Guest essay by Dr. Tim Ball
The cover story of the November 25, 2013 Canadian weekly magazine Macleans pictures self-appointed Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.
The caption reads, “Environmentalism Has Failed”“David Suzuki loses faith in the cause of his lifetime.”
Suzuki doesn’t realize he‘s the cause of the failure as a major player in the group who exploited environmentalism and climate for a political agenda. Initially most listened and tried to accommodate, but gradually the lies, deceptions and propaganda were exposed. The age of eco-bullying is ending. Typically Suzuki blamed others for the damage to the environment and climate but now he blames them for not listening to him. He forgets that when you point a finger at someone three are pointing back at you.
Environmentalism was what academics call a paradigm shift, which Thomas Kuhn defines as “a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.” It was a necessary new paradigm. Everybody accepts the general notion it is foolish to soil your own nest and most were prepared to participate. Most were not sure what it entailed or how far it should go. Extremists grab all new paradigms for their agenda but then define the limits for the majority by pushing beyond the limits of the idea. Environmentalism and the subset climate are at that stage pushed there by extremists like Suzuki. Instead of admitting the science is wrong they double down and make increasingly extreme statements, just like the IPCC. It underscores the political rather than the scientific agenda. For example, Suzuki, apparently frustrated that politicians were not listening to his demands for action on climate change said they should be jailed.
Environmental groups grabbed environmentalism and quickly took the moral high ground preaching that only they cared about the Earth. Suzuki set up the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) with tax benefits that required it to be non-political, but after active involvement in an Ontario election he was forced to resign. His major theme in the election was to push the climate change and alternate energies put in place in that Province when Maurice Strong was in charge of Ontario Hydro, the state controlled energy agency. Ontario is the perfect example of how and why climate energy policies promoted by Strong as Founder of UNEP are a disaster.
The Foundation campaigned on environmental issues most presented in deceptive or incomplete ways. An example was the attack on salmon farming and corrupted research on PCBs and sea lice. This was the focus of an interview of researcher Vivian Krause by Ezra Levant. Another was Suzuki’s parade across Canada pushing extinction theories and claims of DSF Board member E.O Wilson that 3 species go extinct every hour. He never named one. He never listed the plethora of new species found. He refused to discuss the issue and in his visit to schools pre-arranged and wrote a question for a selected student to ask. He promoted threats of global warming, but refused to debate the issue or answer questions. When asked questions on a radio interview in Toronto, he swore and stormed out of the studio.
He hired former Federal politician NDP (socialist party) David Fulton as Director of DSF. James Hoggan has been Chairman of the Board for many years. His PR Company has major alternate energy companies as clients. Hoggan is the proud creator of DeSmogblog a web site that claims it is “Clearing the PR Pollution that clouds climate science” but mostly involves personal attacks on people asking questions. The objective was to denigrate people by creating “favorable interpretations” to the following questions. “Were these climate skeptics qualified? Were they doing any research in the climate change field? Were they accepting money, directly or indirectly, from the fossil fuel industry?” This doesn’t answer skeptics questions about the science.
Their real agenda was disclosed in a Climatic Research Unit (CRU) leaked email dated December 2007 from senior writer Richard Littlemore to Michael Mann.
Hi Michael [Mann],
I’m a DeSmogBlog writer [Richard LIttlemore] (sic) (I got your email from Kevin Grandia)* and I am trying to fend off the latest announcement that global warming has not actually occurred in the 20th century.
It looks to me like Gerd Burger is trying to deny climate change by “smoothing,” “correcting” or otherwise rounding off the temperatures that we know for a flat fact have been recorded since the 1970s, but I am out of my depth (as I am sure you have noticed: we’re all about PR here, not much about science) so I wonder if you guys have done anything or are going to do anything with Burger’s intervention in Science. (emphasis added)
(* Grandia was a former writer for DeSmogBlog who moved there after serving as a research assistant for a Liberal Minister in Ottawa.)
Do as I say, not as I do is the hallmark of extreme environmentalists behaviour. Al Gore is the poster boy for this hypocrisy. It appears Suzuki is only different in scale. They were enumerated in programs by SUN TV Reporter Ezra Levant. They include the familiar list of funding and financial activities and personal wealth accumulated, especially in properties.
