Top 100 David Suzuki Quotes
#1. Any politician or scientist who tells you these [GMO] products are safe is either very stupid or lying.
David Suzuki
#2. Unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can't expect them to help protect and care for it.
David Suzuki
#3. The way we live has less to do with individual choices and more to do with the general bent of our society than many of us realize. We forget that we don't need everything.
David Suzuki
#4. With an estimated population of nine billion people by 2050, we cannot continue to consume resources at the same rate and maintain our quality of life.
David Suzuki
#6. Global trade has advantages. For starters, it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food.
David Suzuki
#8. Some argue we should get coal, oil and gas out of the ground as quickly as possible, build more pipelines and make as much money as we can selling it here and abroad. Their priorities are the economy and meeting short-term energy needs so we can live the lives to which we've become accustomed.
David Suzuki
#9. The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.
David Suzuki
#10. Many scientists and economists also say putting a price on carbon through carbon taxes and/or cap-and-trade is necessary.
David Suzuki
#11. If we humans are good at anything, it's thinking we've got a terrific idea and going for it without acknowledging the potential consequences or our own ignorance.
David Suzuki
#12. In the environmental movement, every time you lose a battle it's for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.
David Suzuki
#13. [I]f one day I look out from my cabin's porch and see a row of windmills spinning in the distance, I won't curse them. I will praise them. It will mean we are finally getting somewhere.
David Suzuki
#14. Just as human activity is upsetting Earth's carbon cycle, our actions are altering the water cycle.
David Suzuki
#15. The voluntary approach to corporate social responsibility has failed in many cases.
David Suzuki
#16. Planting native species in our gardens and communities is increasingly important, because indigenous insects, birds and wildlife rely on them. Over thousands, and sometimes millions, of years they have co-evolved to live in local climate and soil conditions.
David Suzuki
#17. Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.
David Suzuki
#18. The terrible part of this looming catastrophe is that people have been working on solutions for years and have developed concrete steps to massively reduce our energy use, while stimulating whole new industries and technologies that are more efficient and affordable.
David Suzuki
#19. Although it's the second largest country in the world, our useful area has been reduced. Our immigration policy is disgusting: We plunder southern countries by depriving them of future leaders, and we want to increase our population to support economic growth.
David Suzuki
#20. We now have access to so much information that we can find support for any prejudice or opinion.
David Suzuki
#21. The damage that climate change is causing and that will get worse if we fail to act goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of lives, homes and businesses lost, ecosystems destroyed, species driven to extinction, infrastructure smashed and people inconvenienced.
David Suzuki
#22. Beyond reducing individual use, one of our top priorities must be to move from fossil fuels to energy that has fewer detrimental effects on water supplies and fewer environmental impacts overall.
David Suzuki
#23. Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.
David Suzuki
#24. Humans are an infant species, a mere 150,000 years old. But, armed with a massive brain, we've not only survived, we've used our wits to adapt to and flourish in habitats as varied as deserts, Arctic tundra, tropical rainforests, wetlands and high mountain ranges.
David Suzuki
#26. More than a billion people lack adequate access to clean water.
David Suzuki
#27. We are upsetting the atmosphere upon which all life depends. In the late 80s when I began to take climate change seriously, we referred to global warming as a "slowmotion catastrophe" one we expected to kick in perhaps generations later. Instead, the signs of change have accelerated alarmingly.
David Suzuki
#28. The truth is, as most of us know, that global warming is real and humans are major contributors, mainly because we wastefully burn fossil fuels.
David Suzuki
#29. You would have thought that our first priority would be to ask what the ecologists are finding out, because we have to live within the conditions and principles they define. Instead, we've elevated the economy above ecology.
David Suzuki
#30. Canada, more than any nation, will be affected by rising sea levels from global warming.
David Suzuki
#31. Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.
David Suzuki
#32. I read in 'Life' magazine that Asians had developed an operation to enlarge eyes, and I yearned to have this done. I wanted to dye my hair brown and to anglicize my name. Self-hate was the most terrible cost of the war years for me.
David Suzuki
#33. Benjamin Franklin, said: "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.
David Suzuki
#34. Scientists have been warning about global warming for decades. It's too late to stop it now, but we can lessen its severity and impacts.
David Suzuki
#35. Think about a seed. Once it lands, it's stuck. It can't move to find better soil, moisture or sunlight. It's able to create every part of itself to grow and reproduce with the help of air, water and sun.
