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WORK TITLE: BOMPA’S INSECT EXPEDITION
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BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/
CITY: Vancouver
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COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
LAST VOLUME: SATA 263
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 24, 1936, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; son of Kaoru Carr (owner of a dry-cleaning store) and Setsu “Sue” Suzuki; married Setsuko Joane Sunahara, 1958 (divorced, 1965); married Tara Elizabeth Cullis, 1972; children: (first marriage) Tamiko Lynda, Troy Takashi, Laura Miye; (second marriage) Severn Setsu Elizabeth, Sarika Freda.
EDUCATION:Amherst College, B.S. (cum laude), 1958; University of Chicago, Ph.D., 1961.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Geneticist, environmentalist, broadcast journalist, writer, and educator. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, research associate in biology division, 1961; University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, assistant professor of genetics, 1962; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, assistant professor, 1963, associate professor, 1965, professor of zoology, 1969-2001, professor emeritus, beginning 2001. Sustainable Development Research Institute, senior associate; host of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television series Suzuki on Science, 1971-72, Science, 1974-79, Nature of Things, 1979-2022, and A Planet for the Taking (eight-part series), 1985; host of The Brain: The Universe Within (five-part series), Discovery Channel, and Cracking the Code (eight-part series), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); host of CBC radio programs Quirks and Quarks, 1974-79, It’s a Matter of Survival, 1989, and From Naked Ape to Super Species, 1999; host, writer, narrator, and producer of programming and films for adults and children. Founder with wife Dr. Tara Elizabeth Cullis of David Suzuki Foundation, 1990. International speaker and lecturer; member of many boards, advisory boards, and councils.
AVOCATIONS:Fishing, camping, hiking, canoeing.
MEMBER:Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Society of Cell Biology (president, 1969-70), Canadian Civil Liberties Association (director, 1982-87), American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow), Genetics Society of America (secretary, 1980-82).
AWARDS:Stacie Memorial fellowship, 1969-72; named officer, Order of Canada, 1976; Bell-Northern Award for radio, 1976, 1978, and 1979, and for television, 1983; Cybil Award, Canadian Broadcasters League, 1977; Sanford Fleming Medal, 1982; Canadian Medical Association Medal of Honour, 1984; Quill Award, 1985; U.N. Environmental Progress Medal, 1985, and Progress Global 500 inclusion, 1989; Governor General’s Award for Conservation, 1985; Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Arts Award, 1985; Gemini Award, 1986, 1992; UNESCO Kalinga Prize, 1986; Gold Medal Award, Biology Society of Canada, 1986; Information Book Award, Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada, 1987, for Looking at Insects; named Author of the Year, Canadian Booksellers Association, 1990; Wiegand Award for Canadian Excellence, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), 1990; MacLachlan Great Canadian Medal, MacLachlan College & Preparatory School, 1992; Commemorative Medal, 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation, 1991; Lifetime Achievement Award, University of British Columbia Alumni Association, 2000; named International Scientist of the Year, International Biographical Centre, 2002; Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, 2002; John P. McGovern Science and Society Medal, 2004; Canadian Science Writers’ Award, 2004, for Tree; named Global Citizen, U.N. Association of Canada, 2005; Lifetime Achievement citation, Canadian Environment Awards, 2005; named companion, Order of Canada, 2006; Global Exchange Human Rights award, 2007; honorary award, Right Livelihood Awards, 2009; Inamori Ethic Prize, 2012; Freedom of the City, Vancouver City Council, 2015; recipient of other honorary degrees, awards and distinctions, including First Nations honors and awards.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Canadian zoologist and geneticist David Suzuki has become internationally known since 1979, when he took on hosting duties of the television program The Nature of Things. The award-winning program, which aired in several countries, dealt with science issues ranging from climate change to animal life and is credited as the longest-running documentary series ever produced. Suzuki stepped down from hosting duties in 2022 to focus on writing and also aggressively challenging the misinformation about climate change. A writer as well as a scientist, Suzuki also shares his enthusiasms with young people through his work as a teacher and his authorship of books geared for both children and adults.
Teaming up with Barbara Hehner, Suzuki’s “Looking At” series introduces young readers to biological topics from the life of plants to the environment and the human body. Additionally, he shares science-based information with preschoolers via his “Nature All Around” series. Other works for children include You Are the Earth: From Dinosaur Breath to Pizza and Eco-Fun: Great Experiments, Projects, and Games for a Greener Earth, both which blend environmental awareness with practical experiments and projects for budding scientists. Suzuki’s An Introduction to Genetic Analysis remains the most widely used genetics textbook in the world.
A third-generation Japanese Canadian and the only boy in a family of four children, Suzuki was raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his parents ran a dry-cleaning business and encouraged him to assimilate with the British-based culture. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, however, the Suzuki family joined thousands of other Japanese Canadians in being relocated to internment camps and ultimately losing their home, business, and savings. The Suzukis ended up in a one-room apartment in Slocan City, a old mining town in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, where his mother worked as a secretary to support the family while his father was sent to work on constructing the Trans-Canada Highway.
In Slocan City Suzuki attended a school operated by several young, untrained teachers, and he excelled at his classes because of his understanding of English. At night his father quizzed him about what he learned at school and listened closely to what his son told him. In exchange, Mr. Suzuki shared his love of nature and the natural world with his son, taking David on fishing expeditions and camping and hiking trips, experiences that inspired the boy to eventually become a biologist.
The experience of being considered an outsider influenced Suzuki to study and work hard to prove his worth. When the government of British Columbia forbid people of Japanese descent to live in the province, the Suzukis moved east to Leamington, Ontario, where Mr. Suzuki found work in the dry-cleaning field. During high school David won awards in speech and oration and eventually enrolled at London Central Collegiate High School. There, as a senior, he became student body president despite the fact that he was one of only a handful of nonwhite students.
While Suzuki lived in Massachusetts and attended Amherst College on a scholarship, he became fascinated with embryology and genetics. A senior project in the genetics of fruit fly propagation convinced him that he had a talent for explaining technical matters in a way people could understand. After graduating cum laude in biology in 1958, he pursued a Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Chicago, where he worked further on the genetics of the fruit fly and its so-called chromosomal crossovers. This early research in genetic mutation won him a reputation—at the age of only twenty-five—among the science community, but the discrimination within the U.S. scientific community convinced him to return to Canada. Accepted an associate professor position at the University of British Columbia, Suzuki became a full professor in 1969.
Desirous of popularizing science topics, Suzuki began appearing on radio and television programming aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and he has focused increasing energy on these projects since the 1970s. He also became an outspoken advocate for both environmentalism and minority rights, championing the causes of indigenous peoples in Canada and other nations.
Suzuki’s career writing for children began in 1985 with the publication of the first book in his “Looking At” series. Looking at Plants was described as “an enjoyable, stimulating way to introduce children to the wide connection our lives have with plants” by Bob Marquis in a review for Quill & Quire. Divided into “Plants All around You” and “Plants up Close,” the book presents botany basics in a “nonthreatening way,” as Marquis noted. Full of facts and activities, Looking at Plants is a “real delight,” added the critic, stating that the work sets the tone for the remaining five books in the series.
Reviewing Looking at Insects in Quill & Quire, Emily Hearn cited Suzuki’s “lucid, lively prose and many explicit activities.” Looking at the Body covers the functions of the major organs and uses what Eve Williams characterized in Canadian Review of Materials as a “cheerful style and clear explanations” along with an “encouraging” tone. Looking at the Senses analyzes the mechanics of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste while also “injecting learning with a sense of fun,” as Pamela Young noted in her Maclean’s review. Appraising the series for Science Books and Films, Lyle E. Craker remarked that Suzuki treats readers to “an exciting adventure in the world of science,” while in School Library Journal Elaine Fort Weischedel predicted that the author’s “chatty, lucid explanations” will keep readers interested.
Suzuki teamed up with illustrator Eugenie Fernandes on his “Nature All Around” books, targeting a preschool-age audience. Using characters Jamey and Megan, he presents interesting and intriguing introductions to basic scientific principles. With Nature in the Home, for example, the children take a family nature walk indoors because of rain and discover many natural products inside the house, from wood in picture frames to rubber in bike tires. Other books in the series include If We Could See the Air and The Backyard Time Detectives. Janet McNaughton, writing in Books in Canada, recommended Suzuki’s “Nature All Around” books as a “painless way” to help children understand the important role nature plays in their lives.
Working with Kathy Vanderlinden, Suzuki serves up more nature activities in You Are the Earth and Eco-Fun, the latter which describes forty-eight different ecological activities, ranging from making environment-friendly cleaning agents to constructing a worm bin and a solar water heater. Patricia Ann Owens suggested in School Library Journal that these projects will “stimulate understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of our ecosystem.” Another collaboration, Good News for a Change: How Everyday People Are Helping the Planet, was written with Holly Dressel and explains how thousands of people, firms, and organizations take time away from business to help their local communities. Suzuki and Dressel offer ideas for readers who want to work toward a more sustainable planet, preserve species, conserve soil and water, and correct social injustice.
In his work for general readers, Suzuki has produced Genethics: The Ethics of Engineering Life, Wisdom of the Elders: Honoring Sacred Native Visions of Nature, and The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, which all analyze humankind’s role in nature and consider how humans can reestablish ecological balance. The David Suzuki Reader, a collection of previously published and unpublished writings, represent the underlying themes that have influenced a lifetime of work. These essays reflect Suzuki’s views of globalization, political failure, and greed. The scientist warns against unconditionally accepting all that is offered as truth in the areas of politics, science, technology, and economics and suggest changes everyone can make that he anticipates will positively influence future generations.
In his writing as well as his broadcast appearances, Suzuki continues to present a lively and impassioned introduction to scientific knowledge which the general public might otherwise find daunting. In an interview with Swami Sivananda for Ascent online, he discussed his optimism regarding the future of Planet Earth. “We are all going to be part of the solution,” he maintained. “And this is what [Mahatma] Gandhi says: We’ve got to be the change we want. Each of us has to do that. We’ve got to act on it, understanding how insignificant we are, but understanding that millions and millions of insignificant people can add up to a considerable force. And I believe that there is a tipping point that can happen.”
(open new)In The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision for Our Sustainable Future, Suzuki shares his personal thoughts on the importance of improving sustainability for the future of the planet and humankind. He emphasizes that the former narrative and how people fit into it is no longer viable and must be changed. In a review in Alternatives Journal, Nicola Ross pointed out that the book recorded “that to create a sustainable future, I need to imagine it. Maybe if I focus on a love that grows, it will happen. If I imagine the countryside where I live as enduring, it will last.”
With You Are the Earth: Know Your World So You Can Help Make It Better, Suzuki situates humans both at the center and as a part of the ecosystem to show how important it is to respect and love it. He offers examples through water and air conservation, animal behavior, and by relating it to creation myths around the world. Booklist contributor Gillian Engberg revealed that “Suzuki’s accessible text … skillfully emphasizes his basic message about the vital importance of interconnections.”
