty about not being able to pollute cheaply enough. I despair, I really do.

I’ve been saying for a while now, that the level of news on preventing eco-collapse we get in the mainstream media is focused on stuff like the Kyoto Protocol (remember that?). Lets try and get the USA and Australia to sign up to Kyoto etc. – when Kyoto itself is like some fucking decision to start talks about whether we might like to re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Anyway David Suzuki, who has just announced his retirement, has a clearer metaphor along the same lines. In an interview with Reuters he says:

"I feel like we are in a giant car heading for a brick wall at 100 miles an hour and everyone in the car is arguing where they want to sit. For God's sake, someone has to say put the brakes on and turn the wheel."