David Suzuki - "Take my research, please"

A very tangential connection to an earlier post about short vs full RSS feeds, prompted in part by Rachel's comment on the earlier post, BoingBoing discusses politicians' recent co-opting of environmental research conducted by the David Suzuki Foundation, with apparent lack of adequate attribution or acknowledgment of the source.

David Suzuki comments on the incident in a recent article, "Take my research, please" --

"Allow me to clear something up right now. To all politicians looking for ways to reduce our footprint on nature – or, to use politician-speak, create an “environmental platform”: Knock yourselves out. Feel free to steal, pilfer, borrow, rent, filch or otherwise take any research my foundation does and put it to good use.

This may seem obvious to some, but the whole point of conducting and publishing this research is to get people to actually use it. As public education, it helps raise awareness of environmental problems. But more important, it provides solutions to those problems. And most of those solutions are best implemented by our political and business leaders, rather than by individuals."

I saw David Suzuki lecture several years ago at a Medical Library Association annual meeting and he's a fantastic and inspiring speaker about environmental issues.

A few clips:
- featured on this episode of Listen Up with Lorna Dueck #278 - Environmental Action
- the David Suzuki Nature Challenge
- World Wildlife Fund Australia interview with Dr. Suzuki
- and more available via a quick youtube search