Just Cool It!: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do: A Post-Paris Agreement Game Plan offers a summary of climate sciences and a number of solutions to the problems raised as a result across two sections of the book. Suzuki and Ian Hanington open with a history of climate change, the science behind it, and the factors that directly and indirectly impact climate. They then explain how individuals can help before moving on to explain the benefits of large-scale structural changes, like the adoption of renewable energy and improvements in agricultural production. In a review in Choice, J. Schoof noted that it “is not the first book of its kind…. Nevertheless, the work under review provides a timely, well-referenced, post-Paris Agreement assessment.”
What You Won’t Do for Love: A Conversation is a discussion between Miriam Fernandes, Tara Cullis, Sturla Alvsvåg, and Suzuki. The original context was an in-person discussion for an audience. After Covid-19, the group filmed the discussion to better distribute it. What You Won’t Do for Love served as a transcript of the discussions, which highlighted the importance of relationships and activism in combatting climate change. Booklist contributor Carol Haggas opined that the intimacy of the conversations that were had on stage and in film are “delightfully transcribed in this crystalline gem.”
In Bompa’s Insect Expedition, Suzuki paired with Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrator Qin Leng to create an informational picture book for young readers about the natural world. Twins Nakina and Kaoru go with their grandfather, Bompa, to explore outside their house. They take a backpack and a notebook to write notes about all they find. They focus on insects, identifying and observing a bumblebee, a dragonfly, mosquitoes, and ants. A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that “spreads full of beauty and information, familial tenderness, and Bompa’s enthusiasm lift this story.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews suggested that Bompa’s Insect Expedition is “a terrific invitation to take closer looks and think longer thoughts.” In a review in Quill & Quire, Rachel Rosenberg mentioned that “the text is longer than that of a standard picture book, but kids ages four to eight will love the fascinating facts about everyday bugs.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
(With Eileen Thalenberg and Peter Knudtson) David Suzuki Talks about AIDS, General Paperbacks (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.
David Suzuki: The Autobiography, Greystone Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2006.
Suzuki, David T., Metamorphosis: Stages in a Life, Stoddart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1987.
PERIODICALS
Alternatives Journal, May 1, 2011, Nicola Ross, review of The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision for Our Sustainable Future.
American Biology Teacher, March 1, 2001, Jim Wandersee, review of You Are the Earth: From Dinosaur Breath to Pizza, p. 221.
Booklist, June 1, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Eco-Fun: Great Experiments, Projects, and Games for a Greener Earth, p. 1876; March 1, 2011, Gillian Engberg, review of You Are the Earth: Know Your World So You Can Help Make It Better, p. 54; September 1, 2022, Carol Haggas, review of What You Won’t Do for Love: A Conversation, p. 23.
Books in Canada, December 1, 1987, B.K. Adams, review of Metamorphosis, p. 35; November 1, 1993, Janet McNaughton, review of Nature in the Home, p. 58.
Canadian Children’s Literature, Volume 47, 1987, Don Kushner, reviews of Looking at Plants and Looking at Insects, both pp. 61-62; Volume 50, 1988, Ronald Melzack, reviews of Looking at the Senses and Looking at the Body; Volume 62, 1991, Don Kushner, review of Looking at Insects, p. 105.
Canadian Review of Materials, January 1, 1988, Kenneth Elliott, review of David Suzuki Talks about AIDS, p. 21, Eve Williams, review of Looking at the Body, p. 25; May 1, 1988, Ronald Jobe, review of David Suzuki Talks about AIDS, p. 76; September 1, 1989, Fred Leicester, review of Looking at the Environment, p. 215.
Choice, September 1, 2017, J. Schoof, review of Just Cool It!: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do: A Post-Paris Agreement Game Plan, p. 89.
Earth Island Journal, December 22, 2004, Audrey Webb, review of Good News for a Change: How Everyday People Are Helping the Planet, p. 38.
Guardian (London, England), August 5, 2023, Adam Morton, “Despair Is a Luxury We Can’t Afford.”
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2023, review of Bompa’s Insect Expedition.
Maclean’s, July 13, 1987, Pamela Young, reviews of Looking at the Senses and Looking at the Body, both pp. 50-51; April 3, 1995, Peter C. Newman, “David Suzuki,” p. 42.
Progressive, December 1, 2010, interview with Suzuki, p. 53.
Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2023, review of Bompa’s Insect Expedition, p. 71.
Quill & Quire, December 1, 1985, Bob Marquis, review of Looking at Plants, p. 25; June 1, 1986, Emily Hearn, review of Looking at Insects, p. 30; October 1, 1993, Mary Beaty, review of Nature in the Home, pp. 42-43; January 1, 1995, Theo Hersh, review of If We Could See the Air, p. 42; November 1, 1995, Fred Boer, review of The Backyard Time Detectives, p. 46; November 1, 2023, Rachel Rosenberg, review of Bompa’s Insect Expedition.
Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 2013, review of Everything under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet.
School Library Journal, May 1, 1992, Elaine Fort Weischedel, reviews of Looking at the Body, Looking at the Senses, and Looking at Weather, all pp. 128-129; April 1, 2000, John Peters, review of You Are the Earth, p. 155; August 1, 2001, Patricia Ann Owens, review of Eco-Fun, p. 205.
Science Books and Films, August 1, 1992, Lyle E. Craker, reviews of Looking at Plants, Looking at Insects, and Looking at the Environment, all p. 178.
ONLINE
Ascent Online, http://www.ascentmagazine.com/ (September 21, 2008), Swami Sivananda, interview with Suzuki.
CBC website, https://www.cbc.ca/ (October 24, 2022), Jaela Bernstien, “David Suzuki Is Retiring from The Nature of Things to Focus on Activism and Calling Out ‘BS;'” July 18, 2023, “David Suzuki Publishing Picture Book Inspired by Adventures with His Grandkids.”
David Suzuki Foundation website, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/ (April 4, 2024), author profile.
Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, Telefilm Canada, 2012.
Harrowsmith, https://www.harrowsmithmag.com/ (April 5, 2024), Jules Torti, author interview.
Mongabay, https://news.mongabay.com/ (March 28, 2023), Richard Schiffman, “Hope Is Action.”
Utne Reader Online, http://www.utne.com/ (December 10, 2007), author interview.
DAVID SUZUKI
Did you know?
David has written or co-authored more than 50 books, nearly 20 of which are for children!
About David
Award-winning geneticist and broadcaster David Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990. In 1975, he helped launch and host the long-running CBC Radio’s, Quirks and Quarks. In 1979, he became familiar to audiences around the world as host of CBC TV’s The Nature of Things, which still airs new episodes.
From 1969 to 2001, he was a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, and is currently professor emeritus. He is widely recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology and has received numerous awards for his work, including a UNESCO prize for science and a United Nations Environment Program medal. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada.
He has 29 honorary degrees from universities in Canada, the US and Australia. For his support of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, Suzuki has been honoured with eight names and formal adoption by two First Nations.
In 2010, the National Film Board of Canada and Legacy Lecture Productions produced Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, which won a People’s Choice documentary award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The film weaves together scenes from the places and events that shaped Suzuki’s life and career with a filming of his “Last Lecture”, which he describes as “a distillation of my life and thoughts, my legacy, what I want to say before I die.”
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the biologist. For the U.S. heavy metal musician, see Dave Suzuki.
David Suzuki
CC OBC FRSC
Suzuki in December 2009
Born David Takayoshi Suzuki
March 24, 1936 (age 87)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Alma mater
Amherst College, B.A. (1958)
University of Chicago, PhD (1961)
Awards
Order of Canada, (OC 1976, CC 2006)
UNESCO's Kalinga Prize (1986)
Right Livelihood Award (2009)
Scientific career
Institutions University of British Columbia
Thesis Interchromosomal effects on crossing over in Drosophila melanogaster (1961)
Doctoral advisor Bill Baker
Other academic advisors
Bill Hexter
Dan Lindsley
Signature
David Takayoshi Suzuki CC OBC FRSC (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.
A longtime activist to reverse global climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us." The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. The Foundation also works on ways to help protect the oceans from large oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[1] Suzuki has also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982 to 1987.
Suzuki was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2009. His 2011 book, The Legacy, won the Nautilus Book Award. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2004, Suzuki ranked fifth on the list of final nominees in a CBC Television series that asked viewers to select The Greatest Canadian of all time.
Early life
Suzuki has a twin sister named Marcia, as well as two other siblings, Geraldine (now known as Aiko) and Dawn. He was born in 1936 to Setsu Nakamura and Kaoru Carr Suzuki in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his parents were also born.[2] Suzuki's maternal and paternal grandparents had immigrated to Canada at the beginning of the 20th century from Hiroshima Prefecture and Aichi Prefecture respectively.[3][4]
A third-generation Japanese Canadian ("Canadian Sansei"), Suzuki's family suffered internment in British Columbia early during the Second World War until after the war ended in 1945. In June 1942, the government sold the Suzuki family's dry cleaning business, then interned Suzuki, his mother, and two sisters in a camp at Slocan in the British Columbia Interior.[5] His father had been sent to a labour camp in Solsqua in the Southern Interior region of BC two months earlier. His sister Dawn was born in the internment camp.[6]
After the war, Suzuki's family, like other Japanese Canadian families, were forced to move east of the Rockies. They moved around Ontario, from Etobicoke, Leamington, and eventually to London. In interviews, Suzuki has consistently credited his father for having interested him in and sensitized him to nature.[7]
Suzuki attended Mill Street Elementary School and Grade 9 at Leamington District Secondary School before moving to London, Ontario, where he attended London Central Secondary School.[8]
Academic career
Suzuki received his Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1958 from Amherst College in Massachusetts where he first developed an interest in genetics,[9] and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961.[10] From 1961 to 1962, Suzuki worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From 1962 to 1963, he was an assistant professor at the University of Alberta. He was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia for almost forty years, from 1963 until his retirement in 2001, and has since been professor emeritus at a university research institute.[11]
Early in his research career he studied genetics using the popular model organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). To be able to use his initials in naming any new genes he found, he studied dominant temperature-sensitive (DTS) phenotypes. He jokingly noted at a lecture at Johns Hopkins University that the only alternative subject was "(damn) tough skin."
Broadcasting career
Suzuki in 2006
Suzuki began in television on January 10, 1971 with the weekly children's show Suzuki on Science. In 1974, he founded the radio program Quirks & Quarks, which he also hosted on CBC AM radio (the forerunner of CBC Radio One) from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the 1970s, he also hosted Science Magazine, a weekly program geared towards an adult audience.
From 1979 to 2023, Suzuki hosted The Nature of Things, a CBC television series that has aired in nearly fifty countries worldwide.[12] In this program, Suzuki's aim is to stimulate interest in the natural world, to point out threats to human well-being and wildlife habitat, and to present alternatives to humanity for achieving a more sustainable society. Suzuki has been a prominent proponent of renewable energy sources and the soft energy path.
Suzuki was the host of the critically acclaimed 1993 PBS series The Secret of Life.[13] His 1985 hit series, A Planet for the Taking, averaged more than 1.8 million viewers per episode and earned him a United Nations Environment Programme Medal. His perspective in this series is summed up in his statement: "We have both a sense of the importance of the wilderness and space in our culture and an attitude that it is limitless and therefore we needn't worry." He concludes with a call for a major "perceptual shift" in our relationship with nature and the wild.
