How do we Create an Economy that Nourishes the Natural World – which keeps us Alive? Dr. David Suzuki

The Canadian scientist Dr. David Suzuki says that the primary driver of this climate catastrophe and mass extinction that we face has been the economy. It’s urgent that humanity act now – go all out to maintain the temperature of our heating earth. It is how we will be defined as a species. He has the academic understanding as well as emotional connection to the natural world that has built his tremendous breadth of understanding and clarity in expressing these truths. Why it’s time to think about human extinction | Dr David Suzuki”

Does your MP Representative Recognize you Environmental Rights

The economy – the corporate agenda – is driving us on the path that we’re on.

Why its time to think about human extinction Dr David Suzuki

Suzuki has a wide breadth of understanding of many subjects. He was raised in an environment in which he had a very close relationship to the natural world. He learned to love and respect all different species and to recognize our integral connection to all of nature. His understanding of the importance of protecting the natural world fed his lifelong environmental activism and lead to the co-founding of the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to “to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us.

A genetic scientist, his academic background and expertise on the various subjects lends to his eloquence. Dr. David Suzuki has an enlightened manner. He smiles continuously as he speaks about these subjects, without contempt or anger in his voice or eyes. He is penetratingly clear and concise about what is important in life and what it is that all human beings should be aware of, educated in and what we need to do.

There are some things we can’t change – gravity, speed of light – other things like capitalism, the market, the economy, are human inventions that we can change.

Clean air is sacred – we can’t go 3 minutes without air. If the air is polluted, we become ill. Humans have a responsibility to protect this.

Clean water is sacred – we can’t go for 4 to 6 days without water. Our bodies are 60 to 70 % water. If the water is dirty, we become ill.

Clean soil (earth and fire) is sacred – we can’t go without food for 4 to 6 weeks, or we will die.

Every bit of the food we eat was once alive. All of the energy that our bodies use is derived from sunlight that has been captured and converted through photosynthesis. All the plants take in carbon out of the air and put oxygen back.

I feel that this should be mandatory viewing, However, I’m not the secretary of education nor am I living in a dictatorship which could mandate this. Suzuki mentions that we need to maintain a thread of hope. He recalls how President John F. Kennedy stated that America will put someone on the moon within a decade, in response to the successful Soviet space projects. At the time, the USA didn’t know how they would do this, but had the intention. We need to embrace this intention now. Who we vote in to office, as well as educating the voting public, is essential. What we buy and how we live is also critical.

Listening to this man could be a mind-bending and emotionally awakening experience. Suzuki understands and articulates why human beings should recognize our place and responsibility.

We are the only animals on the planet capable of destroying it, and perhaps the only ones who do not recognize that as we negatively impact our balance with nature, we will destroy ourselves.

This balance concerns human over-population, chemical pollution and damage to our air, water and soil, the destruction of life within an entire food chain in our biosphere, plastic pollution and the adverse effect of releasing carbon dioxide and methane into our atmosphere – warming the planet – and the destruction of habitats of creatures on land, sea and air, driving them to extinction. This includes the human beings.

He mentions Rachel Carson as a huge influence with the publication of her book in 1962, “Silent Spring“.

Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring about the deadly effects of the use of powerful chemicals in pesticides, specifically DDT. “Carson was a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Utilizing her many sources in federal science and in private research, she spent over six years documenting her analysis that humans were misusing powerful, persistent, chemical pesticides before knowing the full extent of their potential harm to the whole biota.”

Her book introduced the world for the first time the recognition that these chemicals are harmful, and the need for humans to be cautions, to educate ourselves and to act responsibly as stewards of the living earth. “Unlike most pesticides whose effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of killing hundreds of different kinds at once.” Because she specifically talked about the effects of DDT which was produced by powerful agricultural chemical corporations like Monsanto, with strong ties to the government, she was immediately attacked and discredited by several major media outlets.”The Deafening Criticism Against Silent Spring” mentions that she “wrote this before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the West Virginia chemical spill, and numerous other environmental disasters brought about by apparent corporate malfeasance.”

Yet her book published in 1962 spoke such a momentous truth that it was widely read. It lead to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the banning of DDT in 1972.

The multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto was the first to manufacture DDT. They have produced a slew of very harmful chemicals since. Monsanto, a seed company as well, was recently bought by Bayer. They probably realized that it was to their advantage to have their name less public and publicized since they’ve been involved in numerous law suits. In fact, I just listened to Vandana Shiva interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now who said just that, Monsanto wished to hide its name. Vandana Shiva: We Must Fight Back Against the 1 Percent to Stop the Sixth Mass Extinction

Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen: The 12 Most Awful Products Made By Monsanto.”

Like everything else, the agrochemical companies have also consolidated their power. The Biggest Pesticide Companies in the World.

On the 50th anniversary of its publication, this article was published in the Smithsonian. “Crazy Lies Haters Threw at Rachel Carson“.

Suzuki talks of the impact of the eco philosopher and writer Clive Hamilton, his non-fiction book “Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change” written in 2010. Hamilton is an Australian academic who explores the reasons for climate change denial and its implications. Hamilton argues that questioning unfettered growth, challenges the conception of progress according to the mentality of the people who align themselves with the approach of the status quo market. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/16/requiem-for-a-species-clive-hamilton

Suzuki mentions that we can’t change the laws of nature, however we can change our human institutions. It is economics that is driving the warming of our environment, specifically through industries that are polluting and warming the atmosphere.

