David Suzuki
Environmentalism has failed. Over the past 50 years, environmentalists have succeeded in raising awareness, changing logging practices, stopping mega-dams and offshore drilling, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But we were so focused on battling opponents and seeking public support that we failed to realize these battles reflect fundamentally different ways of seeing our place in the world. And it is our deep underlying worldview that determines the way we treat our surroundings.
We have not, as a species, come to grips with the explosive events that have changed our relationship with the planet. For most of human existence, we lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers whose impact on nature could be absorbed by the resilience of the biosphere. Even after the Agricultural Revolution 10,000 years ago, farming continued to dominate our lives. We cared for nature. People who live close to the land understand that seasons, climate, weather, pollinating insects and plants are critical to our well-being.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of the environmental movement. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which documented the terrible, unanticipated consequences of what had, until then, been considered one of science’s great inventions, DDT. Paul Mueller, who demonstrated the effects of the pesticide, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948. In the economic boom after the Second World War, technology held out the promise of unending innovation, progress, and prosperity. Rachel Carson pointed out that technology has costs.
Carson’s book appeared when no government had an environment department or ministry. Millions around the world were soon swept up in what we now recognize as the environmental movement. Within 10 years, the United Nations Environment Programme was created and the first global environmental conference was held in Stockholm, Sweden.
With increasing catastrophes like oil and chemical spills and nuclear accidents, as well as issues such as species extinction, ozone depletion, deforestation, acid rain and global warming, environmentalists pressed for laws to protect air, water, farmland and endangered species. Millions of hectares of land were protected as parks and reserves around the world.
Thirty years later, in 1992, the largest gathering of heads of state in history met at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was meant to signal that economic activity could not proceed without considering ecological consequences. But, aided by recessions, popped financial bubbles, and tens of millions of dollars from corporations and wealthy neoconservatives to support a cacophony of denial from rightwing pundits and think tanks, environmental protection came to be portrayed as an impediment to economic expansion.
This emphasis of economy over environment, and indeed, the separation of the two, comes as humanity is undergoing dramatic changes. During the 20th century, our numbers increased fourfold to six billion (now up to seven billion), we moved from rural areas to cities, developed virtually all of the technology we take for granted today, and our consumptive appetite, fed by a global economy, exploded. We have become a new force that is altering the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale.
In creating dedicated departments, we made the environment another special interest, like education, health and agriculture. The environment subsumes every aspect of our activities, but we failed to make the point that our lives, health and livelihoods absolutely depend on the biosphere—air, water, soil, sunlight and biodiversity. Without them, we sicken and die. This perspective is reflected in spiritual practices that understand that everything is interconnected, as well as traditional societies that revere “Mother Earth” as the source of all that matters in life.
When we believe the entire world is filled with unlimited “resources” provided for our use, we act accordingly. This “anthropocentric” view envisions the world revolving around us. So we create departments of forests, fisheries and oceans, and environment whose ministers are less concerned with the health and well-being of forests, fish, oceans or the environment than with resources and the economies that depend on them.
It’s almost a cliché to refer to a “paradigm shift,” but that is what we need to meet the challenge of the environmental crises our species has created. That means adopting a “biocentric” view that recognizes we are part of and dependent on the web of life that keeps the planet habitable for a demanding animal like us.
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Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Specialist Jode Roberts.
Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.
Dr. Suzuki,
That is a very keen insight that you have on our humble little planet. It seems to be bursting at the seams due to overpopulation and there seems to be no end in sight. We cannot replant trees fast enough to replace the ones being cut down nor can we replace the fish fast enough. The planets water supplies are polluted due to Big Corporations, Pesticides, Herbicides, trash people throw out the window and from water craft. Not to mention the big oil spills.
How can we get the people to see that they are the stewards of this planet and that they have a vested interest in the planets health? Consumerism, lack of patience and unplanned parenthood have gotten us in to a big mess. I am not so sure that there is a way out since most people could care less.
Keep up the great work!
The humble people of this planet are waking up and, let’s hope, soon we’ll reach a tipping point on that, too.
http://www.caffreyforcongress.org/andy-tv/
Hello, David!