Suzuki's The Sacred Balance, a book first published in 1997 and later made into a five-hour mini-series on Canadian public television, was broadcast in 2002.[14][15] Suzuki is now taking part in an advertisement campaign with the tagline "You have the power", promoting energy conservation through various household alternatives, such as the use of compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
For the Discovery Channel, Suzuki also produced "Yellowstone to Yukon: The Wildlands Project" in 1997. The conservation-biology based documentary focused on Dave Foreman's Wildlands Project, which considers how to create corridors between and buffer zones around large wilderness reserves as a means to preserve biological diversity. Foreman developed this project after leaving Earth First! (which he co-founded) in 1990. The conservation biologists Michael Soulé and Reed Noss were also directly involved.
In October 2022, Suzuki announced his retirement from The Nature of Things series in spring 2023.[16][17]
Climate change activism
Suzuki in conversation with Silver Donald Cameron about his work.
Suzuki spoke at the 2007 Global Day of Action event in Vancouver, B.C. The sign in the background refers to the Greater Vancouver Gateway Program.
In February 2008, he urged McGill University students to speak out against politicians who fail to act on climate change, stating, "What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act."[18][19]
Suzuki is unequivocal that climate change is a very real and pressing problem and that an "overwhelming majority of scientists" now agree that human activity is responsible. The David Suzuki Foundation website has a clear statement of this:
The debate is over about whether or not climate change is real. Irrefutable evidence from around the world – including extreme weather events, record temperatures, retreating glaciers, and rising sea levels – all point to the fact climate change is happening now and at rates much faster than previously thought.
The overwhelming majority of scientists who study climate change agree that human activity is responsible for changing the climate. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, involving more than 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries. The IPCC has concluded that most of the warming observed during the past 50 years is attributable to human activities. Its findings have been publicly endorsed by the National Academies of Science of all G8 nations, as well as those of China, India and Brazil.[20]
Suzuki says that despite this growing consensus, many in the public and the media seemed doubtful about the science for many years. The reason for the confusion about climate change, in Suzuki's view, was due to a well organized campaign of disinformation about the science involved. "A very small number of critics" denies that climate change exists and that humans are the cause. These climate change deniers, Suzuki says, tend not to be climate scientists and do not publish in peer-reviewed scientific journals but rather target the media, the general public, and policy makers. Their goal: "delaying action on climate change." According to Suzuki, deniers have received significant funding from coal and oil companies, including ExxonMobil. They are linked to "industry-funded lobby groups", such as the Information Council on the Environment (ICE),[21] whose aim is to "reposition global warming as theory (not fact)."[20]
Suzuki is a "messenger" / ambassador for the environmental organization 350.org advocating for cutting CO2 emissions and creating climate solutions.[22]
Suzuki has supported ecocide becoming a crime at the International Criminal Court stating "Ecocide is not only a crime against life, it is suicidal for us because we are the apex predator that is utterly dependent on nature's services."[23][24]
Suzuki has attracted criticism for maintaining a lifestyle with a substantial carbon footprint while proselytizing against carbon emissions. Suzuki himself laments that in travelling constantly to spread his message of climate responsibility, he has ended up "over his [carbon] limit by hundreds of tonnes." He says that he has stopped vacationing overseas, and aims to "cluster" his speaking engagements together to reduce his carbon footprint. He would prefer, he says, to appear solely by video conference.[25]
Suzuki has criticized the discipline of economics for not valuing the environment.[26]
In 2021, he said that pipelines would be "blown up" if climate action was not taken; he later apologized.[27]
Social commentary
Suzuki signing a copy of his work
Genetically modified food
Suzuki has been criticized[28] for his pseudoscientific[29][30][31][32] beliefs on GMOs. Suzuki has written that "products of biotechnology are being rammed into our food, onto our fields and into our medicines, without any public participation in discussions and with the complicity, indeed, the active support and funding of governments. But there are profound health, ecological and economic ramifications of this activity."[33] In a 1999 CP Wire article, Suzuki is quoted as saying: "Any politician or scientist who tells you these products are safe is either very stupid or lying."[34] In an interview with CBC TV, Suzuki argues that the science showing GMOs are safe is "very, very bad science" and that the commercialization of GMOs is "driven by money."[35] His foundation's website includes an "Understanding GMO" page which claims "the safety of GMO foods is unproven and a growing body of research connects these foods with health concerns."[36]
Fukushima
In a 2013 speech on water policy at the University of Alberta, Suzuki claimed that a second emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant would require the evacuation of the North American west coast. Three months later, he admitted that his comment was "off-the-cuff."[37] However, Suzuki still speculates that another earthquake could trigger a new nuclear disaster in Fukushima,[38] as the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission paper he cited in his aforementioned speech at the University of Alberta states that such a disaster could call for the evacuation of over 10 million Japanese residents.[37]
Immigration
In 2013, in the French news magazine L'Express, Suzuki called Canada's immigration policy "disgusting" (We "plunder southern countries to deprive them of their future leaders, and wish to increase our population to support economic growth") and insisted that "Canada is full" ("Our useful area is reduced").[39]
Canadian justice system
While being interviewed by Tony Jones on Australia's ABC TV network in September 2013, Suzuki repeated the claim from Canadian media that the Harper government was building prisons even though crime rates were declining in Canada.[40][41][42] He suggested that the prisons might be being built so that Stephen Harper can incarcerate environmental activists.[40][43] Jean-Christophe De Le Rue, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, denied the claims, emphasizing that the Canadian government is not building any prisons, nor do they have plans to build any.[43] However, in 2011, the Harper government did announce a 5-year, "$2-billion federal prison-building boom" to add "over 2,700 beds to men's and women's prisons across Canada" with $517-million already "spent on prison construction" in 2010–2011.[41][44][45]
Personal life
Suzuki was married to Setsuko Joane Sunahara[46] from 1958 to 1965; the couple had three children.[47] In 1973, Suzuki married a second time to Tara Elizabeth Cullis,[48] with whom he had two daughters: Severn Cullis-Suzuki and Sarika Cullis-Suzuki. As of 2022, he has ten grandchildren, including snowboarder and filmmaker Tamo Campos.[49][50][51] His cousin’s grandchildren are Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, and Carolina Hurricanes player Ryan Suzuki.[52]
Suzuki is an atheist.[53]
Suzuki was criticized by the National Post for owning multiple homes "because he often preaches the virtues of minimalism".[54]
Awards and honours
Suzuki receives the Right Livelihood Award from Jakob von Uexküll.
Suzuki is an appointee to the Order of Canada, first as an Officer (1976), then upgraded to Companion status in (2006),[55] the Order of British Columbia (1995), and is the recipient of[56] UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science (1986)[57] and a long list of Canadian and international honours.
Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977.
125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992.
Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.
Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
In 2004, Suzuki was nominated as one of the top ten "Greatest Canadians" by viewers of the CBC. In the final vote he ranked fifth, making him the greatest living Canadian.[58] Suzuki said that his own vote was for Tommy Douglas who was the eventual winner.
In 2006, Suzuki was the recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award presented at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.[59]
In 2007, Suzuki was honoured by Global Exchange, with the International Human Rights Award.
In 2009, Suzuki was awarded the honorary Right Livelihood Award.[60]
He was the subject of Sturla Gunnarsson's 2010 documentary film Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie.
On June 23, 2015, Suzuki was awarded the Freedom of the City by the Vancouver City Council, which entitled him to the title Freeman of the City of Vancouver.[61]
Honourary degrees
Suzuki has been awarded honourary degrees from many universities.[62]
Location Date School Degree
Prince Edward Island 1974 University of Prince Edward Island Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[63]
Ontario June 1979 University of Windsor Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[64]
Nova Scotia 1979 Acadia University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[65]
Ontario Fall 1981 Trent University Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[66]
Alberta 1986 University of Calgary Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Illinois 1986 Governors State University Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)[67]
Ontario 1986 Lakehead University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[68]
Ontario June 1987 McMaster University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[69]
Ontario 1987 Queen's University Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[70]
Ontario 1987 Carleton University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[71]
Massachusetts 1989 Amherst College Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[72]
Queensland 16 April 1997 Griffith University Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[73]
Washington 1999 Whitman College Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[74]
Maine 2000 Unity College Doctor of Environmental Science
British Columbia 2000 Simon Fraser University Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[75]
Ontario Spring 2005 York University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[76]
Quebec 2005 Université du Québec à Montréal Doctor of Science (D.Sc)
South Australia 2005 Flinders University Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[77]
Ontario 2007 Ryerson University Doctor of Communications[78]
Quebec 2007 Université de Montréal Doctor of Science (D.Sc)
Ontario 10 August 2007 University of Western Ontario Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[79]
Ontario 2008 Lambton College Diploma in Alternative Energy Engineering Technology[80]
Newfoundland and Labrador May 2009 Memorial University of Newfoundland Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[81]
Nova Scotia 2010 Université Sainte-Anne Doctorate
Quebec 2011 Université Laval Doctor of Communications
British Columbia 25 November 2011 University of British Columbia Doctor of Science (D.Sc)[82][83]
Ontario June 2012 University of Guelph Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[84]
Manitoba 2015 University of Winnipeg Doctor of Science (D.Sc) [85][86]
Alberta 7 June 2018 University of Alberta Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[87]
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2018)
Publications
Suzuki is the author of 52 books (nineteen for children), including David Suzuki: The Autobiography, Tree: A Life Story, The Sacred Balance, Genethics, Wisdom of the Elders, Inventing the Future, and the best-selling Looking At Senses a series of children's science books. This is a partial list of publications[88] by Suzuki:
Sciencescape – The Nature of Canada (1986) – with Hans Blohm and Marjorie Harris
Pebbles to Computers: The Thread (1986) – with Hans Blohm and Stafford Beer
Metamorphosis: Stages in a life (1987) ISBN 0-773-72139-8
Genethics: The Clash between the New Genetics and Human Values (1990)
It's a Matter of Survival (1991) ISBN 0-674-46970-4
Time to Change (1994)
The Japan We Never Knew: A Journey of Discovery (1997) – with Keibo Oiwa
The Sacred Balance (1997)
From Naked Ape to Superspecies: A Personal Perspective on Humanity and the Global Ecocrisis (1999) – with Holly Dressel. ISBN 0-773-73194-6
From Naked Ape to Superspecies: Humanity and the Global Eco-Crisis, (2nd edition 2004) – with Holly Dressel. ISBN 1-553-65031-X
Good News for a Change: Hope for a Troubled Planet (2001) – with Holly Dressel. ISBN 0-773-73307-8
More Good News (2003)[89]
More Good News: Real Solutions to the Global Eco-Crisis (Revised ed. 2010) – with Holly Dressel. ISBN 1-553-65475-7
David Suzuki: The Autobiography (2006)
David Suzuki's Green Guide (2008) – with David Boyd
The Big Picture: Reflections on Science, Humanity, and a Quickly Changing Planet (2009) – with David Taylor
The Legacy: An Elder's vision for a sustainable future (2010) – with foreword by Margaret Atwood
Letters to My Grandchildren (2015) ISBN 978-1771640886
Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie (2010), 93-minute documentary DVD (210616DV)[90][91][92]
‘Despair is a luxury we can’t afford’: David Suzuki on fighting for action on the climate crisis
This article is more than 6 months old
The celebrated science broadcaster and environmental activist says we have to stop elevating the economy and politics over the state of our world
Adam Morton
Adam Morton
@adamlmorton
Sat 5 Aug 2023 16.00 EDT
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David Suzuki is in an office, shirt unbuttoned, sunglasses on, a bookshelf over his left shoulder overflowing with a mess of boxes, bottles and binders, some barely hanging on to the top shelf. We’re speaking via video between his family cabin on an island off the Canadian west coast and my barely-more-organised home office in southern Tasmania. But the celebrated science broadcaster and environmental activist is considering something else.
