David Suzuki spoke today at the Peoples Summit at an activity called “Models of Struggle and Resistance: Alternatives for a Different Kind of World”

in which he discussed some of his views of economics, globalisation, biodiversity and especially how genetics are involved in the above. He started his presentation by saying that he “won’t talk about the FTAA, instead [he will talk] about age” he then proceeded saying how the humanity has existed for 200 000 years and in 99.9% of that time has coexisted with nature implying that in the last few centuries we have instead tried to ignore nature and believe that we are creating every service that nature currently provides.

Then he continued on with how we currently have one civic duty which is “Consumption”. As an example of this he mentioned how whenever the economy has a downturn, we are told by our politicians that we are currently afraid to consume and must be encouraged to be better consumers.

Then he discussed biodiversity and how we need a very diverse Earth in terms of genetics, species, and ecosystems. In addition he added ethnodiversity (the diversity of cultures) for humans. Without this he says, we will be susceptible to more problems similar to how a monoculture forest (one with only one species of trees) can be wiped out by a single virus. Without this diversity, we lose the ability to survive in various new environments.

“We currently live in a biological desert surrounded by humanity” was the subject of the next part of his speech. This comment refers to our cities being void of life other then humans. Also “economics are based on the notion that we are the greatest thing that ever existed on this planet” is the notion he says the politicians believe but that “in the real world, all kinds of services are performed by the ecosystem”. Economics believes that everything else other then human creations are externalities (i.e. the ozone layer, forests creating oxygen, etc . . .) and he asked us to question our economics teachers about this implying that they believe externalities are unimportant or don’t matter.

He finished off with some comments including the we “live in a system which is so insane that it believes that if the economy isn’t growing, it’s dying” he then gave the example of his friend who owns the company Roots. His friend told him that if he doesn’t continually grow then no banks will lend him money. He called this “insane and simply not sustainable”.

Other speakers included Ferney Piou from the “Collectif haitien pour la protection de l’environnement et un developpement alternatif(Haiti)” essentially saying that in 1987 7000 tons of toxic waste were shipped from Philidalphia to Haiti under the consent of Haiti’s leaders. In total 50 000 tons of waste were dumped on Haiti in the late 1980’s. In 1988 the Haitian government ordered the boats which contained the waste (they had not returned to the US after dropping off their cargo). This only happened after an enormous outcry by the Haitian people and several studies by the EPA and Greenpeace found many toxic metals in the soil i.e. Mercury among others. The boats left behind 4000 – 6000 tons of waste on a beach called Guana.

The US claimed the toxic waste which was labeled as that was fertilizer. In response the Haitian people built a vat to contain the waste but did not cover it. As well, everyone who handled the waste along with the surrounding environment became sick/damaged. A campaign which was mounted to return the waste to the U.S. eventually had 40 organizations as part of it. Later a new campaign was started on the 10th year anniversary of the dumping, the year 1997 to remove the waste. This campaign had results almost immediately, as 10 months later negotiations began with the Haitian and U.S. governments.

In 1999 the organization which ran the latest campaign, Copodog was informed by the U.S. federal environmental authorities that a boat would arrive to take the waste back to the U.S. (it has since done so). At that time an attempt was made by both governments to embargo the story as it would cause some damage to both governments reputations that they had allowed this to happen for 12 years.

African governments have had similar battles which they also won. This battle however required the aid of several local and international groups according to Piou. He finished off his speech by saying that this situation is very similar to the current one here in Quebec City and that “leaders will have to come down on bended knees to speak with us”.