Features the other press reality is that they're going to be dragged into a different future. A great deal of the war talk with Iraq has nothing to do with a dictator or global danger; you're talking about oil. American dependence on oil has meant that they have had to commit huge chunks of their economy to a huge military operation to ensure the supply of oil. I think sooner or later, and I’m hoping sooner, that economic system is going to collapse. [The US] has the biggest per- capita debt of any country in the world. They're doing it by leaps and bounds with their war commitment, and I can't see that the economy can maintain this. Its got to collapse. . CUP: You mentioned what you see as the motivations for the war talk being rooted in oil. Why has the media been reluctant to make that connection? DS: That’ a really good question. I think probably it’s a reflection of who owns the media. First of all, people had better understand the media is not in the business of informing and educating the public. It’s in the business of selling ads. That's what their job is, and they do that by trying to maximize their audience. Their responsibili- ty has nothing to do with our need to be informed, and we should be much more critical about the media and the information we get. But I have been astounded by the American press at how they've just rolled over and allowed Mr. Bush to set the agenda. They've slavered and lapped up everything that he’s been giving them without any critical analysis. And in the United States, it’s quite frightening actually, to see the extent to which, if you're ot supporting the President all the way, you're somehow a traitor. And that’s a very frightening situation from a land that has worshipped freedom of expression and peech. CUP: Let’s talk about Kyoto. Canada has cautiously aid it will ratify the accord; the US has adamantly pposed it. Do you think it will come into force and will t have any effect anyway? DS: It'll come into force. Canada is just one of the last ountries they need to ratify to make it an international ocument. Americans will go their way. Even if every ountry in the world meets Kyoto in ten years, you still ill have had a tiny, tiny impact in terms of the global arming that has already been set in motion. Kyoto is very important because it’s a symbolic step. or the first time, people are recognising that we are over- helming the planet and that we can’t continue to grow d expand. They're actually saying there are limits and e have to reduce. That really goes against the grain of erything the economy pushes for. So I think it’s an extremely important symbol of humanity trying to grap- ple with coming back into balance. But it’s just the beginning. The long-term target is that humanity as a whole has to reduce total energy use and therefore greenhouse gas emission by over 50 percent. Canada, since we've dispro- portionately using greenhouse gases, we have to reduce by something like 85 percent. We've talking about a tran- sition into the post-fossil fuel age, and I think the oppor- tunities in solar power and wind and other renewable energies is enormous, and that’s where we have to go. CUP: We have cities right here in Canada where there are smog days, when the air is so filthy that citizens are advised not to exercise outdoors and pregnant women and the elderly are told they should avoid going outside at all. When you were a university student, did you ever think things could get this bad? DS: Never. And that’s a really good point, that elders like me remember a time when it was radically different. I think that youth, especially university students, have every right to go to elders and say, “Youve really mucked it up. What kind of a world are you leaving us?” I live in a world today where I can't take my grand- children fishing where I went when I was a boy. I can’t take them camping to woods where I went all the time as a boy. What kind of a legacy is that to leave to future generations? And I think youth should be demanding of their elders. Let’s face it: it’s the elders who have the power and money right now; we ought to be putting it into the future for you. CUP: Realistically, what do we need to start doing today? Should we hope to protect the earth’s biodiversity and ensure that we'll always have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink? DS: For most of human existence, nature was vast and resilient and we lived by recognising patterns and repeti- tious cycles and lived within that, [but] we have been pulling at the threads of the fabric of life on the planet. We've been causing an enormous extinction crisis. We've changed the biological and the physical makeup of the planet and now we don’t really know; it’s not as pre- dictable. As you say, there were 46 smog alert days in Toronto. That’s unprecedented, and there are going to be more. I just got back from Halifax and they're having smog alerts, which they've never had before. We can try [to] do something by minimizing the amount of air pollution from burning fossil fuels, but we don’t know what's going to happen. The world has lost a great deal of its resilience and, so, PRESENT THIS COUPON. Sear | November 6, 2002 we're now having to make things up as we go. We don’t know what's going to happen after Kyoto. But I think we have to begin to reduce our ecological footprint, our impact and hope nature still has enough diversity and resilience to bounce back. CUP: What do you think the earth will look like when university students are your age? DS: It all depends on how we go. I remind you that, in 1992, when [then-Minister of Fisheries and Oceans] John Crosbie called a moratorium on cod fishing in Newfoundland, it was a two-year moratorium. It’s ten years later and there’s every indication now the cod are in worse shape than they were ten years ago. So, in terms of the 45,000 Newfoundlanders that depended on fishing the northern cod, they essentially have been deprived of a way of life, so Newfoundland will change in ways that we can’t imagine. A 500-year-old culture is going to dis- appear. This is happening all over. In British Columbia, seven populations have collapsed all up and down the coast. Coastal fishing communities are disappearing. It depends on what we do, [but] if we continue as we are now, the quality of life will be unimaginable. I don’t think we know what's going to happen, but if we carry on it’s going to get a hell of a lot worse. CUP: You've been at this for a long time. You've been on television for a lot longer than I’ve been here, and this work has culminated in this epic project that will begin airing on CBC next Sunday. After a 40-year career as an environmentalist, what's in your future? DS: [laughs] Hey, I’m 66 years old. This is not The Nature of Things. This is a totally separate project, but I have to admit that my experience hosting The Nature of Things since 1979 has had a profound effect on me. I’ve learned things, met people [and] travelled to places through The Nature of Things that were all a part of the kind of thinking that I’ve tried to summarize in The Sacred Balance. But I've been trying to get out of television for many years. Television doesn't hold any glamour for me. I’ve been blackmailed in many ways because they say if I leave they'll probably drop [The Nature of Things], because I’ve become very identified with it. I think the series is extremely important, so they have worked out a way that I don’t have to travel as much, so the demand on me is not as great. I want to spend more time helping my foundation [the David Suzuki Foundation], which I’m very proud of, but also spending larger chunks of time essentially being retired; thinking, reading and just tak- ing it easy. NEW LUXURIOUS TANNING STUDIO - #109-2922 Glen Dr. UE 0 )e oN oe 60 | tenon | | (is Loctinandl 20°° OFF Any Bikini Set PLUS FREE 60 MINUTES ~ TANNING ‘With the purchase of any bikini set. With coupon only. Expires Nov. 30/02 NO MEMBERSHIP FEES! 50% OFF 100 MINUTES