The world likely just had its hottest month on record. What a time to be a climate science denier
Graham Readfearn
Graham Readfearn
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“Maybe I can just give you an idea of what I’m looking out at,” he says, turning his laptop so I can see what he sees: a beautiful bay in late afternoon sun. My response is involuntary: “Oh, wow.”
“Yeah,” he says, slipping into the narrator’s role. “Those are a series of islands. The mountains way behind are the mainland – British Columbia.
“It had been my hope to retire here, but I moved my wife’s mother and dad in with us in Vancouver, oh, 40 years ago. They lived with us for 35 years and in the last years of their life they were really too frail for us to move up to this cabin. So we just spend all our summers here and as often as we can get up here.”
Some time has opened up in Suzuki’s schedule since April when he retired from The Nature of Things, the Canadian documentary series he hosted for 43 years. Though he recently celebrated his 87th birthday, he would pass for a generation younger and remains busy and as motivated as ever.
The problem in Canada is that we are really held hostage to our oil province, Alberta
David Suzuki
His focus remains unchanged: the world, and how we’re stuffing it up. Later in the interview, he summarises: “Look, mother nature is making it undeniable that climate change has kicked in. The consequences are going to be enormous.”
We’re speaking in early July, before the record heatwaves that exacerbated wildfires across the Mediterranean and set a new benchmark for the hottest month record, but after his country has already been burning for weeks. The “literally off the charts” fires have burned across more than 10m hectares, breaking the previous record set in 1989, forcing more than 120,000 people from their homes and releasing smoke that choked cities across the border in the US. Suzuki wasn’t surprised.
Wildfires cross US border into Canada triggering evacuation order – video
00:00:50
Wildfires cross US border into Canada triggering evacuation order – video
“It’s been coming for quite a while,” he says. “In British Columbia, of course, we have forest fires, but the fires have been coming on a more regular basis, more intense, bigger and the fire season is starting earlier and lasting longer. So we’ve known about the impact.
“And being a coastal province of British Columbia, we’re seeing the impact of the warming oceans, just in terms of the new animals being seen in these waters … and we’re seeing our salmon suffering tremendously because they’re quite sensitive to warm temperature, and they’re being hammered. But the problem in Canada is that we are really held hostage to our oil province, Alberta, which has a total commitment to the fossil fuel industry. It’s a petro state.
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‘No one wants to be right about this’: climate scientists’ horror and exasperation as global predictions play out
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“It’s undeniable for Canada – we’re a northern country, and as a northern country we’re warming far more quickly than, say, the United States. We’re warming at, I think, four times the global average. The impact in the Arctic is absolutely devastating, and for over 30 years, the Inuit have been telling us the ice is changing. It’s not forming as quickly as always, it’s disappearing much faster. The potential for ice free Arctic Ocean is coming and the warnings have been coming all this time. But the denial, you know, is just enormous.”
Burned to the Ground: the Canadian village incinerated by record temperatures
00:16:25
Burned to the Ground: the Canadian village incinerated by record temperatures
Suzuki is angered by missed opportunities and weak politicians. He gives an example that others have also made – the contrast between the extraordinary and rapid response to the Covid-19 crisis and the comparatively slow burn rollout in most places in response to the climate crisis.
“I just want to remind you in 2019, when Greta [Thunberg] had galvanised millions of people to march on the streets. I was in Montreal when she came to Canada the first time and we marched with 500,000 people, and then a few months later, she came to Vancouver. We had 160,000 Vancouverites marching with Greta. The west coast of North America was on fire and the continent of Australia was on fire. You know, that was the moment,” he says. “And then of course, Covid hit, and we locked down then in March of 2020.
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The carbon footprint of frack gas is worse than the carbon footprint of coal
David Suzuki
“The amazing thing to me was that for years, people like me would go to Ottawa, begging for a few million dollars for public transit, for insulating houses, for the good things that have to be done. And the reaction was ‘oh well, you know, that’s too much money, we don’t have the money’. Covid hits and suddenly, not tens of millions, not hundreds of millions, we spent over $300bn. Where the hell did that money come from? They just cranked it out. And that’s the response we need on climate.”
Suzuki’s current push is twofold. At an organisational level, the David Suzuki Foundation, the charity he co-founded in 1991 with his wife, Tara Cullis, is focused on combating the idea that natural gas, and particularly liquified natural gas, is a clean fuel and part of the solution to the climate crisis. It is running a campaign under the banner “stop LNG from fuelling climate chaos”. It applies more broadly, but the foundation is particularly focused on fracking – the process of pumping chemically loaded water underground to break down shale and release gas.
gas stove
Consumer watchdog urged to investigate ‘misleading’ Australian oil and gas industry PR campaign
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Much like Australia, Canada is in the middle of an argument over the role of gas that often ignores the vast greenhouse gas emissions the industry releases. This discussion only occasionally reflects on the warning two years ago from the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol – that the world should not be opening new coal plants or oil and gas fields if it is serious about meeting the goals set in the 2015 Paris agreement.
Suzuki, as usual, is to the point. He describes fracking as “the dumbest way I can imagine to get energy. It’s crazy,” he says. “The amount of water that’s being basically removed from use, and the leakage of the methane in these wells is massive.
“We’ve done a calculation that says the carbon footprint of frack gas is worse than the carbon footprint of coal. And yet, it’s being peddled in Canada, as a transition fuel. You know, ‘it’s not as bad as oil and coal, and so we’ve got to go to LNG. But frack gas is not a transition fuel, and so we’ve got to oppose it.”
At a personal level, he continues to push for the Canadian government to declare a climate emergency and follow through on the logical ramifications of that. He is particularly focused on the Canadian environment and climate change minister, Steven Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace director.
“We’ve got the best environment minister we’ve ever had, he was arrested with Greenpeace, he’s been a campaigner for years, and he’s held hostage by politics,” he says.
“He’s got to resign and tell the world why, in the way that [UK international environment journalist] Zac Goldsmith in Britain now has resigned and said, ‘look our government isn’t serious about it’. This is what we need – the ministers to get up and say, ‘look, politics is killing us, we can’t do anything because we’re held hostage by politics’.”
Steven Guilbeault, Canada Minister of Environment and Climate Change since October 26, 2021.
‘I came into politics so I could continue to be an activist’: Steven Guilbeault on oil, idealism and being branded a traitor
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Amid the gloom, Suzuki sees cause to keep fighting. He traces humanity’s plight back to the Renaissance, when he says we lost the idea that we are embedded as a strand of nature dependent on everything around us – plants, animals, air, water, soil and sunlight – and instead placed ourselves at the top of a pyramid with everything else beneath us. He says this idea has only strengthened since the Industrial Revolution, but can be reversed.
“We’ve always tried to justify what we’re doing by saying it’s not going to destroy the economy, so we’re all operating within this pyramid idea. That’s been the fundamental failure, I think, of environmentalists, including me – that we haven’t been able to get across the idea that the systems we’ve developed are themselves limited and responsible for the destruction,” he says. “We’ve got to break out of that, and stop elevating the economy, our politics, our legal systems, as if they come before anything else.”
It is easy for this to sound hopeless. Suzuki cites the scientific consensus that reverberations from what’s already been done will continue for centuries, if not longer, even if emissions stop immediately. He expects the future response will probably include a shift towards self-sufficient local communities, disconnected from the global economy and focused on survival.
'Water unites us all': UN chief makes plea for unity to stave off crisis – video
00:02:13
'Water unites us all': UN chief makes plea for unity to stave off crisis – video
But he isn’t interested in hopelessness, and stresses “we don’t know enough to say it’s too late”.
All action now makes a difference.
“I say despair is a luxury we can’t afford any longer,” he says when asked how he remains positive. “If you care at all about your children or grandchildren, then it seems to me you have no choice but to try. My hope is that trying shows that we believe there is a different possibility – that we can make a difference.
“But hope without action – if we say, ‘well, shit, there’s nothing I can do, but something will happen’ – that’s giving up. We can’t afford to do that.”
David Suzuki is in conversation with Natasha Mitchell via video link at Melbourne Museum as part of the Now or Never festival on 19 August.
‘Hope is action.’ David Suzuki retires into a life of determined activism
by Richard Schiffman on 28 March 2023
One of Canada’s best known scientists and ecologists, David Suzuki recently announced his retirement from hosting “The Nature of Things,” the acclaimed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series seen in over 40 countries.
Also a prolific author with 52 books to his name, he has now turned his attention to becoming an ‘active elder’ in the fight to save the planet.
“The thing about elders [is] they’re beyond worrying about money or power or celebrity, so that they can speak a kind of truth,” he told Mongabay in a new interview.
David Suzuki was one of the first voices to call for action to curb climate change, but he is probably best known as a broadcaster and prolific author of 52 books. In an interview conducted in late 2022, Canada’s highest profile scientist and environmental activist reflected back on his long career, the rapid decline of the natural world, and why he thinks the environmental movement has so far failed to persuade the world to effectively put a brake on carbon emissions.
At the time of this interview, the 86-year-old had just finalized his retirement from The Nature of Things, the critically acclaimed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series seen in over 40 countries – which he first started hosting in 1979 – and a revised edition of his bestselling book, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, was released.
In this interview, Suzuki said that “elevating the economy above the atmosphere that gives us air to breathe, weather, climate and the seasons” is, in his words, “the creed of cancer,” a doctrine of endless economic growth that condemns Earth’s life support systems to rapid destruction. He instead calls for a shift from society’s anthropocentric orientation to an eco-centric view of life, one that acknowledges the radical interdependence between humans and all of nature.
What gives him hope is the growing activism of the young, who are partnering with Indigenous people and scientists to demand fundamental change, and told Mongabay that he is looking forward to his own new role as an ‘active elder’ in the fight to save the planet. “The thing about elders that’s different in society is they don’t have to kiss anybody’s ass to get a job, or a raise, or a promotion,” he said. “They’re beyond worrying about money or power or celebrity so that they can speak a kind of truth…To me, hope is action.”
Suzuki spoke to journalist Richard Schiffman in mid-October 2022 via video call from his home in Vancouver, and his answers have been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
David Suzuki with a giant sea star. Image courtesy of the author.
