Thank you very much for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you today.
Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge that I'm on the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish first nations, who cared for this land and the waters for thousands of years.
We're living in an unprecedented moment in human history, one that scientists have now called the Anthropocene epoch. It's a recognition that human beings are the major factor now shaping the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. In the 3.9 billion years that life has existed on earth, there has never been a single species able to do what we are now doing. The sudden confluence of human population growth, technological prowess, consumptive demand, and the globalized economy have led to the terrifying degradation of the oceans that cover 70% of the planet. We've altered the chemistry of the atmosphere that enables us to live and gives us weather and climate. Forests are disappearing, deserts are advancing, agricultural soil is diminishing, and species are going extinct at a catastrophic rate.
As the top predator on earth, we are extremely vulnerable to extinction. If, as the cancer organizations now tell us, 50% of Canadians will develop cancer, surely that reflects the fact that it's because we've poisoned the biosphere by using air, water, and soil as a toxic sewer.
But at the very time when all of this is happening, we're undergoing a mass migration from rural villages to big cities where we lose a sense of connection to nature. Jobs and the economy in big cities become our highest priorities. The kinds of trade negotiations going on now all over the world utterly fail to protect the vital elements that matter most: clean air, clean water, clean soil and food, photosynthesis that captures energy—the factors that pay no attention to human borders or constructs like the economy.
As a human being concerned for the future of my grandchildren, I fail to see the point of negotiating, or even beginning to negotiate, without first beginning with agreement on what the fundamental rights of all people in the world are.
Let me suggest a framework for your discussions. We live in a world that is shaped and constrained by laws of nature. To live sustainably, we have to recognize, respect, and live within the boundaries of those laws. Physics dictates that we cannot build a rocket that will travel faster than the speed of light. The law of gravity says that if I trip, I'm going to hit my head on the floor. The first and second laws of thermodynamics tell us we cannot build a perpetual motion machine. Those are dictated to us by laws of nature. Chemistry is the same. The atomic properties of the elements determine the melting and freezing points, reaction rates, and diffusion constants of all of the elements that dictate what we can and cannot do in test tubes. Biology informs us that every species has a maximum number that can be achieved before it crashes, and that number is determined by what's called the carrying capacity of ecosystems or habitats.
Humans are smart; we're not bound to single habitats or ecosystems. We use our brains. However, the biosphere—the zone of air, water, and land where all life exists—is where we live, and it has a carrying capacity for all people dictated by the numbers and the consumption per person. Every scientist I've talked to agrees. We are far above the carrying capacity of the biosphere for humans, but we maintain the illusion that everything's all right and can continue on by using up the basic natural capital of the planet that rightfully belongs to all future generations.
Canada is not, as our myth says, a big country with a small population. Most of Canada is covered in rock, snow, and ice. It's not an accident that we cling to the narrow border with the United States. Our hyperconsumption drives our impact far beyond what this country can support.
Biology informs us that we are animals. Now, don't be offended by that. We are animals. It comes down to that, and our biological needs are dictated by that fact. If we don't have air for three minutes, we're dead. If we have to breathe polluted air, we sicken. Surely, air should be considered sacred, that is, far above and beyond economic or political constraints.