Top 100 Quotes About David Suzuki
#1. After I read David Suzuki's book, I took salmon from my dinner plate and I buried it in the woods, hoping to assist the growth of a large tree.
Ned Hayes
#2. Al Gore, the former vice-president of the United States, lives in a mansion that uses more electricity than the average family's bungalow! David Suzuki rides on a bus that uses more fuel than a Smart car to get across Canada! Oh my God! And this is just the tip of the vanishing iceberg!
Linwood Barclay
#3. The whole sector of public dialogue has been totally contaminated, deliberately, by the corporate sector. The whole purpose is to sow confusion and doubt, and it's worked.
David Suzuki
#4. All those hours exploring the great outdoors made me more resilient and confident.
David Suzuki
#5. We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
David Suzuki
#6. If we continue to set human borders and the economy as our highest priorities, we will never come to grips with the destructiveness of our activities and institutions.
David Suzuki
#7. Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we've ever had to confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change.
David Suzuki
#8. 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
#9. 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
#10. 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
#11. Corporations are not people. They shouldn't be funding. They shouldn't be funding campaigns at all.
David Suzuki
#12. More than any other time in history, the 1990s will be a turning point for human civilization.
David Suzuki
#13. Japan is a model already to the lie that economic growth is the key to our future. If they can really show an alternative to nukes and fossil fuels, then they will be the poster boy for the renewable energy for the future.
David Suzuki
#14. Faced with the evidence, many deniers have started to admit that global warming is real, but argue that humans have little or nothing to do with it.
David Suzuki
#15. 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
#16. We pride ourselves on our democratic traditions, but in Canada, women couldn't vote until 1918, Asians until 1948, and First Nations people living on reserves until 1960.
David Suzuki
#17. Many organic practices simply make sense, regardless of what overall agricultural system is used. Far from being a quaint throwback to an earlier time, organic agriculture is proving to be a serious contender in modern farming and a more environmentally sustainable system over the long term.
David Suzuki
#18. 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
#19. 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
#20. How you imagine the world determines how you live in it.
David Suzuki
#21. 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
#22. 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
#23. 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
#24. The current economic system is fundamentally flawed and inevitably destructive.
David Suzuki
#25. We are over 60 percent water by weight. We're just a big ball of ... blob of water, with enough organic thickener added so we don't dribble away on the floor.
David Suzuki
#26. Canada, more than any nation, will be affected by rising sea levels from global warming.
David Suzuki
#27. My earliest memory from childhood is of fishing with my father. And I remember vividly we were in a store, and we were buying a pup tent to go on our first camping trip.
David Suzuki
#28. The failure of world leaders to act on the critical issue of global warming is often blamed on economic considerations.
David Suzuki
#29. Just as fossil fuels from conventional sources are finite and are becoming depleted, those from difficult sources will also run out. If we put all our energy and resources into continued fossil fuel extraction, we will have lost an opportunity to have invested in renewable energy.
David Suzuki
#30. Environmentalism is a way of seeing our place within the biosphere.
David Suzuki
#31. 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
#32. 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
#33. The true - the true economy has got to come back into balance with the very biosphere that sustains us. And I think a lot of people just see the green economy as a different way of allowing the corporate agenda to continue to flourish.
David Suzuki
#34. Birds are, especially canaries, are super sensitive to hydrogen sulfide and sour gas.
David Suzuki
#35. We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options.
David Suzuki
#36. What permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet.
David Suzuki
#37. The future doesn't exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we're the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today.
David Suzuki
#38. Fukushima is the most terrifying situation I can imagine,
David Suzuki
#39. 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
#40. 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
#41. 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
#42. Our choices at all levels-individual, community, corporate and government-affect nature. And they affect us.
David Suzuki
#43. 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
#44. 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
#45. Many countries - as well as cities, states and provinces - are taking global warming seriously and are working to reduce emissions and shift to cleaner energy sources.
David Suzuki
#46. 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
#47. 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
#48. There is a gyre of discarded floating plastic the size of the continental USA in the ocean. In it, plastic trash outweighs plankton 40 to 1.
David Suzuki
#49. 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
#50. Each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change; together we can restore that ancient and sustaining harmony.
David Suzuki
#51. Scientists and supercomputers have amplified our ability to look ahead. For decades, experts have warned us that human numbers, technology, hyper-consumption and a global economy are altering the chemical, geological, and biological properties of the biosphere.
David Suzuki
#52. As we distance ourselves further from the natural world, we are increasingly surrounded by and dependent on our own inventions. We become enslaved by the constant demands of technology created to serve us.
David Suzuki
#53. Because countries often have differing political and economic systems, agreements are needed to protect those invested in trade.
David Suzuki
#54. The environment is so fundamental to our continued existence that it must transcend politics and become a central value of all members of society.
David Suzuki
#55. The voluntary approach to corporate social responsibility has failed in many cases.
David Suzuki
#56. Just as human activity is upsetting Earth's carbon cycle, our actions are altering the water cycle.
David Suzuki
#57. [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
#58. 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
#59. 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
#60. Perhaps the whole world is actually a banquet, to which every living thing is invited. First you come as guests: then eventually you're on the menu.
David Suzuki
#61. Many scientists and economists also say putting a price on carbon through carbon taxes and/or cap-and-trade is necessary.
David Suzuki
#62. 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
#63. If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.
David Suzuki
#64. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting for decades - and evidence is mounting that what's happening is more severe than predicted, and will get far worse still if we fail to act.
David Suzuki
#65. 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
#66. 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
#68. 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
#70. 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
#71. Corporations are economic entities or structures, and yet they're allowed to fund political candidates, and when those candidates are elected, guess who gets in the door first? It's corporations.
David Suzuki
#72. 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
#73. 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
#74. So now the challenge is to imagine a different world where our wealth is in human relations and the things we do together, and we learn to live in balance with the rest of nature.
David Suzuki
#75. People.. especially people in positions of power.. have invested a tremendous amount of effort and time to get to where they are. They really don't want to hear that we're on the wrong path, that we've got to shift gears and start thinking differently.
David Suzuki
#76. Any politician or scientist who tells you these [GMO] products are safe is either very stupid or lying.
David Suzuki
#77. Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.
David Suzuki
#78. Although they [light and medium trucks] have only 5% of the transportation market ... , they account for fully 35% of greenhouse gas emissions from freight transportation.
David Suzuki
#79. Each time I visit Japan, I am reminded of how Canadian I am and how little racial connection matters.
David Suzuki
#80. Although it's difficult, if not impossible, to put a dollar value on the numerous services nature provides, leaving them out of economic calculations means they are often ignored.
David Suzuki
#81. 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
#82. Rapid population growth and technological innovation, combined with our lack of understanding about how the natural systems of which we are a part work, have created a mess.
David Suzuki
#83. Conserving energy and thus saving money, reducing consumption of unnecessary products and packaging and shifting to a clean-energy economy would likely hurt the bottom line of polluting industries, but would undoubtedly have positive effects for most of us.
David Suzuki
#84. 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
#85. More than a billion people lack adequate access to clean water.
David Suzuki
#87. People don't even understand that every bit of our food was once alive. We take another creature, plant, animal, microorganism, tear it apart in our mouths. And incorporate those molecules into our own bodies. We are the Earth in the most profound way.
David Suzuki
#88. 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
#89. 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
#90. 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
#91. 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
#93. We now have access to so much information that we can find support for any prejudice or opinion.
David Suzuki
#94. My parents survived the Great Depression and brought me up to live within my means, save some for tomorrow, share and don't be greedy, work hard for the necessities in life knowing that money does not make you better or more important than anyone else. So, extravagance has been bred out of my DNA.
David Suzuki
#95. Our planet has not seen an extinction crisis as serious as the one in progress for 65 million years.
David Suzuki
#96. If we have any hope of finding ways for seven billion people to live well on planet with finite resources, we have to learn to use our resources efficiently. Plastic bags are neither efficient nor environmentally friendly.
David Suzuki
#97. If America wants to retain its position as a global power, its president must listen to the people and show strong leadership at this turning point in human history.
David Suzuki
#98. 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
#99. 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
#100. Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.
David Suzuki
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