Suzuki champions an eco-centric point of view, where all life, including this giant sea star, is essential to the health of the whole. Photo courtesy of David Suzuki.
Mongabay: What is the weather like in Vancouver today?
David Suzuki: It is sunny, but we are overwhelmed by smoke from both Washington and British Columbia. Yesterday you couldn’t even see the mountains. And the burning season – which is only a recent thing that started in British Columbia – was usually over by September. Here we are in the middle of October, and we’re in a drought, and this is a rainforest. We’ve never worried about water. On the Sunshine Coast, which is north of us by 100 miles or so, they recently announced that they want everybody living in that area to start conserving water, because they’re running out. It’s pretty frightening to see what we’re going through.
Mongabay: How did we get ourselves into this crisis, in your view?
David Suzuki: I think what we’ve done in the West, in the industrialized world, is that we have shifted in the way we see the world. For 99% of our existence, we saw ourselves living in a web of relationships with air, water, land, the sun, and other species. And in that web, we were one small strand, so we understood that we were dependent on everything else. We have come along, and we’ve shattered the web and made it into a pyramid where we’re at the top, and everything down below is for us. And our actions in this pyramid are now driven for economic, political, and legal reasons that are founded on this idea of us being at the top instead of being in a web. And that’s the real crisis, I think. We’re still arguing about climate change as if it’s an economic problem.
When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said acting to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions was “crazy economics,” he elevated the economy above the atmosphere that gives us air to breathe, weather, climate and the seasons. Now that’s crazy – the creed of cancer, namely endless growth, is a fundamental assumption and goal of the economic system. Nature is only a source of raw materials or a dumping ground for our wastes, but ecosystem services like filtering water during the hydrological cycle, the creation of soil, the creation of oxygen-rich air, the removal of carbon dioxide, etc., are ignored as ‘externalities.’
Suzuki is famous for his lectures, many of which are available on YouTube. Photo by Marie Cressell courtesy of David Suzuki.
The broadcaster, scientist and author is well known for his lectures, many of which are available on YouTube. Photo by Marie Cressell, courtesy of David Suzuki.
Mongabay: You and your wife drafted the Declaration of Interdependence during the 1992 Rio Summit. What is that?
David Suzuki: We said, ‘Can we distill the essence of who we are as a species in a way that will be uplifting and poetic, but profound?’ I wrote the first draft. We recruited Rafi, a children’s singer, and then Wade Davis, a prominent ethnobotanist, and Guujaaw, the leader of the Haida people, and they all had a go at it. It’s now been translated into over 20 different languages, including two Indigenous languages in Canada.
Mongabay: The basic idea is that we are integral parts of nature, not separate from it?
David Suzuki: Yes, I started thinking, ‘What is Guujaaw’s system [affirming the unity of humans and the natural world] telling us?’ We’ve been fighting neonicotinoids – these very powerful insecticides, bees are especially sensitive to them – but you have to ask, how do they act? Well, guess what, they’re neurotoxins, they kill by hitting our nerves. Wait a minute, now, in my genetics lab, we discovered a mutation in fruit flies that affects nerves, and we got a huge grant to study them. Why? Because nerves in a fruit fly, an insect, are relevant to the nerves in human beings…if we’re spraying and affecting insects, you’re damn sure it’s affecting humans as well.
Mongabay: An important event in your life was meeting the Haida people, an Indigenous group who live on islands off the coast of British Columbia, while filming. What kind of an impact did that have on you?
David Suzuki: This is back in the 1970s, and huge battles were going on in British Columbia, not over climate change, but over forests. I interviewed a Haida, an Indigenous guy who was leading the battle against logging. Now, I knew they had over 50% unemployment in their communities, and I knew a lot of the loggers were Haida. Logging was giving them one of their few economic avenues. So, I said to him, ‘Why the hell are you fighting against the logging? I mean, you’re an artist. What difference does it make to you if the trees are gone?’
And his answer went right over my head. He said, ‘Well, I guess when the trees are gone, we’ll be just like everybody else. We’ll just be like you.’ I thought, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ And it was only later, when I was looking at the [unedited footage] and I realized, my God! He’s saying something so profound, that to him, being who he is, his very essence as a Haida, doesn’t end at his skin or his fingertips. That it’s the air, the water, the trees, the fish, the birds, all of that is what makes him who he is. When you destroy one part of that, you destroy a part of who he is. And that just opened my eyes to this radically different idea.
David Suzuki arrives by canoe at Porteau Cove, British Columbia, November 2014 to celebrate an environmental victory. Photo by Lisa Wilcox, Squamish Nation.
David Suzuki arrives by canoe at Porteau Cove, British Columbia, November 2014 to celebrate an environmental victory. Photo by Lisa Wilcox, Squamish Nation.
Mongabay: Partly as a result of the documentary that you produced on the issue, the forests of the island are now better protected.
David Suzuki: Yes, the big victory was a recognition that the Haida, the Indigenous people, had something pretty important to tell us. They were saying, ‘We’re not protecting this area just for Haida people. This is a protection for humanity, as far into the future as we can go.’ And that was a very, very important thing. The Haida now basically have control over the management of that area, management through a Haida perspective. That is a huge victory.
We also had a major battle 20 years ago when the [Indigenous] Mohawks in Quebec fought against a development in what they call “The Pines,” a small pine forest. Now it’s a trivial piece of land compared to what they need. It’s not a huge part of their economic future, but they fought this. They shut down a bridge. People were killed over it. I mean, it was a real battle. Why? Because they felt it was just not right to build a golf course, and a condo, and a series of condominiums.
They were trying to exert their responsibility to care for that land, and that’s the big message that they have to give us. You have a responsibility to act, to receive the world as you got it from your ancestors, and to pass it on to future generations as you received it. That reciprocity of receiving and giving back is what’s missing in the society that we now live in. We can use air, water, soil as a garbage can, and we don’t feel any responsibility.
Aerial view of expansive natural lands in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
Aerial view of expansive natural lands in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
Mongabay: You say that we need to move to an eco-centric world view. How do we get there?
David Suzuki: Well, I mean, that’s the real challenge. And, of course, we’ve had five centuries of denigration of Indigenous people everywhere. They’ve been regarded as savages, as primitive, that they had nothing to teach us. Nevertheless, there are remnants of that worldview. And we first have to recognize and honor that their worldview is rational, is credible, and has something to teach us. A Miꞌkmaq elder named Albert Marshall from Nova Scotia said, ‘We have to have two-eyed seeing — two eyes, one Indigenous and the other one [scientific] and Western. And that together, the two-eyed seeing allows us to see the world as it really is.’
Mongabay: You started as an environmental communicator in the 1970s. How has your own thinking about the environment evolved? Obviously, we didn’t know as much about climate change back then as we do today.
David Suzuki: No, absolutely. I remember doing a film about global warming in 1990, and writing global warming is a serious threat, but it’s a slow-motion catastrophe. Back in 1990, I thought we had decades to do the right things. I never imagined that a rise as little as 0.9° [Celsius] would already have such really remarkable impacts on the biosphere.
Mongabay: We created the problem with our technology. Can we solve it the same way?
David Suzuki: When I was just beginning my senior year at Amherst College, and the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, it was electrifying. We were in the Cold War, and in 1962, John F. Kennedy said, “We will get astronauts to the moon and back within a decade.” At that time, Kennedy and the experts, they really didn’t know how the hell they would do it. But look at the results. Not only did America land a man on the moon, but every year, NASA publishes a magazine called Spinoff that is filled with hundreds of technologies and businesses that have spun off from the space program. Nobody knew there would be GPS, laptop computers, ear thermometers, space blankets, 24-hour news channels. I mean, all of that resulted because America said, ‘We choose to beat the Russians to the moon.’
Mongabay: So, it shows that we could have the same kind of success addressing the climate crisis if we set our minds to it?
David Suzuki: I go to the States, and I say, ‘It is un-American to say we can’t do anything about climate change, like it’ll be too expensive, it’s too far gone.’ That’s not the America that I knew.
The Karipuna Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Rondônia state has been rapidly destroyed by illegal logging. Although recognized as Indigenous Land by Brazilian in 1988, over 11,000 hectares of the forest have already been destroyed. Image by Christian Braga for Greenpeace.
The Karipuna Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Rondônia state has been rapidly destroyed by illegal logging. Image by Christian Braga for Greenpeace.
Mongabay: The future of our planet is at stake, and we’re unwilling to mount this kind of all-hands-on-board effort. Why not?
David Suzuki: There’s a book about this just published in Canada called The Petroleum Papers. Did you know that the fossil fuel industry, through the American Petroleum Institute, held a meeting in 1959, and Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, got up and told those people, those CEOs and all, that burning fossil fuels liberates a pollutant called carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse gas properties of CO2 are warming the planet. And if we don’t do something about it by the end of this century, we could be in deep trouble.
So, they’ve known since 1959. Exxon’s own scientist in the 1970s, James Black, was saying this. The American Petroleum Institute President, Frank Ikard, who later became a politician, said in the late 1960s— ‘Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet, and by the year 2000 could very well be out of control.’ They knew it all at that time. And what did they do? They chose to hire people from the tobacco industry and use their PR specialist to say, ‘No, no, no, no, the evidence isn’t in. This is a crude science. Warming is natural. This is a part of the natural cycle,’ even while they knew what the science told them. It is disgraceful. Why aren’t any of these people in jail?
Mongabay: You are a scientist. Are those who know the science just not framing the message in the right way so that people don’t feel the urgency of it?
David Suzuki: It may very well be. We [scientists] have never put a high premium on the responsibility of translating our work into language that was understandable. But when you consider Exxon itself, as well as the other major petroleum companies, have spent [a fortune] on advertising to tell us it’s not true, and to denigrate scientists, this is the thing that absolutely demolishes me. We scientists are not good at telling you what the solutions are. We’re very good at telling you what the state of the planet is, we’ve got all this amplified capacity of the scientific community to look ahead, and not to listen to that, is, I think, a deliberate result of the success of the PR campaign by corporations.
Mongabay: The young are now leading the fight against climate change— surprisingly.
David Suzuki: Well, no, that shouldn’t surprise us. They’re the ones that are going to pay the price. This is why Greta [Thunberg] has had such an enormous impact because she cut through all of the garbage and just said, ‘I take science seriously, and I don’t have a future. Why should I go to school?’
Let’s get elders from the scientific community, people who’ve spent their lives in science but can now sit back and look at the bigger implications…we need to get them [involved as well.] The thing about elders that’s different in society is they don’t have to kiss anybody’s ass to get a job, or a raise, or a promotion. They’re beyond worrying about money or power or celebrity so that they can speak a kind of truth like Greta.
David Suzuki is a big believer in elders and the young generation coming together for action. Here he is on a fishing boat with grandsons Ganhlaans and Tiisaan in 2014. Photo courtesy of David Suzuki.
David Suzuki is a big believer in elders and the young generation coming together for action. Here he is on a fishing boat with grandsons Ganhlaans and Tiisaan in 2014. Photo courtesy of David Suzuki.
Mongabay: So, what you’re suggesting is that both ends of the spectrum — the young and the old — should get together and form an alliance that could be powerful enough to really change things.
