Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.David Suzuki celebrated his ninetieth birthday this week with a round of media interviews for the launch of his new book “Lessons From A Lifetime.”Not everyone was celebrating the CBC’s legendary prophet of doom, however. One detractor was Andrew Weaver, former BC Green Party leader and climate modelling expert at the University of Victoria. That’s a surprise, since Suzuki’s endorsement in the 2017 BC election was helpful to Weaver’s campaign, which led to the downfall of Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government and the NDP minority under John Horgan. This would reshape federal as well as provincial energy policy.Weaver’s three seats allowed him to steer NDP climate policy with an aggressive phase-out of gasoline and diesel vehicles, undoing the “revenue neutral” in BC’s carbon tax and boosting electric car subsidies and other green spending. Justin Trudeau’s federal government followed BC and then took over the wheel, pushing the carbon tax toward $170 per tonne.Of course, much of that has been undone by Mark Carney, which may contribute to Weaver’s mood..Posting on X as the book tour began, Weaver agreed that Suzuki and his protest supporters “lost, big time” in their claimed battle to stabilize Earth’s climate. “But please stop making it sound like he’s some kind of climate hero. He was one of the most self-aggrandizing environmental hypocrites I know.”Suzuki’s five kids, multiple homes, and Carney-level travel have long been a target for critics. I preferred more substantive issues, like his teaming up with Weaver, California crooner Neil Young, and Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam to demonize the “tar sands” that have made Adam’s community in northern Alberta wealthy.In 2014, Suzuki joined Tzeporah Berman and others to protest the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion, staging an arrest for TV along with his daughter, granddaughter, and grandson in Burnaby.The recent death of another prophet of doom, Paul Ehrlich, is a reminder of the rise of anti-human ideology. Ehrlich’s 1968 book “The Population Bomb” set the tone for Suzuki’s early work in genetics at UBC. If you Google “David Suzuki maggots,” you will find his 1972 backyard movie where he holds court about humans being a damaging infestation on Earth’s fragile surface.And 54 years later, his core message is unchanged. “We have to de-grow the economy,” Suzuki said in a book promotion interview on CPAC this week. In the campus Marxist tradition, he stressed for the umpteenth time that capitalism is fatally flawed by its dependence on growth, that humans have already outgrown the planet’s resources, and only an emergency de-industrialization program can save the environment now..As usual, Suzuki’s talking points are a bit stale. He praised Greta Thunberg’s powerful speeches, apparently unaware that they’re about Palestine and Cuba these days. He quoted Carney’s 2021 book “Values,” which called for Brazil’s Amazon to be valued the same as the Jeff Bezos version, perhaps not noticing that Carney’s own call for radical change has fizzled out, in banking and now Canadian politics.In recent interviews, Suzuki cites “the scientists” and asserts that he has “read the science.” His record suggests he hasn’t been current in his own field for decades, much less the rapidly evolving study of atmospheric physics and chemistry.His advice now is to prepare for the inevitable collapse of the ecosystem. Learn to use a chainsaw. Locate a pipe fitter to help repair a destroyed water system, and someone with a generator, presumably one fuelled by gasoline or diesel.Suzuki’s done another political endorsement as well. He’s backing fellow Vancouverite Avi Lewis for the leadership of the moribund federal NDP.Clearly, the way for Canada to continue its climate leadership, as China alone burns 13 million tonnes of coal every day, is to stop all new oil production, create a chain of government grocery stores, and apply the expertise of Canada Post to run a non-profit national bank.With the Suzuki bounce, Lewis is expected to take over the six-seat NDP remnant this weekend.Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc
