this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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306
‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost - iPolitics (www.ipolitics.ca)
submitted 2 days ago by asg101@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
123 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

How to say Marx was right without saying "Marx was right".

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[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

1950's oil execs funded studies that show how they will kill the planet if they don't stop, transition to something else, hell they had enough fore warning they could have R&D'd solar and monopolize the tech, but NO! They needed to make faster money faster and stopping yourself from killing the human race isn't THAT important, and they knew they'd be dead by now.

[–] asg101@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

They might have been able to monopolize SOME of the tech, but they knew they could never own access to the sun. But yeah, they knew that they were incinerating us for decades. Which makes it premeditated murder in my books.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks to big corporations effectively owning governments and big politicians the world over, things aren't bound to get better anytime soon, because "the economy". Fuck that shit

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

And thank the Saudis too. Guess where the previous conference on phasing out fossil fuel, but agreed to slow down the process, was held.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 2 points 5 hours ago

Just hope that the next intelligent species will speedrun capitalism

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 11 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

All that's left is to make the rich suffer.

[–] asg101@lemmy.ca 12 points 7 hours ago

“The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.”

~Utah Phillips

Inb4 some pedant quibbles that "the planet itself is not dying." Yeah, but we and our fellow creatures are. It should be understood that is what Mr. Phillips meant.

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 hours ago

Can't kill earth can only just piss her off, hopefully I'll be useful enough to the overlords of Cascadia Dome #6 to get a really nice condo overlooking a nice park.

[–] Sektor@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Futurama, Crimes of the hot episode was a prophecy

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 24 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Has been for ages. It's now question of how bad, and we are still making it worse.

[–] gabbath@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

And we're gonna increasingly train more AI, mine more crypto, open more coal mines, industrially kill more animals, fight more wars.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 21 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

I’m sick of this WE, im not a billionaire pumping more Co2 per day with my yacht fleet than a town of people do in their life. I’m sick of being blamed for this shit, when all my conservation is undone in a minute by a corporation. I refuse to take equal blame any longer

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Good point. I try my best, but even if like 90 % of the population tried harder, it would barely offset the billionaire companies killing our planet.

They're the problem, always has been that way.

I think it's time to stop them.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

This simply isn’t correct. While the billionaires yacht fleet and jet setting make them have insane carbon footprints individually, it is their business practices that actually register in terms of contributing significant chunks of the carbon budget for humanity. Bezo’s jets and yachts pale in comparison to Amazons delivery fleet and manufacturing all that junk. It’s counterproductive to focus on their personal emissions, when it’s the interaction of their businesses, government, and consumers that are burning the earth. We have 2 levers on that problem.

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

You're right. I was thinking more about the individuals responsible capture and refining of fossil fuels.

But the pretty ubiquitous use of Amazon delivery does greatly contribute a lot. Didn't really think about it in that aspect. Thanks for pointing that out.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

The best we can do for the planet is toss a few billionaires into a volcano as a sacrifice to earth

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

I'm down.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 2 points 9 hours ago

Now that's some carbon sequestration

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago

A lot of people in western countries are living unsustainable lifestyles. Yes we need to target the billionaires too, but that alone won't solve it. Also stop buying their shit. Actually, just stop buying shit in the first place as that is a large part of the problem.

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Well, one way in which we can help fight against climate change is by not eating meat or dairy products.

For anyone curious about the subject, there's some good science backing that up, though the links I'm providing are lazy DDG searches, so if anyone wants to do it, they can probably find better sources out there with more information.

The average cow can produce somewhere between 100-500 litres of methane a day, which is 23 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Alfalfa and other grass hays is a crop that used a crazy amount of water, and it's grown primarily to feed cows.

Going vegan, or at least mostly vegan, is the way to go. Can start with going vegetarian and at least swapping out meat sources. Alternative vegan protein sources

With that being said, I do not practice what I preach. I should, though.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Again though, I do all these things and it doesn’t matter cause my entire life’s output of CO2 is being put out by one guy in an hour. I’m turning off lights and corporate buildings are running all the lights and AC 24/7

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago

If the majority of people did, it actually would make a massive difference. This whole "but billionaires" and "but corporations" is just being used as an excuse to do absolutely nothing by far too many people.