David Suzuki: The young, the elders, and the Indigenous people, what a powerful triumvirate that would be.
Mongabay: So much of the environmental news nowadays is depressing. What gives you hope?
David Suzuki: We’ve got to be depressed. And if you’re not depressed, I don’t know what will depress you. So why do I continue on? You remember [the popular cartoon] Roadrunner being chased by Wile E. Coyote? He comes to the edge of a cliff, and he turns 90 degrees. But Wile E. Coyote is going so fast, he goes right over the edge. And there’s that moment when he’s standing there going, ‘Oh,’ and he’s suspended. And then down he goes. We’re there. Climate change has kicked in. We’re losing 200 and some odd species a day. We’re over the edge of the cliff.
But then they say, ‘Well, is it too late? We can’t do anything.’ No. It depends on how far you fall. Wile E. Coyote falls right to the canyon bottom. I want to be sure that we catch onto a ledge somewhere. So, we’re over the edge, but I’m doing my damnedest [to make sure that we catch] that nearest ledge. To me, hope is action. Because in acting, it indicates we believe we can have an effect. So, if we aren’t all activists and acting, then there is no hope. Hope is action.
Richard Schiffman is a reporter, author, and poet based in New York City. His latest poetry collection, What the Dust Doesn’t Know, was published by Salmon Poetry.
David Suzuki
A conversation with David Suzuki
Our Harrowsmith team had the opportunity to have a casual and illuminating chat with Suzuki
By Jules Torti
There’s no competing with David Suzuki’s resumé. The accolades, degrees (a PhD in zoology and a BA in biology), honorary degrees (25), awards (four Geminis) and list of publications are enough to make all of us feel a little lazy. He’s been adopted by several First Nations chiefs who have given him names like Nan Wa Kawi (“Man Who Knows Much”) and Gootm Lugu Waalksik (“Heart of a Prince”).
Environmental troubadour, geneticist and broadcaster, Suzuki has also authored a staggering 52 books. Move over, Margaret Atwood! His text book, Introduction to Genetic Analysis (published in 1976 with A.J.F. Griffiths), has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, French, German, Indonesian and Arabic.
His landmark television series, The Nature of Things, is in its 55th season. I remember recording programs in the early ’80s (pre-VCR) on my cassette recorder (quickly rewinding tapes with the end of a pencil if they had spooled out) between commercials.
Many of you were probably first introduced to Suzuki’s curious mind and insights on the CBC radio program Quirks & Quarks, which he hosted from 1975 to 1979. He also wrote and hosted Suzuki on Science, a weekly CBC TV show for children, from 1971 to 1972.
Oh, and in his free time he was a professor at the University of British Columbia for nearly 40 years (he retired in 2001). He doesn’t stop. There are BBC and PBS series (The Secret of Life) and a Discovery Channel feature (The Brain). From July 1989 to February 1996, he published over 300 articles, including weekly columns in the Toronto Star (1985–86) and Globe and Mail (1987–89).
His book Tree: A Life Story (Suzuki and Wayne Grady, 2004) followed the life of a Douglas fir from seed to maturity to death. Illustrated by Robert Bateman, it’s just one of a shelf of books that explore humanity, elder wisdom and the global eco-crisis.
In 1990, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) with wife Tara Cullis, a former Harvard University faculty member, an award-winning writer and his pillar. “Solutions are in our nature” is the foundation’s mandate. Focusing on creating livable communities, the foundation assists urban centres in “protecting green and blue spaces” with cycle-friendly and transit-oriented development. There’s a push for food security and a mindfulness of products—the food and water we use. Naturally, the focus is on Canada, climate change, restoring salmon streams in Vancouver (Musqueam Watershed), and creating annual report cards of Canadian rainforests and the effects of clear cuts. The Pacific Salmon Forests Project has united central, northern coastal and Haida Gwaii communities in establishing guidelines for logging and the treatment of salmon streams.
Chefs have come on board with sustainable seafood support, and Olympians and NHL players have joined the DSF, advocating for carbon-neutral lifestyles. Of course, leading by example, Suzuki has stopped vacationing overseas in an attempt to reduce his carbon footprint. He counterbalances air travel with Gold Standard carbon offsets. The offsets are credits from projects such as wind farms that reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
And then there’s the #gotmilkweed campaign. In its third year, over 10,000 packs of swamp, common and butterfly milkweed seeds were sold. The DSF has planted nearly 15,000. Seeds can be purchased or a “symbolic contribution” can be made (and seeds are planted for you).
The Suzuki Nature Challenge stemmed from numerous bewildered requests of how “we” could help the environment in our everyday lives. On the DSF site, You can find blog posts like “David Suzuki Digs My Garden,” as well as ideas from the Queen of Green on everything from green weddings to greener laundry soap.
Employees at DSF offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa are privy to growing organic vegetables on the office patio gardens for use in their impromptu Soup and Salad Club. Some of the offices have living green walls, rainwater recovery, organic tea, Salt Spring Coffee, Ledalite (lights that auto-adjust according to the sky outside), recycled carpet tiles and geothermals. The DSF buys Green Electricity Certificates from Bullfrog Power (wind and hydro facilities and green natural gas from decaying organic matter in landfills).
Our Harrowsmith team had the opportunity to have a casual and illuminating chat with Suzuki when he was at his Toronto office, and we asked the questions that we’re sure you’re all wondering about.
Q: What book is on your bedside table right now?
A: Oh, there are lots. I have this fantasy of spending a summer at the cabin and reading all these must-read books that I’ve piled up. I’m reading The Hidden Life of Trees, which is one of our [David Suzuki Institute] publications. I’m reading The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee because of my interest in genetics. And Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. [Author] Robin Wall Kimmerer has a PhD in botany. It’s about the difference in the indigenous approach to plants versus the scientists’ [approach].
Q: What is the most important book you think every human has the responsibility to read? What should be part of our “human curriculum”?
A: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which was published in 1962. Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered [by E.F. Schumacher]. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World [by Peter Wohlleben]. Braiding Sweetgrass. That’s a good start.
Q: Your 2015 book, Letters to My Grandchildren, led to me thinking about time capsules, as essentially that’s what letters are. What would you leave in a time capsule for your great-great grandchildren that would be indicative of you or this very time?
A: Audio tapes. It’s a Matter of Survival—the five-part radio series I did. The DVDs and films I’ve worked on, like A Planet for the Taking. Those are most important. The films are about all the issues [that were] so important in shaping how I looked at the world. And that led to the foundation, and the Suzuki Foundation is the legacy I’m most proud of. However, I worry that by that time, maybe they won’t have the means or the technology to see it.
Q: The year 2017 is the Year of Sustainable Tourism. Where do you think Canadians can travel to learn and be awed without guilt? I’ve read that you stopped travelling overseas and you buy carbon offsets to reduce your footprint. What’s your favourite place in Canada? Rural and urban?
A: I’m surprised by how little attention is placed on the place where we live. To our ancestors, their entire world was where they lived. They didn’t have to travel far. And this is the attitude that needs to change. There is so much here. I’ve lived in the same house for 40 years. Humans are social animals, and I love the city. I love Vancouver. My house… My mother’s and father’s ashes are there… My wife’s mother and father lived with us, though we didn’t think they’d live so long! They died in our house, surrounded by family. Vancouver isn’t real estate to me—this is my home.
And I love Haida Gwaii. I first began working with the indigenous and was heavily involved in the logging battles at the end of the ’70s in Haida Gwaii. I’ve been adopted by them. My daughter married a Haida. I have two Haida grandchildren—I have an in-law suite there!
Q: To borrow from hotshot New York chef and CNN Parts Unknown host Anthony Bourdain, tell us: What do you like to eat?
A: Fish. I’d be a vegetarian in a flash, but fish are such a great joy. We stopped eating beef a long time ago, but what did [environmental analyst] Lester Brown say? “Chickens are low-flying vegetables.” I couldn’t give up fish. My ideal setting is the early morning and emerging from a tent covered in dew. The grass is still covered in dew, and there’s a fire burning with a coffeepot on the grill. And there’s trout frying in butter. It’s so evocative. It’s the height of childhood memories with my father.
Q: To borrow Barbara Walters’ trademark question (which she first asked Katharine Hepburn in a 1981 interview): If you were a tree, what kind would you be? (Note: I was placing bets on a Douglas fir.)
A: I haven’t heard that one before. Well, I think I would be a Douglas fir. I wrote a book about a Douglas fir—it’s entire life [Tree: A Life Story]. And trees are unbelievable. They are a true wonder. A seed lands and it sprouts and it can’t move to better soil or a better water source. It will start growing on a rock. Trees live by eating carbon dioxides and absorbing sun and water. And still, they can generate these massive bodies and survive centuries. Now, that’s sustainable living. Trees created the atmosphere that we know. And, you know, being a tree hugger—it used to be such an epitaph. “Oh, that guy. He was a real tree hugger!” But you know what? I’m glad to be one now.
David Suzuki is retiring from The Nature of Things to focus on activism and calling out 'BS'
86-year-old TV host fears environmental movement has failed, but he won't give up
Jaela Bernstien · CBC News · Posted: Oct 23, 2022 9:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 24, 2022
David Suzuki: ‘I don’t give a s--t what people think about me’
1 year ago
Duration11:07
World-renowned environmentalist and science broadcaster David Suzuki announces his retirement as host of The Nature of Things and talks to The National’s Ian Hanomansing about his sometimes controversial career and what comes next.
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After 44 years of hosting CBC's The Nature of Things, David Suzuki's tenure will be coming to an end. While the upcoming season will be his last, that doesn't necessarily mean the public will see or hear less from the iconic — and sometimes controversial — Canadian environmentalist.
"This is the most important time in my life," Suzuki announced Sunday in an interview on The National with host Ian Hanomansing. "I hate to call it retirement. I'm just moving on."
His final season with the nature and science-focused series launches in January. In a statement, CBC management said new hosting plans will be confirmed "in the coming weeks."
Suzuki said he is very excited about the show's future.
In recent years, the 86-year-old has taken a step back from the series, appearing on camera less often. He pokes fun at his age, saying he is "way past my best before date."
Suzuki said he's wanted to retire for a while but stayed on with the show to make sure that The Nature of Things wouldn't be cancelled after his departure.
The ballpoint pen, explained by David Suzuki
"People in the media think, 'Oh God, The Nature of Things, is it still on?'" he said. "You're damn right it's still on!"
The show — and Suzuki — have come a long way since he first started hosting in 1979.
When he kicked off his broadcasting career in the 1960s, Suzuki's casual style stood out.
"I had a headband and hair down to my shoulders and granny glasses, and the scientists were outraged that this hippie is talking about science," he said.
Suzuki began hosting CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks in 1975. A scientist by training who completed eight years of post-secondary studies in the U.S., his introduction into journalism started with a series of TV episodes about genetics, broadcast on a local CBC Alberta channel on Sunday mornings. (CBC Still Photo Collection)
But Suzuki was able to connect with the audience, and he took Canadians along for the ride as he explored a range of topics.