A major part of Suzuki’s attacks relate to global warming. His refusal to debate or even answer questions is legendary. He ignores his lack of qualifications on climate, but uses that challenge when it comes to his supposed expertise in genetics and genetically modified food. A possible explanation for his “environmentalism is a failure” claim is a PR move to divert from the exposure of his climate ignorance in an Australian interview. He could not answer questions about information fundamental to any understanding.
Suzuki abandoned his academic career in genetics decades ago explaining why in a 1999 Seattle speech. His concerns related to the internment of his Japanese Canadian family during WWII. Here are his words:
In the exuberance of the excitement over the discovery of new principles of heredity — that seemed to apply across the plant and animal kingdoms — geneticists began to make wonderful, wild statements about the implications of their discoveries. I’m sure most of you know that it ultimately led to what was considered a legitimate area of science called Eugenics.
Some of our most eminent geneticists taught courses in eugenics, wrote textbooks in eugenics, published articles in eugenics journals. Eugenics being the attempt to apply the new-found knowledge of heredity to improve the genetic quality or makeup of human society.
It seems more logical to maintain standing as a geneticist and work to prevent such drifts occurring. Instead he quit and became a tele-evangelist using state television (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to push his environmental/political agenda.
His television series became his undoing as a classic example of how extremism is its own undoing. It’s why Suzuki’s exploitation of environmentalism, as he defines it, caused failure. Most programs in the series were unjustified, misleading condemnations of different components of society. I identified some of the misinformation in a presentation to farmers in Saskatchewan a few years ago. Afterward a woman told me that a month earlier she would have disagreed with my comments. Now she understood because Suzuki did a program on farming and as a farmer’s wife she knew how wrong and biased it was. Each new program exposed another segment of society to the deception. This created a populace open to and not surprised by the exposure of his hypocrisies. The same is happening to climate alarmism as more and more segments of society are negatively affected. His actions and climate driven energy policies close industries, decimate communities, cause job losses and force business closures, virtually all unnecessarily.
As Suzuki’s campaign to use environmentalism for a political agenda fails he lashes out, blaming others for the failure. It parallels what is happening in the climate alarmist community. The comments and claims become more extreme, but achieve the opposite of their goal. It is necessary to consider the further negative effects of their exploitation and deceptions. What is the damage to the credibility of science? Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies?
Related articles
- CNN mocks Greenpeace’s “Save Santa’s Home” video (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Climate change: Fear based messages don’t work (psychbot.wordpress.com)
- The nature of David Suzuki (macleans.ca)
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RockyRoad says:
December 7, 2013 at 11:55 am
Jihadist Terrorism is to Muslims…
what Global Warming Alarmists are to Environmentalism!
The actions of both are deplorable; neither are beneficial to humanity.
______________________
Bravo.
what is environmentalism:
envi = hatred of what others have
Iron= Strong metal
mental = urban for crazy
Ism= way of thinking
SSSSOOOOO, Strong, hatred, thats a crazy way of thinking….yup
Aye, indeed, Alan Rrrrrrobertson (another fine Scot’s heritage man, I think?). #(:))
Exactly, Rocky Road (LOVE that flavor!).
[Moderator notes hairbow returns after ice cream is mentioned. Mod ]
Janice Moore says:
December 7, 2013 at 7:13 pm
One problem with WUWT’s success is if everyone commented on great posts or acknowledged all references to a previous comment the result would be more comments to read, and there are way too many now.
If you do want comments, post something that’s wrong. Trolls know that, they deliberately post comments designed to get responses.
OTOH, back in my USENET days I put a lot of effort into an April Fool’s Day post that was part parody of a short astronomy spot broadcast on several radio stations. The first year I posted it, I got one response. Same thing the next year.
It lives on, see http://wermenh.com/deimos.html
Another old USENET post was something I tried to post around this time each year before we got the question “Why is the earliest sunset before the winter solstice and the latest sunrise after it?” The answer has to do with the eccentricity of the Earth’ orbit and the tilt of its axis. I have that too, see http://wermenh.com/eqoftm.html
—
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
>> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
>>> A: Top-posting.
>>>> Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet and in e-mail?
