David Suzuki

David Suzuki

29 quotes

Few Canadian scientists and environmentalists have been quoted as widely as David Suzuki (b. 1936), whose insights reach well beyond their original context. Beyond his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment, David Suzuki proved equally skilled at capturing ideas in a sentence or two. Our collection holds 36 quotes from David Suzuki, each offering a different angle on Environmental, Health, Change, Nature, and Future. One standout: "We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit."

“Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.”

— David Suzuki

Education

All Quotes by David Suzuki

“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.”

— David Suzuki

Education

“We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow things to be sold that should not be called food. Many have no nutritive value and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies.”

— David Suzuki

Food

“If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.”

— David Suzuki

Money

“The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.”

— David Suzuki

Future

“With the world's human population now at seven billion and growing, and the demand for technology and modern conveniences increasing, we can't control all our negative impacts. But we have to find better ways to live within the limits nature and its cycles impose.”

— David Suzuki

Technology

“For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.”

— David Suzuki

Health

“Conserving energy and thus saving money, reducing consumption of unnecessary products and packaging and shifting to a clean-energy economy would likely hurt the bottom line of polluting industries, but would undoubtedly have positive effects for most of us.”

— David Suzuki

Positive

“From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change.”

— David Suzuki

Change

“Most North Americans know that human-caused global warming is real, even if political leaders don't always reflect or act on that knowledge.”

— David Suzuki

Knowledge

“We can't blame children for occupying themselves with Facebook rather than playing in the mud. Our society doesn't put a priority on connecting with nature. In fact, too often we tell them it's dirty and dangerous.”

— David Suzuki

Nature

“Thanks to evolution, our bodies have powerful ways to ward off illness and infection and enable us to live long and healthy lives. Why, then, do health costs continue to climb at unsustainable and frightening rates?”

— David Suzuki

Health

“Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.”

— David Suzuki

Environmental

“Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.”

— David Suzuki

Education

“The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.”

— David Suzuki

Diet

“In the environmental movement, every time you lose a battle it's for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.”

— David Suzuki

Environmental

“If we want to address global warming, along with the other environmental problems associated with our continued rush to burn our precious fossil fuels as quickly as possible, we must learn to use our resources more wisely, kick our addiction, and quickly start turning to sources of energy that have fewer negative impacts.”

— David Suzuki

Environmental

“The government's desire to expand global trade may be understandable, but we mustn't give away too much. We must tell our elected representatives to at least delay the Canada-China FIPA until it has been examined more thoroughly, and to reconsider the inclusion of investor-state arbitration mechanisms in all trade deals.”

— David Suzuki

Government

“Global trade has advantages. For starters, it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food.”

— David Suzuki

Food

“Treaties, agreements and organizations to help settle disputes may be necessary, but they often favor the interests of business over citizens.”

— David Suzuki

Business

“We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.”

— David Suzuki

Car