Through The Nature of Things, Suzuki shared his passion for science and nature with the public at large — from explaining how a ballpoint pen works to discussing the 1980s battle over logging on British Columbia's Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.
It's through interviewing Haida people that Suzuki said he first came to understand how nature and humans are interconnected.
"Through them, I saw there is no 'environment out there' ... the environment is what makes us who we are," he said.
WATCH | Haida activist tells David Suzuki about opposition to logging:
Guujaaw tells Suzuki why the Haida are opposed to logging.
8 years ago
Duration1:13
David Suzuki talks to Haida activist and artist Guujaaw (then called Gary Edenshaw) about why the Haida are opposed to logging. The interview is from the documentary Windy Bay, which first aired on The Nature of Things in 1982.
Fears that environmentalism has failed
During his long tenure as a science communicator and environmentalist, Suzuki has earned a reputation for speaking his mind — and sometimes landing in hot water.
He's made controversial statements on the safety of genetically modified foods. The general consensus among the majority of scientists and the World Health Organization is that GMOs are safe, though some members of the public remain wary, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
Last year, Suzuki was accused of inciting eco-terrorism for saying that if the government doesn't take climate change seriously, people will blow up pipelines. Critics have also suggested that the environmentalist is a hypocrite for living in a multimillion-dollar waterfront home in Vancouver.
Suzuki holds a banner with demonstrators opposed to Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion plans, in Burnaby, B.C., in March 2018. (The Canadian Press)
Suzuki has defended himself, saying trolls and news outlets can take his words out of context or twist them around.
"This kind of attack is used as somehow a reason to avoid whatever I'm saying. But that doesn't mean the message isn't real," Suzuki told CBC's Ian Hanomansing.
Suzuki is both irreverent and self-critical as he reflects on his legacy.
Why David Suzuki skipped COP26 — and where he sees glimmers of hope in climate action
Looking back at his on-air career, he said he feels privileged to have been a part of the series and is proud of what it achieved, though he doesn't see that as his accomplishment alone.
Suzuki said he hopes people have learned something from his work, but added that "when I'm dead, I don't give a shit what people think about me. I'll be dead."
As for his environmental activism, Suzuki said he has more work to do.
Suzuki, left, and Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, 16, speak ahead of a climate march in Montreal on Sept. 27, 2019. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)
"Overall I feel like a failure, being part of a movement that has failed," he said. "All I want is to be able to say to my grandchildren, 'I did the best I could.'"
Suzuki said he thinks the key to addressing climate change is getting people to shift how they think about nature.
"We are intimately connected. There is no separation from us and the air, between us and nature," he said.
He's looking forward to soon having more free time to devote to the environmental movement.
'We can now speak the truth'
As he transitions into the next phase of his life, Suzuki said he believes that now more than ever, it's his responsibility to call it like it is.
"I don't have to kiss anybody's ass in order to get a job or a raise or a promotion," he said. "I'm free now, as an elder.
"As an elder, you're way beyond worrying about more power or money or fame. We can now speak the truth. We can look back and say 'this is BS.'"
VIDEODavid Suzuki reveals 32-year-old letter from King Charles
Just days ago, Suzuki did exactly that at a news conference in B.C., and accused the federal government of "bullshit" for promoting tourism while falling short on addressing climate change.
He credits his father for teaching him to take a stand. Suzuki remembers getting lectured by his dad while in high school for taking a "namby-pamby" stance on an issue as student body president.
"He said, 'If you want everybody to like you, then you're not going to stand for anything. There are always going to be people who will object to or disagree with you.'"
A young Suzuki, right, a third-generation Japanese Canadian, is shown with two of his sisters at an internment camp in Slocan City in the British Columbia Interior, between 1942 and 1945. (National Archives of Canada)
Suzuki, a third-generation Japanese Canadian, spent part of his childhood in an internment camp in B.C.'s Interior with his family during the Second World War. His father was sent into forced labour by the Canadian government.
He said his experience during the war is part of the reason social justice and activism are important to him.
When asked what his childhood self would think of where he is now, Suzuki paused.
"I guess he would be surprised. I have no idea what he would think."
Journey from 'hotshot scientist' to TV broadcaster
Suzuki, a scientist by training, said he never planned on becoming a full-time broadcaster. After eight years of post-secondary studies in the United States, he returned to Canada in 1962 with plans to pursue a career as a geneticist.
"In my mind I was a hotshot scientist," Suzuki said. "I wanted to make my name in genetics — and to my shock, when I applied for a research grant, I was given $4,200."
Suzuki said he couldn't believe the lack of funding for Canadian research, compared with his American peers who were receiving grants in the tens of thousands of dollars.
"I said, 'What the hell is going on? Canada and science is like a backwater.'"
WATCH | David Suzuki, 'science's sexy poster boy':
David Suzuki, 'science's sexy poster boy'
24 years ago
Duration8:15
David Suzuki raises eyebrows with a bold promotional advertisement.
That's part of what sparked Suzuki's drive to share his passion for science with the country.
His introduction into journalism started with a series of TV episodes about genetics, broadcast on a local CBC Alberta channel on Sunday mornings. Suzuki was teaching in the genetics department at the University of Alberta at the time.
"I started meeting people on campus who said, 'I really liked the show you did last week.'"
Suzuki said he was surprised how many people were watching TV on a Sunday.
'It was here that I began': David Suzuki receives honorary U of A degree
Alberta premier says environmentalist David Suzuki incited violence with pipeline comment
"That's when I realized this is a powerful medium."
He would later go on to become the first host of CBC's radio program Quirks & Quarks, and in 1979, he took over as host of The Nature of Things, which debuted in November 1960.
"I wanted Canadians to know that science is important," Suzuki said.
Even though people now have a wealth of information at their fingertips now, Suzuki worries about the toll of misinformation.
A Japanese-Canadian man with white hair smiles and laughs mid-conversation, as he sits inside his home. There is a glass of water on the table in front of him, and a window behind him shows green foliage in the yard outside.
Suzuki, pictured in conversation with CBC's Ian Hanomansing, says his goal has always been to teach Canadians that science is important. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
"I wanted people to get more information. Well, they've got it now.... It's really an atrocious state, and people don't know how to wade through that morass of information," he said.
"But I'm hoping that even though it's a cesspool out there, that The Nature of Things will continue to glisten like a jewel."
Suzuki said he is deeply appreciative of his time with the show and the opportunities it gave him to learn from others.
"I've had a wonderful run," he said.
David Suzuki publishing picture book inspired by adventures with his grandkids
Bompa's Insect Expedition will be published on Sept. 19, 2023
CBC Books · Posted: Jul 18, 2023 9:15 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 18, 2023
On the left a man wearing glasses looks into the camera smiling. On the right a book cover shows a man kneeling on the grass with two young children, one which is holding a magnifying glass. There are flowers and butterflies.
Bompa's Insect Expedition is a picture book by David Suzuki, pictured, and Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Qin Leng. (Dominique Lafond, Greystone Kids/The David Suzuki Institute)
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Celebrated environmentalist, scientist and science broadcaster David Suzuki has written a new picture book inspired by his adventures with his grandchildren. Bompa's Insect Expedition, which is co-written by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrated by Qin Leng, follows twins as they go on an insect expedition with their grandfather.
Bompa's Insect Expedition will be published on Sept. 19, 2023.
Suzuki, who is a father of five and grandfather of 10, including twins Nakina and Kaoru, is the author of over 50 books. He recently retired as the host of The Nature of Things in spring 2023 after a 43-year run.
David Suzuki shares life lessons as a proud elder
"Getting the chance of creating Suzuki in all his likeness while preserving the style of the book was such a welcomed and exciting challenge," said illustrator Qin Leng, in an email to CBC Books.
The inside pages of an illustrated picture book show young children packing their bags, and then greeting their grandpa at the door.
Images courtesy of publisher: Bompa’s Insect Expedition, David Suzuki and Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Qin Leng. ©2023. (Published by Greystone Kids and the David Suzuki Institute)
In Bompa's Insect Expedition, through exploring the nature just outside their front door, Bompa shows his grandchildren how essential bugs are to the planet and the important roles they play. With their field journal and backpack full of tools for exploring, Nakina and Kaoru learn more about why dragonflies can fly into a wall without getting hurt and why caterpillars need to eat 200 times their own weight in leaves.
Watch a young child's first encounter with an ant, a bee or a butterfly and you will see fascination and wonder.
- David Suzuki
When asked what inspired him to create a new picture book, Suzuki said, "Big creatures like whales, elephants and gorillas and cute and cuddly animals like bunny rabbits, panda and koala bears and songbirds.
David Suzuki's Survival Guide: A Retrospective
"But small organisms like plankton, krill, fungi and insects are far more numerous and diverse and support the rest of the living world to flourish. Watch a young child's first encounter with an ant, a bee or a butterfly and you will see fascination and wonder."
The inside pages of an illustrated picture book show two young children eating a meal in the garden with a caterpillar.
Images courtesy of publisher: Bompa’s Insect Expedition, David Suzuki and Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Qin Leng. ©2023. (Published by Greystone Kids and the David Suzuki Institute)
"David and I had several wide-ranging conversations about how he fell in love with insects as a child, and about how much his grandkids love exploring nature. So the idea of a grandpa-grandkid insect expedition came together quite naturally. (And his grandkids really do call him Bompa!)," said co-author, Tanya Lloyd Kyi, in an email to CBC Books.
David Suzuki shares 5 books that influenced his life's work
Bompa's Insect Expedition also includes facts about different insects and advice on how kids can help bugs to thrive
The inside pages of an illustrated picture book show a drawing of a ladybug in a child's journal, detailing the different parts of its body, and an illustration of a child's backpack and the contents, including a water bottle, snacks, a magnifying glass and a field journal.
Images courtesy of publisher: Bompa’s Insect Expedition, David Suzuki and Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Qin Leng. ©2023. (Published by Greystone Kids and the David Suzuki Institute)
Tanya Lloyd Kyi has written more than 30 books for children and teenagers, including The Best Way to Get Your Way, This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes, Under Pressure and Mya's Strategy to Save the World. Kyi lives in Vancouver.
Qin Leng is a Toronto illustrator, writer and visual development artist. Her recent books include I Am Small, which Leng wrote and illustrated, and she has illustrated numerous books including A Kid is a Kid is a Kid, A Family Is a Family Is a Family and Sharon, Lois and Bram's Skinnamarink.
Suzuki, David BOMPA'S INSECT EXPEDITION Greystone Kids (Children's None) $18.95 9, 19 ISBN: 9781771648820
The veteran science popularizer takes his two young grandchildren deep into the natural world--right outside their door.
Twins Nakina and Kaoru are initially disappointed that grizzled (and instantly recognizable as the author) Bompa isn't taking them to a less familiar locale. "You might be surprised," he responds. Indeed, just bending down for a closer look at passing insect life touches off a fascinating series of exchanges and revelations that begins with the basics--"Bompa, are insects animals?"--and moves on to freewheeling discussions of insect behavior and body parts, of how much caterpillars can eat and ants can carry, and then to larger questions: What would happen if mosquitoes disappeared? If we did? Along with lavishing her lush, grassy settings with wildflowers and exactly drawn fauna from beetles to birds, Leng indulges the fancies of the three Asian-presenting observers by endowing each with dragonfly wings in one scene, giving them a sobering glimpse of a meadow bereft of flowers and pollinators, and shrinking them down for face-to-face encounters. "After all, insects are competitive eaters, champion weight lifters, and expert fliers. They're the world's most interesting picnic guests." The backmatter features a supply list for budding naturalists and a list of activity suggestions for would-be "insect heroes."
