ay 2004 David Suzuki Science Matters Matters Change is Coming, But When? David Suzuki Foundation Don’t you ever get tired of writing bout bad news?” It’s a question I get ked a lot. Well, here’s some good ews—change is in the air. On the surface, the recent Earth Day (April 22) was just like every bther Earth Day of the past few years. he same platitudes were printed in e local papers. Politicians espoused e same rhetoric. Fun family events ook place in local parks, with face painting and displays from local envi- onmental groups. All was very nice d feel-good, while the big issues ontinued to simmer under the sur- ace. . So, what was different this year? It’s ard to say. More of a feeling, really. \ sense of disquiet, as though people idn’t quite buy it this time around. verything is not okay. The climate is anging. Air pollution is once again etting worse. We can see it. We can ell it and breathe it. Neo-conservative organizations like to release reports about the “real state of the environment” on Earth Day. These usually insist that everything is fine. Nothing to see _ here. Environmentalists are crazy. Everyone go about your business. They justify their complacency by gleefully pointing to how air pollu- tion has improved since the early 70s and how many lakes and rivers have been cleaned up. Contaminants like lead and PCBs in our air, water and soils have been greatly reduced. “See?” they argue, “Things are getting better, just like we said! New anti-pol- lution legislation would be stifling and counterproductive.” Somehow, these groups fail to rec- ognize the big flaw in their logic. In fact, their argument strengthens the environmentalists’ point. The reason why air pollution dropped so much through the 80s is because of clean-air legislation. Same with lead. It was banned from gasoline. Same with PCBs. They were phased out. The only reason why these wonderful improvements happened is because concerned citizens rose up and told governments that things had to change. Governments _ finally responded by introducing legislation to make things better. Back then, some industries com- plained vociferously. Whether it was getting rid of lead from gasoline or banning ozone-damaging chemicals, they said the sky would fall if govern- ment introduced legislation. They said compliance was impossible— their industries would die, people would lose their jobs, the world would become more dangerous, and less healthy. In hindsight, they were obviously dead wrong. Yet now, groups representing these same indus- tries are touting the environmental improvements over the past few decades as examples of how every- thing is getting better and legislation is unnecessary! So yes, there have been marked gains since the first Earth Day in 1970, wonderful improvements that we should celebrate. But the world Opinions Making the world a cleaner, healthier place is not some- thing we can do once and then forget about. | It’s an ongoing process that hus to change with the times. does not stand still. Because our levels of consumption have increased so much, legislation that was effective 20 or 30 years ago is no longer adequate to protect our health and the environ- ment. Fuel efficiency standards have not improved in decades, for exam- ple, and because we have so many more, bigger cars on our roads today, smog is getting much worse. And people aren't stupid. They don't need environmentalists dressed in animal suits to tell them something is wrong. They can tell. The question is, at what point will people be moti- vated to demand change? How many Apprentices, Bachelors, and celebrity antics will we be distracted by before we step outside and say, “This smog stinks?” Making the world a cleaner, health- ier place is not something we can do once and then forget about. It’s an ongoing process that has to change with the times. Well, times have changed. Now, legislation has to keep up. And once again, it’s up to us to make it happen. To learn more, sign up for e- newsletters . OtherPress | 9