Thursday, April 06, 2006

from the David Suzuki Reader

Since I've been commuting on transit lately, I've picked up the David Suzuki Reader because it is a collection of 2-5 page articles that I can read on my brief commute. I thought I'd include passages that stand out to me for whatever reason. I usually keep scraps of paper or a file on the computer where I collect these things for some future use (story idea or research).

"In cities, gleaming displays of vegetables, fruit, and meat in supermarkets create an illusion that the Earth's abundance is endless. It's easy for urban dwellers to believe this fantasy of a world without limits when we are immersed in a human-created landscape and few of us get to experience seasonal rites of nature anymore. But because our reference point is the urban setting and what we experience, we don't see the impoverishment of nature over the past two centuries."

(David Suzuki, "The Case for Keeping Wild Tigers" in the David Suzuki Reader, 2003, p. 38)

2 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

Great quote from a great man. I notice he has an autobiography out.

I remember ages ago watching The Nature of Things. It was on organics...can't remember the details now. But what stuck with me all this time was his statement about how people nowadays won't buy fruits, like apples, that aren't waxed and perfect-looking, even though they're sprayed and waxed, etc. So it's market-driven. People buy what looks attractive rather than something imperfect but probably healthier, so that's what grocery stores carry. This was years ago but it got me thinking back then as a teen.

sp said...

The Nature of Things has been such an important show. I can't imagine this country or this world without such an important figure.