I am running as a registered Democrat for Congress from the North Coast of Caifornia. Because of redistricting, the lack of an incumbent, the new Top Two open primary being just now adopted in California, and because the district includes the Emerald Triangle, which grows the best marijuana in the world, Marin County, the home of the Bioneers movement, and the heart of both the back to the land movement and Earth First!, I can actually win.
I promote a war effort to convert and I quote material from your book It’s A Matter of Survival in every talk or interview I give. I am biocentric and have been an Earth First! organizer since 1985 and Green party organizer since 1980. The BBC considers me a World Historic Figure as the World’s First GM Crop Trasher for fighting GMO microbes back in 1987.
So please check out my campaign and spread the word. This is the birth of international biocentric politics. It begins right here. I’m airing three TV spots that I put together. One celebrates GMO Crop Trashing, one is called No Jobs on a Dead Planet and talks about Greenland and the climate crisis (I coined the meme “climate Crisis” BTW), and one about how the Republicans are Destroying Our Democracy.
This campaign is catching fire. I have 8% support with a $10,000 campaign way ahed of the multi-millionaire with her $800,000 who only has 1%. This is about an electoral biocentric revolution that includes Republicans.
My best to you and my deepest gratitude to you for your incredible life of work. I shot a video of you at the Stein in 1989 which is up at youtube.
http://www.caffreyforcongress.org/andy-tv/
Hi David
… are you are aware of Polly HIggins and her global campaign to Eradicate Ecocide?
earthrise: Big Thinker: Polly Higgins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hMjGPQOUjc
Polly Higgins is a barrister, environmental lawyer and author who in 2010 proposed to the United Nations that ecocide be recognised as an international Crime Against Peace alongside Genocide, Crimes of Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression, triable at the International Criminal Court. Her years spent inside London courts representing individuals and corporations on discrimination cases brought her to the conclusion that the planet was also being treated unfairly, in particular by damaging corporate activity – but that nothing was being done to stop the abuse. In her 2010 publication Eradicating Ecocide Polly stated: ‘Corporations are the ones gambling our planet away and our governments are running the casino.’
… after reading your article I felt compelled to reply as I was struck by how you and Polly are kindred spirits and, in essence, are fundamentally saying the same thing. Namely, that humanity must change its worldview from an anthropocentric to a biocentric one… or we’re well and truly stuffed.
… I admire you both for showing such bold, moral and courageoous leadership.
Howdy, Dr.
Your article is rich in the ecology of the Earth. A beautifully written article expressing the Deep Green! Eco-biocentrism voices the science of ecology and the first seeding of the word, “green”, the big green, the only green that matters above all else, the salvation and preservation of Earth’s ecosystems.
At the birth of the environmental movement, the “bible” of it all, was Aldo Leopold’s, “A Sand County Almanac” and the first battle cry, “Ecology Now”. Leopold’s seminal and masterful bible is far more relevant than “A Silent Spring” as Leopold pointed the way and the path to ecology, and how Earth functions and cycles to create and sustain all life. In my opinion, Leopold’s, “Thinking Like a Mountain”, the most significant words ever crafted. Leopold used mountain as a metaphor for ecosystem and for the Earth.
The biocentric worldview is steeped deeply in ecology. Yes, we must adopt a new worldview, perhaps focusing on ancient wisdoms, long forgotten. I suggest, Think Like a Mountain, Think Like the Earth.
“In Wildness is the salvation of the Earth and the preservation of all life, long known among wolves and mountains but seldom perceived by man.” The last sentence in TLaM.
In my darker moments I think that we collectively will not take action to deal with these problems until it is too late to avoid nasty consequences. We are on the path of ecological overshoot – eventually we will reach equilibrium again, but not until after we crash. In my less dark moments I hope that we collectively will recognize the early signs of collapse and take the steps necessary to at least soften the fall.
As a 35 year environmental activist veteran I agree that the environmental movement is dead. A combination of big corporate (especially oil & coal industry) money feeding “think tanks” (what an oxymoron that is) and political campaigns to the activist movement boiling down to clicking on a computerized letter that gets sent to your legislator (what I call the clicktavist movement) the environmental movement has lost its soul.