A terrific invitation to take closer looks and think longer thoughts. (Informational picture book. 6-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Suzuki, David: BOMPA'S INSECT EXPEDITION." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A768633545/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=de640cee. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
* Bompa's Insect Expedition (A Backyard Bug Book for Kids)
David Suzuki and Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illus. by Qin Leng. Greystone, $18.95 (48p) ISBN 978-1-77164-882-0
With writer Lloyd Kyi, environmentalist and scientist Suzuki tells a story based on his experiences with his grandchildren, focusing on twins Nakina and Kaoru, who explore the natural world outside their front door with the help of grandfather Bompa. In her signature illustration style, Leng portrays the silver-haired scientist realistically as he arrives at the siblings' home and invites them to search for insects outside. With a packed knapsack and field notebook, they're ready for a more ambitious trip ("Bompa, I've drawn pictures of every single thing around here," Kaoru says). But with Bompa's prodigious knowledge on offer, their findings--a bumblebee, a dragonfly, ants, and mosquitoes--absorb and instruct, as playful spreads visualize the Asian-cued trio preparing to eat 200 times their weight, like the monarch caterpillar they spot. Spreads full of beauty and information, familial tenderness, and Bompa's enthusiasm lift this story above ordinary nature explorations with unexpected complexity and substance. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Bompa's Insect Expedition (A Backyard Bug Book for Kids)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 41, 9 Oct. 2023, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A770540053/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b4b0a29f. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
What You Won't Do for Love: A Conversation. By David Suzuki and others. Sept 2022. i04p. illus. Coach House, paper, $16.95 (9781552454541)-800.
Contemplating the perilous state of the environment can stir up emotions, but love would not be the first to come to mind. Rage, yes, and frustration, certainly, yet for artist-actor-director Miriam Fernandes, love was precisely the feeling she hoped to capture when she envisioned writing and producing a play based on interviews with renowned environmentalist David Suzuki. What began as a one-on-one profile quickly morphed into a four-way conversation that included Suzuki's life partner, the literature scholar and activist Tara Cullis, and Fernandes' husband and fellow actor, Sturla. United by their concern for the environment and disappointed by the failure of the existential threat of climate change to galvanize the global imagination, the couples built upon this foundation by demonstrating how their activist commitment is fortified by their personal relationships with spouses, family, and friends. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the medium shifted from stage to film, which allowed for a wide-ranging intimacy Fernandes hadn't anticipated, but which is delightfully transcribed in this crystalline gem that is enhanced by interludes of evocative poetry and serene nature photography.--Carol Haggas
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Haggas, Carol. "What You Won't Do for Love: A Conversation." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 1, 1 Sept. 2022, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A718452141/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6889f827. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
Suzuki, David. Just cool it!: the climate crisis and what we can do: a post-Paris Agreement game plan, by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington. Greystone, 2018. 205p index ISBN 9781771642590 pbk, $24.95; ISBN 9781771642606 ebook, contact publisher for price
Suzuki, a geneticist and an environmentalist, is no stranger to environmental problems, having previously written several books exploring topics related to humanity's interaction with nature. In Just Cool It!, Suzuki teams up with Hanington, senior editor at the David Suzuki Foundation, to provide a comprehensive, accessible overview of climate sciences and an array of possible solutions. The book is organized into two major sections--the climate crisis and proposed solutions, respectively. The former focuses on a basic description of the science, the history of climate change, and extensive consideration of direct and indirect impacts. The authors also describe the numerous barriers, both real and perceived, to progress on climate change. The second half of the book describes solutions ranging from those accessible to individuals (e.g., drive less, eat differently, etc.) to those requiring large-scale changes in agricultural production, wider adoption of renewable energy, and geopolitics. Just Cool It! is not the first book of its kind, and there are broad similarities to other efforts, such as George Monbiot's Heat (CH, Oct'07, 45-0933) and John S. Dryzek, Richard B. Norgaard, and David Schlosberg's Climate-Challenged Society (CH, Jul'14, 51-6192). Nevertheless, the work under review provides a timely, well-referenced, post-Paris Agreement assessment of where humanity stands on this important issue. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.--J. Schoof, Southern Illinois University
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Schoof, J. "Suzuki, David. Just cool it!: the climate crisis and what we can do: a post-Paris Agreement game plan." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, vol. 55, no. 1, Sept. 2017, pp. 89+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A503641428/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f3debd9c. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
9781553655282
Everything under the sun; toward a brighter future on a small blue planet.
Suzuki, David and Ian Hanington.
Greystone Books
2012
278 pages
$19.95
GE149
From world renowned scientist, media personality, and environmental champion David Suzuki, this volume on positive environmental action provides readers with a lively discussion of the problems facing the modern world in a wide variety of areas including food security, economics, and environmental degradation, and explores new courses of action available to citizens and governments to mitigate the worst of symptoms of impending human caused disasters. The work showcases science-based solutions and provides specific examples of how governments are failing to meet their responsibilities and how we, as citizens, can choose a new course forward.
([c] Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
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"Everything under the sun; toward a brighter future on a small blue planet." Reference & Research Book News, vol. 28, no. 1, Feb. 2013. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A317044328/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f23a8efc. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
You Are the Earth: Know Your World So You Can Help Make It Better.
By David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden. Illus. by Wallace Edwards.
2011. 144p. Greystone, $16.95 (9781553654766). 577. Gr. 4-8.
"I've realized that it is a mistake to think of the environment as something 'out there,' separate from us. We are the Earth." In his latest book for youth, Suzuki, a world-renowned Canadian scientist and environmental leader, creates an unusually holistic title that reaches beyond the fundamentals of environmental education to show that a healthy planet also depends on respect and love. Initial chapters present familiar information about air and water conservation, including comparisons between kids' lifestyles around the world. Subsequent chapters move into animal behavior, with fascinating looks at brain composition and the importance of touch to well-being; creation myths; and the everyday, world-improving actions kids can take. From a less visionary thinker, such a broad range of subjects might be a confusing tangle, but Suzuki's accessible text, illustrated with useful diagrams and attractive paintings of plants and animals, skillfully emphasizes his basic message about the vital importance of interconnections. A fill-in-the-blank section isn't library-friendly but, when reproduced, adds to this creative resource's classroom appeal.--Gillian Engberg
Engberg, Gillian
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Engberg, Gillian. "You Are the Earth: Know Your World So You Can Help Make It Better." Booklist, vol. 107, no. 13, 1 Mar. 2011, p. 54. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A251857405/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0c24fcab. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future, David Suzuki, Vancouver: Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Foundation, 2010, 128 pages.
Reviewed by Nicola Ross
I'M CURLED UP in front of a warm fire on a chilly evening, and with about 25 pages left to read in David Suzuki's latest book, I begin to panic. I still don't understand how we might achieve sustainability against economic barriers and government inaction. I still can't figure out what Suzuki, now 75, wants me to do. The slim book in my hands is almost done, and what I've read so far tells me nothing beyond what Suzuki has been preaching for my entire life.
Maybe if I pay close attention to the last chapter, entitled "A Vision for the Future," he will lay it all down. He describes his realization that "we are the environment," and that, "The 'environmental' crisis is a 'human' crisis." I get this, I think.
With 10 pages to go, he quotes Thomas Berry, the late American philosopher: "It's all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. ... The old story, the account of how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet, we have not learned the new story."
For most of his life, Suzuki has forecast the doom that awaits us if we don't smarten up. He spends much of his first 70 pages castigating our economic system for jeopardizing clean air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity, before recommending that we learn a new story.
This idea of stories makes me think about love. As someone who has felt love fade, I fear the degrading process may be inevitable. Suzuki says that to create a sustainable future, I need to imagine it. Maybe if I focus on a love that grows, it will happen. If I imagine the countryside where I live as enduring, it will last.
And then I think about Alternatives, and our plans to celebrate its 40* anniversary this year. We should publish stories about the future we want, get kids to write about the future they want. Then I realize I'm still holding on to The Legacy, and that my panic has been replaced by wild excitement, and I think, "Thank you Dr. Suzuki. Thank you very much."
Nicola Ross is the editor-in-chief of Alternatives Journal.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 Alternatives, Inc.
http://www.alternativesjournal.ca
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Ross, Nicola. "Where New Stories Begin." Alternatives Journal, vol. 37, no. 3, May-June 2011, p. 13. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A256620561/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ab1db901. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
Bompa’s Insect Expedition
by David Suzuki and Tanya Lloyd Kyi; Qin Leng (ill.)
Reviewer: Rachel Rosenberg
Publisher: Greystone Kids
DETAILS
Price: $23.95
Page Count: 48 pp
Format: Cloth
ISBN: 9781771648820
Released: September
Issue Date: November 2023
Categories: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
Age Range: 4–8
l to r: David Suzuki (Credit: Dominique Lafond), Tanya Lloyd Kyi, and Qin Leng (Credit: Lian Leng)
David Suzuki, the famed scientist and environmentalist, has collaborated with award-winning author Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrator Qin Leng for Bompa’s Insect Expedition, a fun nonfiction picture book.
In the overarching story, twins Nakina and Kaoru are excited to explore nature with their grandfather, Suzuki, referred to as Bompa. Although they are initially disappointed their adventurous Bompa is only taking them as far as their own backyard, Nakina and Kaoru quickly begin to appreciate learning about the insects that crawl around their home. As the three of them wander the garden, the twins ask questions such as “Are insects animals?” and “Why does [a caterpillar] eat so much?” Bompa provides clear, easy-to-understand answers packed with interesting information. For example, caterpillars need to eat 200 times their own weight in leaves because they need the extra energy for building their chrysalis. “Imagine if you were going to grow wings, six legs, a new head and body …you’d certainly need extra snacks!” Bompa explains.
The text is longer than that of a standard picture book, but kids ages four to eight will love the fascinating facts about everyday bugs – ants, caterpillars, dragonflies, butterflies, and mosquitos – they might see lurking outside their front door. At the end, the book provides even more facts, encouraging intrigued kiddos to further their learning with suggestions for how to embark on their own nature journey. Readers are given a snippet from Kaoru’s field journal, demonstrating the basic parts of a beetle, and there are suggestions for what sorts of items kids can bring along for their own scientific undertaking.
Illustration: Qin Leng
Leng’s art gives Bompa’s Insect Expedition warmth and whimsy, with silly visuals of Bompa, Nakina, and Kaoru flying with dragonfly wings, an ant balancing a stack of suitcases, and a giant caterpillar munching away at a joyous tea party. Leng also captures the colourful world these creatures inhabit with vivid nature-scapes full of flowers, trees, grass, bugs, and animals. Overall, it’s a captivating way of introducing insects to children.