I had learned about Dr. David Suzuki several years ago, and was so tremendously impressed with what he expresses that I wrote a blog about him in 2016.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/sustainability-david-suzuki-creative-consciousness-same-name-but-different/

I learned of his daughter Severn Suzuki’s concern for the natural world and precocious eloquence in her presentation for the Rio climate summit in 1962. Not surprising, given the household she was raised in. I put together this blog about her also in 2016.

Servern Suzuki Rio 1992

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/future-generations-sorry-prince-ea-stand-for-trees-severn-suzuki-anjali-appadurai/

It is my passion to share this information, because to me, it’s essential.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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Carol Keiter the blogger 2019-02-22.

All Life Has Consciousness | Carl Safina | Are Humans Capable of Letting Other Life Continue?

There is Love on Earth Besides Humans

Carl Safina, PhD in ecology, conservationist and writer

I am very grateful to have discovered Carl Safina’s work and this TED talk just a day previous to posting this. Tears ran down my cheeks as I watched and listened to this scientist’s portrayal of animals, and of humans. Tears continued to stream from my eyes after I listened to his last words. I am so disappointed and basically frustrated with what humans deem as important.

I was about to write a blog about Borders? Why are Human Beings ‘Not Allowed’ to Walk Around on the Earth? However, to me, putting this concept out there of recognizing the importance of all other life forms besides humans, is far more important than the absurd political scenarios that humans impose on one another. What we are doing to the natural world and to other life forms, with our over-population, degradation of the environment, human-induced global warming and inciting a mass extinction, to me, far outweighs any of the absurd things that humans are doing to each other. Carl Safina does not by any means bypass this subject in his talk. He says, what humans do to other empathetic creatures is also what they do to one another.

Animals Carl Safina Empathy Sympathy Compassion

I felt an urgent need to immediately post this to both blogs. I feel very sorry for those humans who do not feel compassion and awe with nature and all of life. I thank my parents that nature and an appreciation for all life forms was revered. I grew up with National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines in the home, and was curated to think way beyond my immediate vicinity.

I recently lauded friends who regularly inform and urge people to think about the protection of animals and wilderness. I mention this in association with a concept that is part of a new mode of thinking, systems thinking, seeing all life forms as interrelated. Human beings should prioritize protecting all other life forms, rather than destroying them and wiping out their habitats without any consideration whatsoever. The various bloody traditions of various cultures that consider it ‘sport’ to kill wolves, whales, bulls is disgraceful. The massive consumption of cows, pigs, chickens and use of land to feed these animals needs to be stopped. Wiping out wild horses and donkeys and other creatures because some believe that by eating particular speciality foods that they somehow will maintain their health or erections, also are dramatically mis-informed. Creatures penned in horrible conditions, blood baths and slaughters because of tradition, must all be reconsidered. People need to be educated. It begins with all of us communicating to one another.

The concept of actually recognizing that we share the same genetics and similar brains and spinal cords with other creatures perhaps will bring about a different sense of empathy.

It is the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh who introduces the concept of inter-being; all life is intricately related.

With a PhD in ecology, conservationist and writer Carl Safina has written several books and papers and has studied various species in their habitat. He was invited by Greenpeace to witness the changing climate in the Arctic and the impacts of industrial fishing on the marine environment.

Human brain exact replica of Chimpanzee brain, merely larger

Dolphin brain larger than human brain, with more convolutions

In his TED talk Safina asks:

“What’s going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they’re thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emotions, so too do the other creatures – and minds – that share the Earth with us.”

Animals Carl Safina Albatross nest on most remote islands Full of Plastic

6 month fledgling Albatross Death packed with cigarette lighters

Of the 22 species of albatross recognized by the IUCN, all are listed as at some level of concern; 3 species are Critically Endangered, 5 species are Endangered, 7 species are Near Threatened, and 7 species are Vulnerable.

Welcome Human Life with pics of Animals – Shared Lifes in the World

Since humans tend to adorn the rooms of their new born babies with images of the other creatures with which we share our planet, in which every animal of Noah’s Ark is now in mortal danger, instead of asking the question Do animals love us?, We need to ask, Are human beings capable of letting other life continue?

Carl Safina states, “From all I’ve seen, my main conclusion is that at this point in history, nature and human dignity require each other. Where wild places are destroyed, wild animals lost, and the world degraded and polluted, not only is that itself a great loss for the world, but for people in degraded places it becomes almost impossible to maintain a dignified existence.”

This article in the USA Today describes that global warming continues, with each year breaking record temperatures of the previous.”NOAA’s analysis does not include data from the Arctic, while NASA’s does, NOAA climate scientist Deke Arndt said. The Arctic has been warming faster than any part of the world.”

“This announcement should shock no one,” said Lou Leonard of the World Wildlife Fund. “The key question is what we do about it. With the costs of inaction piling up, Washington, D.C., is largely looking the other way. So it is up to a new class of leaders from American businesses, universities, cities and states to pick up the slack.”

Elephants as in every other species, become who they are

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition