continued from page 6

expert in the fields he is critiquing and has
been widely discredited by his peers, he has
become a media darling. He has had
speaking engagements across’ North
America, front-page stories, editorials and
more. Why is he so popular? Simple—he
assuages our guilt about ecological
problems. Like a travelling tonic salesman, he
tours the land telling us what we would prefer
to hear, making us feel better about
ourselves and the world.

Contrast that with the United Nations
Environment Programme's report, "The State
of the Environment: Past, Present, Future?"
released last week. It's pretty depressing
stuff. According to the report, if we
follow current trends of putting the "market
first," and emphasizing unchecked economic
growth, 55 per cent of the world's population
will suffer from moderate to severe water
shortages by 2032. We'll also lose up to
11,000 species of plants and animals,
including one-quarter of all mammals!

© "ither press. >>> OPINIONS

The report is very comprehensive, offering
a variety of near-future scenarios put
together by more than 1,000 scientists from
around the world. As Laszlo Pinter, one of the
UN report's authors, told the Globe and Mail,
"This is not just one or two crazy scientists
sitting around a table somewhere."

Not surprisingly, it has not exactly piqued
the media's interest. Oh, it got its requisite
billing as the "depressing environment story
of the day." But then it disappeared. Shelved
with many other such stories in the "let's not
worry about it right now" file. How can we
keep doing this? Are we so jaded as a
society that we're willing to stick our heads in
the sand when it comes to environmental
problems, only to pop up when the soothing
sounds of a Scandinavian statistician tell us
not to worry?

| hate depressing news as much as anyone.
Lately, I've found myself searching for good
environment news, just to hang on to
hope for the future. As Holly Dressel and |

The Private Sector

Tom Mellish
OP Contributor

After airplanes were utilized as weapons
to level the I
not only aw

  
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 

provincial p
NDP’s_ inab
distracted u
to hear the
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with the batt
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ize our cultul
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those who
There is a
schools, hos|
our fiscal loss is 50 great that we cannot
open new _ institutions of healing,

education, and elderly care then we are
surely in the grips—dare | say—of a

depression rather than a recession.

The Liberals are putting money before
people. That, unto itself, is the very man-
date of the Liberal government. They are
economists whose formula suggests that
we are their "workforce". The average per-
son on the street is not their concern, save
as the method by which the money rolls in.
Otherwise they would open new institu-
tions rather than closing them. Money is no

 
 
 
 

This is Can
country. There

came. TE
and your
one just di 17
social ineptness, of somehow v being unable
to prioritize. You need only to be a rational
human being to know that one does not
close social institutions. They are sacred
and define our values as human beings.
However much the individual hopes in
their heart to be the priority, that we sacri-
fice these institutions reveals that this is
not the case. Is this wrong? Yes. When we
devalue the individual for the private
sector, we lose the affection of those who

  

 
 

document in our book Good News for a
Change, there are many examples of
individuals, companies, organizations and
governments trying to take a sustainable
path into the future. Even the latest UN
report points out there is still time to change.
We just have to stop ignoring the bad news
and start taking the steps necessary to avoid
the fate of the dire predictions we all hate
so much. Maybe then, 20 years from
now, the media will come to me looking for
a contrarian view—something bad to say
about the environment when the evidence
shows that it has been improving for years.
It's my hope that all | could do then is sit back
in my rocking chair, smile and have nothing to
say.

To discuss this topic with others, visit the
discussion forum at
www.davidsuzuki.org.

make up the whole. Disaffection will be our
downfall.

| am not a corporation, | am not a com-
pany, and | am not a statistic. | come
before money. | ask you: Is our society

 
 
  
    

we look

  
   
 
     
   
    
 
 
 
 
 
     
    
    
    

elected ing as
having p should
continue

 
   

less of

Columbia can petition for the removal of a
Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA)
between elections. Let us hope it doesn’t
come to that.