David Suzuki
#36. Some solutions are relatively simple and would provide economic benefits: implementing measures to conserve energy, putting a price on carbon through taxes and cap-and-trade and shifting from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources.
David Suzuki
#37. More than any other time in history, the 1990s will be a turning point for human civilization.
David Suzuki
#38. Corporations are not people. They shouldn't be funding. They shouldn't be funding campaigns at all.
David Suzuki
#39. Humans are now the most numerous mammal on the planet. There are more humans than rats or mice. Humans have a huge ecological footprint, magnified by their technology.
David Suzuki
#40. And that, quite simply, is the issue. We live in a finite world with finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small - a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe.
David Suzuki
#41. We have altered the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. We have left no part of the globe untouched.
David Suzuki
#42. Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we've ever had to confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change.
David Suzuki
#43. We can't blame children for occupying themselves with Facebook rather than playing in the mud. Our society doesn't put a priority on connecting with nature. In fact, too often we tell them it's dirty and dangerous.
David Suzuki
#44. Each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change; together we can restore that ancient and sustaining harmony.
David Suzuki
#45. Environmentalism isn't a discipline or specialty. It's a way of seeing our place in the world. And we need everybody to see the world that way. Don't think 'In order to make a difference I have to become an environmentalist.'
David Suzuki
#46. We humans have become dependent on plastic for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction under control.
David Suzuki
#47. Our beliefs, our values shape the way we look out at the world and the way we treat it. If we believe that we were here, placed here by God, that this - all of this creation is for us, it's for us to go and occupy, dominate and exploit, then we will proceed to do that.
David Suzuki
#48. Less than 10% of the fuel energy burned in automobiles is translated into forward motion of the vehicle and even then most of this energy is needed to move the vehicle itself, which typically weighs 20 times more than its passengers.
David Suzuki
#49. Nature surrounds us, from parks and backyards to streets and alleyways. Next time you go out for a walk, tread gently and remember that we are both inhabitants and stewards of nature in our neighbourhoods.
David Suzuki
#50. Our choices at all levels-individual, community, corporate and government-affect nature. And they affect us.
David Suzuki
#51. We emerged out of nature, and when we die, we return to nature. We need to know there are forces impinging on us that we will never understand or control. We need to have sacred places where we go with respect, not just looking for resources or opportunity.
David Suzuki
#52. This is suicidal ... our home is the biosphere. That's a very thin layer of air, water and land where all life exists. It's fixed, it can't grow, and yet we cling to this idea that the economy can grow forever. And it must. Well, it can't.
David Suzuki
#53. Fukushima is the most terrifying situation I can imagine,
David Suzuki
#54. Birds are, especially canaries, are super sensitive to hydrogen sulfide and sour gas.
David Suzuki
#55. We have become a force of nature Not long ago, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, forest fires, even earthquakes and volcanic explosions were accepted as "natural disasters or "acts of God." But now, we have joined God, powerful enough to influence these events.
David Suzuki
#56. With the world's human population now at seven billion and growing, and the demand for technology and modern conveniences increasing, we can't control all our negative impacts. But we have to find better ways to live within the limits nature and its cycles impose.
David Suzuki
#57. Environmentalism is a way of seeing our place within the biosphere.
David Suzuki
#58. The human brain had a vast memory storage. It made us curious and very creative. Those were the characteristics that gave us an advantage - curiosity, creativity and memory. And that brain did something very special. It invented an idea called 'the future.'
David Suzuki
#59. If all humans disappeared today ,the earth would start improving tomorrow.If all the ants disappeared today ,the earth would start dying tomorrow.
David Suzuki
#60. Even meeting Kyoto targets barely makes a dent in what we have to achieve.
David Suzuki
#61. Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life's breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth.
David Suzuki
#62. Any scientist who tells you they know that GMOs are safe and not to worry about it, is either ignorant of the history of science or is deliberately lying. Nobody knows what the long-term effect will be.
David Suzuki
#63. We can no longer tolerate what's going on in Ottawa and Edmonton. What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act.
David Suzuki
#64. A book is like a single tree in a forest, in that it exists in conjunction with and because of a great many others around it.
David Suzuki
#65. For the first time since life appeared on earth, one species- us- is single-handedly altering the physical, chemical and biological nature of earth. We have become a force of nature
David Suzuki
#66. Geothermal can be a huge source of energy very quickly.
David Suzuki
#67. The event of creation did not take place so many eons ago, astronomically or biologically speaking. Creation is taking place every moment of our lives.
