“The Legacy, an Elder’s vision for our Sustainable Future”, is a lecture done by Dr. David Suzuki.

It’s an outstanding realization to those who read it. Dr. David Suzuki is an environmental activist. He

lectures his views to society on environmental issues that pertain to the crisis of the world and his vision

for a sustainable future. Through his practice over the years Suzuki gained an understanding on where

the human population is and where we are heading as far as our time here on earth goes, without

immediate changes being done by human kind. After reading “The Legacy” one gains an appreciative

awareness of what the world is facing outside of minuscule daily life. It also helps with being a little

closer to a realization that change has to be done, starting with the individual. It is as though we cannot

see change until it is almost too late, definitely procrastination at its worst.

By definition the term legacy means “(law) a gift of personal property by will”. When

thinking about what is happening in the world as far as the environmental issues that we are

faced with, it is easy to see that the human population, technology and amounts of natural

resources has changed immensely over the years. Our dependency and lack of consciousness

on nature and the things that were once infinite has led us to a point where we have to now

think that perhaps soon there well be nothing left. We are so consumed with developing and the

growth of the economy that we don’t stop to think that without our world/earth/nature, there will

be no prosperous economy. This means for those who dream about leaving our legacy behind

for loved ones and future generations to enjoy have to come to realize that maybe that’s all it

can be, is a dream. “Our lives are absolutely dependent on clean air, clean water, clean soil,

clean energy, and biodiversity, and without them, we sicken and die. Yet the economy is built on

extracting raw materials from the biosphere and pouring wasted back into it without regard to

those services. [L]ets put the eco back in economics” (Suzuki, 2010).

“We must realize that the laws of nature have priority over the forces of economics”

(Suzuki, 2010).
 Dr. Suzuki talks about the importance of the environment and its place on the political

agenda. Many politicians promote the economy and what changes they can do in reducing

different taxes. They maintain that the environment is on the agenda. Take the conservative

platform for instance, regarding the environmental promises:

“The Conservatives have committed to reducing Canada’s greenhouse gases by 20

percent below 2006 levels by 2020, and cutting air pollution by 50 percent by 2015.
Their targets will be achieved through government laws imposed on industries, as well
as national caps for industrial emissions commonly associated with smog and acid rain.
Other environmental policies include promoting smarter energy use through the
ecoEnergy Initiative; a Chemical Management Plan to regulate chemicals harmful to
human health and the environment; $1.5 billion over seven years for the production of
renewable fuels; a commitment to ensure that 90 percent of Canadian electricity needs
are generated through non-emitting sources by 2020; and additional government
funding to acquire and preserve ecologically sensitive lands” (Makarenko, 2008).

Yet, the Harper government cut environmental spending by 60%. It was announced that “they

will be cutting big chunks of money from environmental spending in the impending budget.

Specifically, $140-million will be cut from Environment Canada’s climate change and clean air

programs, as well as a 51 per cent cut to substance and waste management. Along with that,

natural resources will see a $390-million decrease in spending. The total cuts are expected to

top over $1.6-billion” (Nagels, 2011). Countries like Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and

Norway are dipping into new environmental technology projects. Something that Harper should

be starting for Canada, creating green jobs rather he’s “cutting the tax breaks to homeowners

who want to make their houses more energy efficient” (Nagels, 2011). The economy is on the

agenda for the world’s leaders, its first priority. Words that stood out to me in Suzuki’s book the

legacy, “environmentalist should understand we can’t afford to protect the environment if we

don’t have a growing economy”. This was said by a Canadian minister of the environment
(Suzuki, 2010). How does the environmental crisis become on the agenda if even the highest

leaders of the world curtsy to the economy first. “The services performed by nature should be

our highest concern for our own self-interest because they enable animals like us to survive and

flourish, but they are ignored by conventional economists” (Suzuki, 2010).

While reading the legacy I was immediately drawn to the familiarities of my first nation’s

culture. Growing up in a traditional first nation’s family, who relied on nature and the earth for

basic survival necessities, I was taught to always return what you take to the creator. Our

people are fisherman and hunters. We rely on animals, fish and berries for food and wood from

the forest for our houses and heat. For thousands of years the Gitxsan people were able to

maintain equilibrium with the earth. Giving back anything you take had been a lesson passed

down generations from elders who try to keep out traditions strong. But slowly it is being lost

with the new technology, logging and mass illegal hunting on our territories. I would say that in

this case the personal is political. From a young age I was exposed to land claims and blockades.

Every year our territories were illegally logged and clear cut buy popular logging companies. At

the tender age of 8 I learned the lesson to fight for the things that I want and stand up for our

beliefs, values and traditions. We camped for weeks sometimes months and entire seasons, just

so that we could keep a 24 hour watch on the trucks that were sneaking on to the private

properties. It lasted a couple of seasons, but more importantly we finally won the right to keep

our forests untouched and safe from logging. The Gitxsan and Witsuwit'en people “claimed

ownership and legal jurisdiction over 133 individual hereditary territories, a total of 58,000

square kilometers of northwestern British Columbia, an area larger than the province of Nova

Scotia”(BCTreaty, 1999). These blockades were later used in the famous Delgamuukw case as
evidence that led to one of the biggest land claims won by first nation’s people, and made

Canadian history. It was a great lesson that was instilled by my grandmother who was the main

advocate of the blockades and to this day teaches the traditions, and tells the stories so that we

keep the legacy of our people going. If it wasn’t for a collective love and work for our home and

traditions, perhaps the fight by our people would have been lost and we would now be

neighboring to millions of acres of clear cut traditional lands and extinct cherished animals.
 The crisis of our diminishing natural resources, pollution of waters, and extinction of species is at

an all time high. It seems like the human population won’t take this crisis literal until they see the results

of our actions. Living in your life without thinking about the things that you can be more aware of, like

the garbage you throw away, the fuel you consume, the lights you left on at home seems insignificant in

the micro view of things. Change starts with the individual.

http://pages.interlog.com/~girbe/environment.html

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/2008-canadian-political-party-profiles

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/2008-election-campaign-political-party-platforms

http://www.conservative.ca/press/news_releases/pm_highlights_government_s_2010_accompl
ishments

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=93375274-9485-4751-94ad-
9bdbae768ed6

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2007/03/budget-long-on-politics-short-on-
vision/

http://www.conservative.ca/press/news_releases/pm_protects_jobs_through_clean_energy_in
vestment_in_canada_s_forestry_sector

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=93375274-9485-4751-94ad-
9bdbae768ed6

http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/ ---pipeline

http://www.lilithgallery.com/articles/environmental/Harper-Vs-Kyoto.html -letter of kyoto

http://theconcordian.com/2011/03/conservatives-slash-environmental-spending-in-new-
budget/

stephen harper cutting environmental spending ----google

http://www.bctreaty.net/files/pdf_documents/delgamuukw.pdf - delgamuukw