Earth Time

Patrick Colgan is the former executive director of the Canadian Museum
of Nature.

Earth Time is a collection of newspaper columns dealing with many
aspects of humans in a natural context. The first part, “Taking
Stock,” deals with how human domination of the earth has affected
world’s ecosystems. Suzuki demonstrates how the imperatives of global
consumer economics, urbanization, the media, and the computer revolution
have increasingly distanced humanity from nature. He pays laudable
attention to such issues as human misery and the increasingly skewed
distribution of wealth.

The second part, “Changing Perspective,” discusses alternatives to
the present course having to do with changes in local administration,
education, and consumerism. Suzuki rightly chides governments and
industry for resisting remedial actions, (the federal government is
singled out for its “disgusting record”) but his faith in the power
of grassroots movements may be overly optimistic. Notwithstanding some
occasional patchiness, Earth Time is a forceful and timely reminder of
the dire straits we are in.