I’ve heard another story on Suzuki’s radicalization. As Wikipedia notes, he got his PhD in 61 at U Chicago, then taught at UBC (Vancouver) from 63 for 40 years. But it leaves out a year at Berkeley. Apparently he was shunned by the profs (racism?), so he hung out with the radicals and joined the civil right movement. Who knows what lefty nonsense he picked up there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki#Academic_career
http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=D_Suzuki2_jjbowlen_CA_2009_ul
Trivia: my mother knew David’s father who worked with his brothers in construction, they built houses in our neighbourhood.
Hi, Mod! You are so much fun, lol. Yup! I LOVE ice cream.
8(:)) (put my hair up in rollers …. in case I get asked out… heh)
Okay…. that was a very generous set-up for you, Mod….
**********************************************************************
Thanks, so much, Ric Werme, for your kind words and empathy.
WOW. After reading your fantastic, super-clever, April Fool’s post (largely ignored) and your impressive time equation post…. my posts are not even in the same class as yours! How generous of you to take the time to encourage me (it has been REALLY depressing to post, day-after-day, my little virtual advent calendar doors and in 7 days have only ONE person like them; heh, well, Ric Werme, I guess you and I will just have to be grateful for that one, huh?).
WUWT is about intriguing things as well as climate stuff, right? Well, BOTH YOUR POSTS (above) SHOULD BE FEATURED WITH BELLS AND WHISTLES ON WUWT! The second one would likely evoke over 200 comments. lol, re: the first one, you could tailor for an April 1 post here by making it ostensibly about those crazy epicycles and planetary orbits mumbo jumbo and all that bogus sun “science” that the perseveringly dauntless Leif Svalgaard so nobly battles month-in-month-out.
Back to your second, serious science, post — suggestion: decide beforehand whether you want to respond to people on the thread. It is a pretty grueling and sometimes downright cruel experience, I think. Just leave it for the commenters to duke it out if you’d prefer to spend your time in more peaceful, happier, ways… .
I hope that Anthony sees this and posts your time equation article SOON!
Thanks again!
Janice
janama says:
December 7, 2013 at 3:43 pm
““I’ve had critics all my life,” says Suzuki. “But I certainly think the intensity and vileness of the personal attacks has changed.” Levant, who is a trained lawyer with a great deal of personal experience with Canada’s libel laws, has been careful to make most of his allegations technically factual, Suzuki says, but they’re a contorted version of the truth. The house in Vancouver was purchased for $145,000 in 1975 with a loan from Suzuki’s in-laws. For years, he and Cullis lived
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Well he has owned (owns) a number of houses. In 1971, he owned a house on 10th Avenue in Vancouver about 3 or 4 blocks from the University of BC gates (University Boulevard). I know that as I looked at renting the basement suite from him in 1971. He was actually doing the painting to rockin’ Janis Joplin and fixing drywall in the basement. He told us (my wife and I) that he had bought the house for his parents who would live upstairs and he was renting the basement. I also took a microbiology class from him (though he wasn’t actually there a lot) at UBC as part of my Water and Pollution degree in Civil Engineering which included climate studies and pollution vectors, water treatment, sewage treatment, ground water, air quality, etc. etc. I have been doing “environmental” work for a good portion of my life. I am afraid I feel that Dr. Suzuki left basic environmental work about the same time as I graduated from University 40 years ago since he was hardly every around – too busy with his “other” activities.
Eric Gisin says:
December 7, 2013 at 8:52 pm
I’ve heard another story on Suzuki’s radicalization. As Wikipedia notes, he got his PhD in 61 at U Chicago, then taught at UBC (Vancouver) from 63 for 40 years.
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Curious how most of his bio’s leave out his year in Alberta where he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada. Seems somewhat odd though he discussed it openly in his interview and said only the money kept him in Canada as so much more research money was available in the US.
From Ancestry.ca: “Suzuki started work with a teaching position at University of Alberta in 1962. His knowledge not being limited to teaching, David started appearing on TV shows and tried to rally support for under funded sciences.”
Oops – wrong reference: http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=341
Interesting what you say Wayne. Can’t beat personal experience. 😉
Excellent article. Suzuki is trying to do some ‘distancing’ here, i.e. someone else ruined the party. The fact of matter is HE has ruined his own party. If he actually remained grounded in the science and stood up for integrity when it mattered and encouraged academic excellence – we well might have a much better stewardship of the planet and the environment in general and have universal real hard science on the environment we can all be proud of to boot.
The trouble is, as soon as you start down the slippery path of ‘exaggeration’ or ‘tweaking’ the message (or the results) to get the desired outcome/impact – its game over – reality is no longer in sync. Certainly, it will work for a short time, and if you play your cards right you could well gather status (and income to boot) around that. But like a house built on a sand, sooner or later cracks will appear and sometime in the future the whole thing will come crashing down. Reality has a nasty habit of reasserting itself sooner or later, usually with an uncanny sense of dramatic timing.
Suzuki is but the first of many – the writing is on the wall and the sheep are noticing things ain’t going the way it should do, so they start doing their own research and well, the rest is history.. For instance I went to 2 parties this weekend and got chatting with people who were die hard AGW believers – 30 minutes later, converted the lot – simple reason was that they were open to hearing the other point of view as AGW wasn’t making sense…
Basically do not be afraid in any sense to challenge people on AGW now, the blinkers in the general population are well and truly off!
The analysis of Maurice Strong’s record at Ontario Hydro presented here by Dr. Ball is completely inaccurate. Under Mr. Strong’s leadership, Ontario Hydro terminated its PR-oriented conservation programs, cancelled unneeded capital programs, froze power rates, slashed bloated staffing levels, and averted what at the time seemed to be immediate insolvency. In the context of the scale of his business decisions Mr. Strong made at Ontario Hydro, his small foray into Costa Rican forest lands was trivial, although of great fascination to the media. I don’t present this information as a defence of Agenda 21, simply as a matter of historical record.
On the subject of David Suzuki, his authoritarian tendencies get too little attention. Here is a short video essay on Suzuki’s support for rolling back privacy rights in the name of environmental protection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oh0Etg3m0
After years of commenting on hare-brained CAGW alarmism at my local city’s online paper there has been a steady increase in skeptical comments by others paying attention. It’s easy to be skeptical for those with a level mind and emotional landscape. The often hysterical and irrational claims by CAGW believers are so transparent that only the ‘true believers’ or unquestioning garden variety nature lovers, who may not question anything in life, continue to cry wolf.
At this time I’ve noticed more comments indicating others are seriously looking into this matter on their own and aren’t just swallowing the CAGW meme hook, line and sinker. Add some much deserved(at times) ridicule along with level-headed information, linked to science-based resources and even in our local city which prides itself in being some kind of Emerald City of Green, the constant din and Green drumbeat has become noticeably quieter. Of course there’re still the true believers contingent and constant pressure put on the community by local universities and politicians, but people who don’t want to be associated with sheeple-thinking are at least taking a wait and see and more open-minded position.
After years of being insulted and abused by climate zombies armed with their talking points, it’s become more difficult for them now when a large number of rational commenters join in the fray. It wasn’t long ago when it seemed like a 10:1 ratio of hysterical, spinning-head sky is falling posters would try to overwhelm skeptics and the website, but not anymore. The spinning-headed types are not at all happy about this. Blinding them with facts and science isn’t something they bargained for I guess.
Just a question: Can we be certain that the alarmists so called experts have studied Theory of Science at all?
“Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies?”
No, not when the setting off point is a moral value statement.
How conceited is this guy, really, George Carlin said it best, “The earth will be just fine, it’s survived billions of years and two ice ages, it’s us the f#@*ed, we’re going away, the earth will be just fine without us.” Mr. Suzuki, you oughta be ashamed of yourself. I’m not a scientist, but I think there are too many people here on earth. Laws of nature are that one species is not allowed to out-succeed another, and in most cases that is true, except for homo sapiens, we are the only exception. I don’t know when, but I don’t think our reign will end well. Thanks.
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm
he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada.
===============
The US paid him to stay in Canada? A wise investment.
If we criticise his views in any way, isn’t that racism?
=============
one day walking by Suzuki’s house I noticed his gardener was a little old white guy. is it racist to find the irony amusing? recently I passed Suzuki’s on the street and had the strong impressions that maybe age had simply caught up to him as it does to all of us.
