David Takayoshi Suzuki is a geneticist, broadcaster, and an environmental activist.
He was born March, 24, 1936 in Vancouver British Columbia. David Suzuki is important to Canadian history as he founded a non-profit organization that deals with issues like, Climate Solutions, Environmental Rights, and Cities. Because of these things he has become a household name. Climate Solutions focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and trying to stop global warming. The Trottier Energy Futures Project points to opportunities to dramatically reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions using existing technologies. The research also examines the country’s carbon-emissions challenges that could prevent progress. By knowing these challenges, the research identifies where innovation and new approaches will be needed in urban design, transportation, electricity generation, infrastructure, industrial production and societal change.On November 21, 2016, the federal government announced a plan to speed up the shift away from coal, Canada’s dirtiest power source.
Under the new regulations, Canada will be free of conventional coal-fired electricity by 2030. This was a major win for public health, the environment and the economy. The Foundation’s climate team has been working on this issue for more than a decade. This success would not have been possible without the tens of thousands of supporters like you who sent letters to the government through our “Say no to coal in Canada” online action. The organization delivered an anti-coal letter to Parliament Hill, representing almost 35,000 people in Canada, on the day of the government’s announcement. In 2015 and 2016, researchers from St.
Francis Xavier University and the David Suzuki Foundation completed the most thorough ground-based measurement of methane emissions ever conducted in Canada. Scientists travelled more than 8,000 kilometres using a sniffer truck, covering more than 1,600 well pads and facilities. This groundbreaking research revealed that methane pollution from B.
C.’s oil and gas industry is at least 2.5 times higher than the former provincial government claimed.
Environmental Rights focuses on 3 topics. The Blue Dot Movement, Drinking Water Advisories, and Tribal Protecting Areas. The Blue Dot Movement tries to advance the legal recognition of every Canadian’s right to a healthy environment. The Blue dot Tour was launched in 2014, and more than 105,000 people, 25,000 volunteers and 150 communities have signed on to the Blue Dot movement. The other topic is Drinking Water Advisories.
Drinking water advisories have been a persistent injustice in First Nations throughout Canada. Currently, more than 100 communities go without clean drinking water. Many have faced these conditions for years, or even decades. After years of pressure from Indigenous and social justice organizations, the federal government committed to ending all long?term drinking water advisories by 2021. In response, the David Suzuki Foundation has begun monitoring progress on resolving First Nations drinking water advisories. The organization’s first report released in February 2017 in partnership with the Council of Canadians concluded that although work to end DWAs had begun, the federal government was not on track to fulfil its commitment.
The final topic is Tribal Protected Areas. Canada’s vast boreal forest is the world’s largest intact forest ecosystem. It reaches from coast to coast, touching almost every province and territory in Canada. Importantly, these 270 million hectares are the traditional territories of over 600 First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities. These traditional territories have been significantly disturbed by industrial pressure like logging, oil-and-gas and mining activities.
In many instances, the cumulative impacts of industrial activities have impaired or abolished the rights of Indigenous peoples to carry out their traditional livelihoods. Establishing Indigenous led protected areas is one way in which Indigenous communities are reclaiming what they see as their deep-rooted relationship to the land. Tribal parks are conservation areas envisioned, declared and managed by Indigenous peoples. They are also a means for Indigenous communities to assert their responsibilities and rights to steward and manage their lands and resources.
The final topics is Cities. This is made up of 2 topics. Eco-Assets, and Sustainable Transportation. In municipalities across Canada, infrastructure is aging, capital costs are rising and service delivery is strained by growing populations. Ecosystems are in decline and climate change is exacerbating these challenges.
Local governments are looking for ways to better manage their nature and the valuable ecosystem services nature provides. One way is to include nature along with infrastructure like sidewalks and roads as an asset in financial accounts. Natural assets that provide services like flood control and water filtration haven’t been considered on equal footing or included in asset management plans until now. Sustainable Transportation systems are the backbone of our cities and rural communities.
In a country as vast as Canada, transportation is vital to connect us to each other. When communities are connected efficiently and sustainably, they thrive. As many areas of Canada experience increased gridlock, the Foundation welcomes the federal government’s commitment of Phase 2 public infrastructure funding 20.1 billion over 11 years starting in 2017 to solve this problem.
David Suzuki had a major impact not only in Canada but worldwide. His actions such as dealing with problems like Climate Change, the relationship between humans and the environment and, the advancement of social communities has cultivated a strong following of people who follow in his footsteps and share his dreams. Furthermore he has impacted the way people think about the environment for over 30 years and still continues to impact people till this day.
