Angry in the Great White North

It might be difficult to believe, but David Suzuki was not always an advocate for a regime in which the democratic expression of the will of the people is brutally circumscribed by scientific orthodoxy:

David Suzuki has called for political leaders to be thrown in jail for ignoring the science behind climate change.

At a Montreal conference last Thursday, the prominent scientist, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient exhorted a packed house of 600 to hold politicians legally accountable for what he called an intergenerational crime. Though a spokesman said yesterday the call for imprisonment was not meant to be taken literally, Dr. Suzuki reportedly made similar remarks in an address at the University of Toronto last month.

Thirty years ago (in 1973, to be exact) the school paper of the University of Waterloo, The Chevron, published an article written by David Suzuki and his wife Tara Cullis.  In it, Suzuki and Cullis discuss the problem of a lack of oversight by the public and their elected officials, allowing scientist far too much latitude:

In 1973, society in Canada and in North America as a whole finds itself in a curious paradox.  Science and its accompanying technology have mushroomed in recent decades until they now affect every aspect of our lifestyles...Yet the majority of us are almost totally ignorant of the workings of science and scientists...The result of this ignorance has been to abdicate any responsibility in guiding the application of science...[Through] our taxes, to the tune of of $1.2 to $1.6 billion annually, we are paying for the research being done: scientists, like politicians, are ultimately civil servants...For these reasons, the public has not only the right but the responsibility to contribute substantially to decisions on the pursuits and applications of science.

Scientists are like politicians?  Interestingly, David Suzuki warned us that scientists are not to be trusted blindly:

It is potentially dangerous for the public to believe in the myth of scientific neutrality.  I can site several cases of the intrusion of socio-economic and political ideas into scientific work.

David Suzuki cites several examples of scientists trying to use science to promote theories of genetic differences between the races.  Beware, these scientists are pursuing a different agenda.  Don't assume that just because a scientist, or even a group of scientists, are promoting a particular idea, that it is scientifically legitimate.

Be skeptical.  And be informed:

It is no longer sufficient to suggest that science is too complex for the lay public to understand...The provision for self-education is the necessary first step toward exercising an informed influence on our future.

The goal is for the public to exert control over the scientific community, a group that, like the military, cannot be allowed to pursue its own agenda without oversight, and that can be expected to resist that level of control:

Significant change from within the vested interests of the scientific community are highly unlikely; so just as civilian control must be exerted on the military, the public must demand accountability of scientists.

In 1973, David Suzuki was still a working scientist.  He was doing a local children's television program, but the big break with the CBC was still a year away.

Since then, of course, he has become a celebrity.  It has been twenty years since he has done a lick of science.  He has also abandoned his field of expertise, genetics, for environmental activism.

He has also taken leave of his senses somewhere along the way.  Thirty years ago, he felt scientists were like civil servants, not unlike politicians and the military in many ways.  As such, scientific inquiry and what comes of that work required careful oversight by the combined wisdom of the public at large, expressed through the tools of democratic expression. 

Now, scientists are the arbiters of truth.  Those who deny the truth must be incarcerated.  There is no debate.  All talking must cease.  Doubt and skepticism as the enemy.  Have faith in science.

I guess David Suzuki's opinions have evolved.  Of course, his people are saying that his repeated demands that skeptical politicians be jailed were not supposed to be taken seriously.

I might be willing to accept that and cut David Suzuki some slack, but only if he makes it clear that his real position was the one he outlined in 1973.