[Image-1] Since the 1950s, almost everything about work in the developed world has changed dramatically. Rapid technological advances continue to render many jobs obsolete. Globalization has shifted employment to parts of the world with the lowest costs and standards. Most households have gone from one income-earner to at least two. Women have fully integrated into […]
David Suzuki
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Anthropocentric view ignores crucial connections
[Image-1] For decades, scientists have warned that we’re on a dangerous path. It stems from our delusion that endless growth in population, consumption and the economy is possible and is the very purpose of society. But endless growth is not feasible in a finite biosphere. Growth is not an end but a means. Humans are […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: It’s time to heed warnings about humanity’s collision course
[Image-1] The longer we delay addressing environmental problems, the more difficult it will be to resolve them. Although we’ve known about climate change and its potential impacts for a long time, and we’re seeing those impacts worsen daily, our political representatives are still approving and promoting fossil fuel infrastructure as if we had all the […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: We can learn so much from nature
[Image-1] If you fly over a forest and look down, you’ll see every green tree and plant reaching to the heavens to absorb the ultimate energy source: sunlight. What a contrast when you look down on a city or town with its naked roofs, asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks, all ignoring the sun’s beneficence! Research […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Tread lightly to lift the weight of the world
[Image-1] How much stuff will you give and receive this holiday season? Add it to the growing pile—the 30-trillion-tonne pile. That’s how much technology and goods humans have produced, according to a study by an international team led by England’s University of Leicester. It adds up to more than all living matter on the planet, […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Indigenous people hold the key to caribou survival
[Image-1] When government biologists in Canada want to learn where caribou are, they put radio-tracking collars on some animals and monitor their movements. This gives them a rough idea of where herds are and where they travel, but it doesn’t tell them much about a caribou population’s history—travel routes before their habitat was degraded or […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Better discourse for a kinder world
[Image-1] The U.S. election was a chilling illustration of the atrocious state of public discourse. It doesn’t bode well for a country once admired for leadership in education and science. As public relations expert and former David Suzuki Foundation board chair James Hoggan writes in I’m Right and You’re an Idiot, “polluted public discourse is […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Reconciliation requires recognizing rights-based fishing
[Image-1] Fishing is as emblematic to Canada as ice hockey. It’s also a way of life with a long tradition in coastal Indigenous communities. But since European contact, it’s been all but eliminated as an economic development opportunity for them. As Canada struggles to come to terms with reconciliation, court cases are helping define what […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Extinction crisis signals that it’s time to change course
[Image-1] Clean air, water and soil to grow food are necessities of life. So are diverse plant and animal populations. But as the human population continues to increase, animal numbers are falling. There’s a strong correlation. A comprehensive report from the World Wildlife Federation and the Zoological Society of London found that wild animal populations […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Hard work and love trump fear and hate
[Image-1] Now what? Many people in the United States and around the world are dismayed that a bigoted, misogynistic, climate change denier has been elected to the highest office in what is still the world’s most powerful nation. His party controls the House and Senate, meaning pro-fossil-fuel, anti-climate-action representatives who reject overwhelming and alarming scientific […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: “World class” may not mean much when it comes to oil spill response
[Image-1] In July, a pipeline leak near Maidstone, Saskatchewan, spilled about 250,000 litres of diluted oil sands bitumen into the North Saskatchewan River, killing wildlife and comprising drinking water for nearby communities, including Prince Albert. It was one of 11 spills in the province over the previous year. In October, a tugboat pulling an empty […]
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Heated debates ignore an overheating planet
[Image-1] Scientists worldwide accept that Earth is warming at an unusually rapid rate, that humans are primarily responsible, mainly by burning fossil fuels, and that the consequences for humanity will be disastrous if we don’t take immediate, widespread action. The U.S. Defense Department calls climate change a security risk “because it degrades living conditions, human […]