CALGARY — Infamous environmental activist David Suzuki says he was wrong to believe Prime Minister Mark Carney would make climate change a priority when he took office.In an interview with the Canadian Press, Suzuki said he had celebrated when Carney — whom Suzuki knew before he entered politics — was elected last year, believing the former central banker understood the risks posed by climate change.However, the 90-year-old activist now says he was “wilfully blind” to the warnings of his longtime friend, the late Stephen Lewis, the former leader of the Ontario NDP, who predicted Carney’s approach to environmental policy would be shaped by his economic outlook.“I don’t see that there’s going to be any deviation from the driving of our country into the ditch,” Suzuki said.Carney’s track record on climate change has been criticized by some environmentalists and politicians on the left in recent months.On his first day in office, Carney cancelled the consumer carbon tax, repealed the planned phase-out of gas-powered vehicles and scrapped emissions caps on oil and gas production.The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Carney and Alberta Premier Smith, which included a one-million-barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline to the West Coast, was also seen by some Liberals as a step backwards for climate policy. .Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault resigned from cabinet, saying there had been no consultation with Indigenous nations on the West Coast or with the BC government before the Alberta agreement was announced.“A pipeline to the West Coast would have major environmental impacts, particularly as it could cross the Great Bear Rainforest, contribute to a significant increase in climate pollution, and move Canada away from its greenhouse gas reduction targets,” Guilbeault said at the time.Carney has stated that his government will pursue emissions reductions over the long term, backed by investments in clean energy.Asked which of the prime minister’s decisions had raised his concerns the most, Suzuki said he had not read the details.“Fundamentally, the problem is that the underlying systems that we’ve developed to guide, shape, manage human behaviour have left out the most fundamental thing, which is that our very survival and well-being depends on Mother Earth,” he said, adding that economic, legal, and political systems place too little value on the natural world.“Brazil's Amazon, the greatest terrestrial ecosystem on the planet, has no economic value until it is logged, mined, dammed, or grows soy, cattle, or houses,” Suzuki said.“So if that doesn't tell you right there what kind of a f*cked-up system we have, that is exploiting the very things that keep us alive. And we don't put any value on it.”.Suzuki laments 'environmentalists have lost' climate fight.Suzuki added that former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government didn’t go far enough with climate policy, despite enacting some of the most climate-friendly policies in Canadian history.Now, the 90-year-old says Carney “understands very clearly what the challenges of climate change represent,” and that the prime minister is advocating for green policies from a banker standpoint.“He still believes the economy must be kept going the way it is and that it can be used to keep emissions down and keep the economy going,” he said.“I think it's impossible.”Suzuki said the government should set firm targets and declare a climate emergency.“When you declare a state of emergency, all these economic and political arguments disappear,” he said.“You've got to deal with that crisis now, and that's what we need. And Mr. Carney could go a long way if he would take his party now and declare state of emergency and get it going now.”