50 years ago there was a lot wrong with how we treated the environment. Folks for example would think nothing of pouring motor oil down the drain, assuming that the sewage treatment plant would take care of it. So public education had a large benefit. We made major cleanup to the environment. The air and water are much, much cleaner to day than in the past.
However, this success was largely ignored by many in the environmental movement, that view conditions today as being worse than they were 50 years ago as a matter of belief. I expect this is where Suzuki disappointment comes from. He is not celebrating the success; he is lamenting that we haven’t achieved Utopia.
The problem with Utopia is that it requires humans to be perfect. And since humans are not perfect, we don’t belong in Utopia. The solution then is to get rid of humans. Once that is accomplished, we will have Utopia.
Those that strive for perfection will never be satisfied with a good solution. Thus, they will destroy the good in a vain attempt to achieve the perfect.
The house in Vancouver was purchased for $145,000 in 1975
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Well he has owned (owns) a number of houses.
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It would be very surprising if the waterfront house on point grey road had a market value of $145k in 1975. This is a very exclusive neighborhood. If you need to ask how much the houses cost you can’t afford one.
Years back, we were at a house party on the same block. On the water, maybe 2 doors away? The owner was a head honcho’s at the CBC. Could this explain Suzuki’s TV program? Having the right neighbors? The key to business success: location, location, location.
Might we not all proofread our posts at least once before sending? Several are unintelligible. What’s your hurry?
Let’s stick to the science and politics. Who cares how much he paid for a house in 1975, or who was his gardener? Reminds me of how tom turkeys instantly stomp on the one that gets shot down. Just sayin’.
Hum…yes reminds me of metro areas circa 1870 to 1960, looking as this:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/coal/images/homeheader.jpg
Coal heat, nasty…
Oh, then there were non-fuel injected, stoicheometric, autos and summers that looked like this:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUJI4rCIwW39Me6EgU7tVR8otpxOZWVf5drI8NyyD6xVXcj2fUVg
So, that’s Two of 4 of the major problems…what next?
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=819&bih=474&tbm=isch&tbnid=tqq6gTCR0-3uVM:&imgrefurl=http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/node/2255/&docid=voM5F3dhlbdkQM&imgurl=http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/files/content/chicago_riverfront_history_1.JPG&w=2782&h=2108&ei=dMOkUvzkKumfyQGDuIDQCw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:6,s:0,i:97&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=192&tbnw=237&start=0&ndsp=7&tx=174&ty=89
The Chicago river, as a sewer..typical around the USA prior to 1970 and the EPA’s effort, suing municipalities and states and counties to stop that and build sewage treatment plants.
Hey, 3 of 4??? What’s left? INDUSTRY! Nasty, terrible INDUSTRY! That is strictly regulated now. Scrubbers on everything from power plants to blast furnaces. Solvent capture devices, processed water (before disposal or re-use).
So when I’m asked what “era” I’d like to live in, I say RIGHT NOW or the FUTURE, as it is the cleanest and the future is equal or better. Suzuki should stay to teaching music with child sized instruments, rather than try to use a childlike approach to life in general.
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm
“Curious how most of his bio’s leave out his year in Alberta where he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada. ”
Probably an effort by the US to destabilize Canada.
Suzuki only lasted a year in Edmonton—the climate was too brutal, he says
I find this statement completely humorous as Edmontons climate HAS NOT CHANGED since St. Suzuki lived there. Well maybe it’s a little colder. Fort mcmurray is also just as cold as it has always been despite ever increasing amounts od co2 released. Be the alarmists calculations we Canadians should be spending our winter holidays there rather than going south to places like Las Vegas where it never snows. Oops did it snow there last week? Oh that must be because all the heat is hiding in the ocean now rather than on land.
DirkH says, “Probably an effort by the US to destabilize Canada.”
He is kind of weapons grade environmentalism. Thank you for pointing that out. (:
Max Hugoson,
Not sure what you are saying about what era you’d like to live in, but no one is disputing we needed to clean up the air and water in the 1970s. But if it had cost, say, a half trillion dollars to reduce air and water pollution by 95%, the EPA would now extoll spending 10 trillion more to reduce air pollution another 2%, and revert us to a Neolithic lifestyle if required. If the goal is “zero pollution” that is unattainable at any price – it’s an asymptotic function, and zero can never be reached. “How much is enough, Gordon?”