David Suzuki
#68. We are playing Russian roulette with features of the planet's atmosphere that will profoundly impact generations to come. How long are we willing to gamble?
David Suzuki
#69. For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.
David Suzuki
#70. Water is our most precious resource, but we waste it, just as we waste other resources, including oil and gas.
David Suzuki
#71. We have much to learn by studying nature and taking the time to tease out its secrets.
David Suzuki
#72. Ultimately we need to recognize that while humans continue to build urban landscapes, we share these spaces with others species.
David Suzuki
#73. If you're not being pessimistic, you're not being very realistic. But I think one must always have hope, and when you have children, of course, you have no choice but to work your tail off to try and protect the future for your children. And that is infused by hope in the end.
David Suzuki
#74. Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.
David Suzuki
#75. My childhood memories include a time when the government confiscated my family's possessions and exiled us to a camp in the B.C. Interior, just because my grandparents were from Japan.
David Suzuki
#76. A balance between sustainable ecology and sustainable human life, on the one hand, and the unfettered drive for profit, on the other, is just an oxymoron.
David Suzuki
#77. Thanks to evolution, our bodies have powerful ways to ward off illness and infection and enable us to live long and healthy lives. Why, then, do health costs continue to climb at unsustainable and frightening rates?
David Suzuki
#78. Feeding our energy appetite is top of mind for many people these days.
David Suzuki
#79. I've always been more interested in organisms that can move on their own than in stationary plants. But when I canoe or hike along the edge of lakes or oceans and see trees that seem to be growing out of rock faces, I am blown away. How do they do it?
David Suzuki
#80. Protecting the biosphere should be our highest priority or else we sicken and die.
David Suzuki
#81. Change is never easy, and it often creates discord, but when people come together for the good of humanity and the Earth, we can accomplish great things.
David Suzuki
#82. I feel humiliated that I live in a country that demands more already. Why do we cling to the notion that not only must we maintain the current level of consumption, but that it must continue to grow by an exponential factor of 2 to 7 percent every year?
David Suzuki
#83. I can't imagine anything more important than air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity. These are the things that keep us alive.
David Suzuki
#84. Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.
David Suzuki
#85. Human beings are often at their best when responding to immediate crises - car accidents, house fires, hurricanes. We are less effective in the face of enormous but slow-moving crises such as the loss of biodiversity or climate change ...
David Suzuki
#86. Conventional economics is a form of brain damage. Economics is so fundamentally disconnected from the real world, it is destructive.
David Suzuki
#87. Environmentali sm is really about seeing our place in world in a way that humans have always known up until very recently - that we are part of nature-utterly dependent on the natural world for our well being and survival.
David Suzuki
#88. It's not unexpected that shooting massive amounts of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into the earth to shatter shale and release natural gas might shake things up. But earthquakes aren't the worst problem with fracking.
David Suzuki
#89. Many instances of persecution and killing have occurred in countries with atrocious human rights records such as Sri Lanka, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
David Suzuki
#90. If Canada, one of the richest nations in the world, can't meet Kyoto targets, why should China or India give any considerations for meeting the targets?
David Suzuki
#91. Too often, governments are quick to use excessive force and even pervert the course of justice to keep oil and gas flowing, forests logged, wild rivers dammed and minerals extracted. As the Global Witness study reveals, citizens are often killed, too - especially if they're poor and indigenous.
David Suzuki
#92. Treaties, agreements and organizations to help settle disputes may be necessary, but they often favor the interests of business over citizens.
David Suzuki
#93. So we draw lines around our property, our counties, our cities, our states, our countries. And, boy, do we act as if those lines are important. I mean, we go to war. We will kill and die to protect those boundaries. Nature couldn't give two hoots about our national boundaries ...
David Suzuki
#94. Scientists generally are really chicken about getting involved in some kind of dispute. As a broadcaster, I find it very difficult to urge them, if it is a controversial subject. They don't want to have science being portrayed badly.
David Suzuki
#95. Come on Canada, it's time to kick our bad habits and get into shape!
David Suzuki
#96. Pearl Harbor was the defining event in my life. It shaped who I am, and all of my hang-ups and my drives, I think, stem from that.
David Suzuki
#97. Canada should always open its doors to those who are oppressed or in cases of emergency. When Canada offered refuge to 50,000 boat people in Vietnam in the 1970s, I was particularly proud to be Canadian.
David Suzuki
#98. The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.
David Suzuki
#99. As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.
David Suzuki
#100. From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change.
David Suzuki
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