I asked a legislator what it is like on their end when they get hundreds of email letters from clicltavists about a certain issue. He said, “Oh we acknowledge them as the voice of a special interest group but they have little to no influence.”
The environmental movement twitched showing a little bit of life when Bill McKibben and 350.org got 1252 of us to get arrested at the White House to protest the Keystone XL pipeline issue and again a few weeks later when that same organization got enough people to completely surround the White House four people deep. Their inspiration came from the Occupy movement. Even Edward O. Wilson is asking why people aren’t protesting in the streets over the blatant destruction of our natural life support system.Dr. Wilson is the last person I would expect to hear that from so you know things are really bad.
The fact is, the 1% top wealthiest people on the planet are in the process of destroying the ability for the rest of to survive. They will learn too late that they can’t take their money with them – but it will be too late.
It is time for this twitching environmental beast to revive, rise up and play hard ball against those that are destroying the planet. Our first target should be the big money sources that finance the anti-environmental movement like the Donors Capital Fund, the Donors Trust, the Koch Brothers, and the American Petroleum Institute to name a few. The people behind these organizations need to be publicly exposed so that the public will know who they are and who to deal with. Then perhaps we will make environmental progress. Above all it is time to get out from behind your computer and get in their faces.
When I was a kid in the 70s, Smokey the Bear said on TV that Forest Fires begin with me (!) I can honestly say I’ve never started a forest fire, nevertheless the fires are burning…
I’m a watershed activist in Pennsylvania, and I often grapple with the feeling powerlessness in the face of the heavily lobbied gas industry. We have a corrupted, broken state government. I don’t think Rachel Carson would have stood a chance today! Then again, Carson didn’t have facebook… If you think environmentalism is dead, simply look to the now international anti-fracking movement for inspiration. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. Sierra Club recently joined the fray. We click to organize direct action. I agree that the paradigm can’t truly shift until we get the money out of politics, but we can – and must – take control of the conversation.
A paradigm shift is exactly what is needed. But how can we change humanity’s outlook on life and the world? How can we uninstall the old program of consumerism and install a new one of interdependence and mutual responsibility? To actualize the shift two things are of utmost importance: unity, and education. The global nature of the world that is being revealed now compels us to become a unified society. Instead of continuing to analyze and solve problems piecemeal all the people, communities, and organizations who already see what is happening must work together to shift the global mindset toward mutual commitment in order to keep society and economy sustainable. The escalating global crisis presents an urgent need to educate society in front of the propaganda of consumerism that is ruining and polluting the planet so as to change its view of priorities and values, and create new landmarks—the integral ones. Only by these changes will we be able to provide ourselves and our children with the guaranteed future. Otherwise, we have no future.
It was never the purpose of “environmentalism” to change the dominant human culture from rampant consumerism and resource exploitation to a biocentric viewpoint. These are two goals, which, while compatible, require different strategies and tactics.
The goal of environmental activism is to stop the destruction of the natural world. We who already have the biocentric perspective have focused on this goal far longer than 50 years. While recognizing that we can never “win” against an overwhelming tide of anthropocentric civilization, we must, nevertheless, soldier on and continue to defend the wild. Someone must do the work, make the last ditch efforts to save what is left, while others carry on the legal, political and cultural work in their areas of interest and expertise.
What has failed is not “environmentalism” but culture change. The dominant culture in the world today, that is, western capitalist consumer culture, is dysfunctional to the point of destructive. The stories we tell our children about how to be a human being no longer work in a world of finite resources. We cannot continue economic growth as if resources are unlimited. We can no longer foul our nest as if the Earth will clean up after us forever. We can no longer treat the natural world as separate and under the dominion of human beings and human culture.
The problem is that the western consumer culture model is disseminated by a centralized, top-down control system, through corporate media, corporate dominated government and corporate control of access to information. We environmentalists who embrace and live a biocentric world view are ill-equipped to take on this totalitarian control system and bend it to a realization of the necessity of a biocentric world view.
Our form of environmentalism is alive and well, still working hard to protect critical natural habitat, clean water and air, living soils and biodiversity. It’s our work.
Now it’s time for the bioculturalists to step forward and begin the process of instilling biocentric knowledge and ideals into popular culture.