All of those people doing nothing are why we are in this mess.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The actual problem is democratic oligarchism/zionism/neocon warmongering/US colonialism. Protecting establishment is easily supported when higher priorities than human sustainability can be manufactured. The more miserable you are made, the less you care about "higher level Maslow hierarchy needs" at political level.

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

The best way to reduce all the excess manufacturing for livestock is by not buying it their products. If it's all about ROI for them, give them a reason to reduce their manufacturing with your purchasing power.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Fuck that. It's never lost, it's just that we are constantly heading towards worse outcomes.

If we as humanity start taking it seriously tomorrow, it would still be a victory over only starting in a decade.

It's not lost, it's just getting worse, and that should make people want to fight.

saying that the fight is lost is just creating more disengagement and hopelessness.

I like the saying "The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best is today." Because it is almost universally true about any long term goal.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You are using the broadest possible definition of "lost."

Lost as in no more human civilization. It doesn't matter when you start doing stuff, that future is coming. We could maybe slow it at this point, but not much else and even that is up for debate with all the tipping points being reached. They will have a far greater effect on the climate than anything that we do now.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Human civilization is bound to die at some point. If we give up now it will just happen faster and with more suffering. If we fight we will still improve things, maybe not everything will be okay, but when has it ever been?

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

I suppose it wasn't clear in my comment but I'm not advocating for doing nothing. Just to have realistic expectations about what is possible. If you sell everyone on reversing everything, and then fail, it will breed discontent further than being honest. That's all.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 5 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

There's also the biosphere to think about. Even in we go, it doesn't mean that all life has to go with us

[–] Snowies@lemmy.zip 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

We kill 80 billion land animals per year for factory farming and we’ve caused almost 2 species of animal per year, every year, to go completely extinct over the last 500 years.

We are going to destroy almost all life on this planet.

[–] saigot@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Even if we intentionally released as much co2 as we could all life on earth is not at risk. Remember that there's a fair amount of life that is virtually unchanged since the paleozoic period when all that co2 was in the air. Beyond that there's stuff that hangs out in volcanic vents, rapidly evolving life that can adapt even to rapid change, bacteria, molds, mosses and algae. And who knows maybe there's even a small adaptable mammal or 2 that gets out and evolves enough for a second attempt at sapience.

Don't get me wrong the climate disaster is truly a unique and devastating extinction event, but humans are not so powerful as to leave the earth a completely lifeless rock.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

So this is the meagre hope I cling to now. I guess it'll have to do.

[–] Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Exactly. Fuck the humans, at this point I just want as much as else possible to be saved.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 3 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

But we're not starting tomorrow. It's not that we're clueless, we know what to do and why, but we don't.

[–] Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

Luigis for billionaires would be a great start.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

We are light years a head of where we were a century ago. And I hope in a few decades it will be true about today.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 18 hours ago

We have started to reduce how much worse we make it, and a fair bit of progress has been made there in some countries, UK carbon emissions are less than half what they were per capita several decades ago.

When I was young we had a fireplace and would often burn coal in winter. Now I have a heat pump to warm my entire house by extracting thermal energy from the atmosphere.

[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 54 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Canada (and the world) will burn. You think migrants are a problem now? Wait until millions of people have no choice but to go north and the water wars start.

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[–] NeedMoreLimes@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think he's right, but he's also a real asshole and lives in a mansion in Vancouver and likely creates more environmental damage than the average human

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 hours ago

Most everyone who's even slightly well off in north America creates significantly more environmental damage than the average human

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 18 hours ago

If I had mansion money I would buy land to live in a self built mud hut.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 195 points 1 day ago (24 children)

Let's be clear about something; climate scientists almost universally agree that there is no such thing as "winning" or "losing" the fight against climate change (Suzuki, for the record, is a zoologist, not a climate scientist). This isn't a game, there's no referee, and no one gets a trophy at the end.

The battle against climate change is about mitigating harm. The worse we do, the more harm there will be. But there is never a point where it is "too late". The car is going to crash, but the sooner you hit the brakes, the less damaging the impact will be. Everything we do to push the needle will save lives. There is never a point where we get to throw up our hands and succumb to the comforting fantasy that it's "too late" to change anything.

I have a lot of respect for Suzuki, and I don't blame him for feeling defeated with everything that's happening, but spreading this kind of message is, dangerous, damaging, and flies entirely in the face of the science.

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