Quotes By David Suzuki

We humans have become dependent on plastic for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction under control.

Global trade has advantages. For starters, it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food.

Feeding our energy appetite is top of mind for many people these days.

Beyond reducing individual use, one of our top priorities must be to move from fossil fuels to energy that has fewer detrimental effects on water supplies and fewer environmental impacts overall.

It's not unexpected that shooting massive amounts of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into the earth to shatter shale and release natural gas might shake things up. But earthquakes aren't the worst problem with fracking.

With the world's human population now at seven billion and growing, and the demand for technology and modern conveniences increasing, we can't control all our negative impacts. But we have to find better ways to live within the limits nature and its cycles impose.

We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options.

Water is our most precious resource, but we waste it, just as we waste other resources, including oil and gas.

Although it's difficult, if not impossible, to put a dollar value on the numerous services nature provides, leaving them out of economic calculations means they are often ignored.

Most North Americans know that human-caused global warming is real, even if political leaders don't always reflect or act on that knowledge.

Thanks to evolution, our bodies have powerful ways to ward off illness and infection and enable us to live long and healthy lives. Why, then, do health costs continue to climb at unsustainable and frightening rates?

Rapid population growth and technological innovation, combined with our lack of understanding about how the natural systems of which we are a part work, have created a mess.

One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child.

We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.

Ultimately we need to recognize that while humans continue to build urban landscapes, we share these spaces with others species.

If America wants to retain its position as a global power, its president must listen to the people and show strong leadership at this turning point in human history.

If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.

The failure of world leaders to act on the critical issue of global warming is often blamed on economic considerations.

The voluntary approach to corporate social responsibility has failed in many cases.

The government's desire to expand global trade may be understandable, but we mustn't give away too much. We must tell our elected representatives to at least delay the Canada-China FIPA until it has been examined more thoroughly, and to reconsider the inclusion of investor-state arbitration mechanisms in all trade deals.

Because countries often have differing political and economic systems, agreements are needed to protect those invested in trade.

From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change.

All those hours exploring the great outdoors made me more resilient and confident.

Humans are an infant species, a mere 150,000 years old. But, armed with a massive brain, we've not only survived, we've used our wits to adapt to and flourish in habitats as varied as deserts, Arctic tundra, tropical rainforests, wetlands and high mountain ranges.

More than a billion people lack adequate access to clean water.

As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.

For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.

In the environmental movement, every time you lose a battle it's for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.

Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.

Some solutions are relatively simple and would provide economic benefits: implementing measures to conserve energy, putting a price on carbon through taxes and cap-and-trade and shifting from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources.