Born March 24, 1936 in
Vancouver, British Columbia
Residence: Vancouver,
British Columbia
Institutions:
University of British Columbia
Alma Mater: Amherst
College, B.A. (1958)
University of Chicago,
Ph.D. (1961)
Notable Honorary
Degrees, Awards and Honours
(numerous...well
over 40)...including
Order
of Canada (1976, 2006)
UNESCO’s
Kalinga Prize (1986)
Right
Livelihood Award (2009)
David
Suzuki is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and
environmentalist. He earned a Ph. D. Degree in zoology from the
University of Chicago...was a professor in the genetics department at
the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in
2001. Since the mid-1970's, Suzuki has been known for his TV and
radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the
environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running
CBC Television science program...The
Nature of Things...seen
in over 40 nations. He is also well known for criticizing
governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.
A long time activist to reverse global climate change,
Suzuki
founded the David
Suzuki Foundation
in 1990 to work,
“to
find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world.”
Early
Life:
A third-generation Japanese-Canadian, Suzuki and his family suffered
internment in British Columbia from early during WWII until after the
war ended in 1945. In June 1942, Suzuki's family's dry-cleaning
business was sold by the government, then interned him, his mother
and 2 sisters in a camp at Slocan in the province's interior. His
father had been sent to a labour camp in Solsqua two months earlier.
After the war, Suzuki's family (like other Japanese Canadian
families) were forced to move east of the Rockies. The Suzukis moved
to Islington, Leamington and London, Ontario. He credits his father
for having interested him in and sensitized him to nature.
Attending London Central Secondary School,
he won the election to become Students' Council President in his last
year
by more votes than all the other candidates combined.
Broadcasting
Career:
In 1970, he began in television with the weekly children's
show...Suzuki
on Science.
In 1974, he founded the radio program...Quirks
and Quarks...which
he also hosted on CBC AM radio from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the
1970's he also hosted...Science
Magazine...
a weekly program geared towards an adult audience. Since 1979,
Suzuki has hosted...The
Nature of Things...a
CBC television series 'to
stimulate interest in the natural world...to point out threats to
human well-being and wildlife habitat...and to present alternatives
for achieving a more sustainable society. Suzuki
has been a prominent proponent of renewable energy sources and the
soft energy path.
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: “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
challenge for a major 'perceptual
shift' in
our relationship with nature and the wild.
For the Discovery Channel, Suzuki also produced in 1997
“Yellowstone
to Yukon: The Wildlands Project .”
The conservation-biology based documentary considers how to create
corridors between and buffer-zones around large wilderness reserves
as a means to preserve biological diversity.
David
Suzuki's Blue Dot Tour
with Neil Young, Feist, Margaret Atwood, Raffi, Shane Koyczan...and
more...wraps up in Vancouver at the Orphean Theatre on November
9...he calls it, “The
most important thing I've ever done.” He
wants a clean environment! That's why the 78-year-old
environmentalist and host of CBC's “The Nature of Things” is
crossing Canada with his Blue
Dot Tour
~ the last major endeavour of this kind Suzuki will undertake in his
career!.
Occasionally, in the past, he organized small boat cruises for
passengers
to view first-hand needs of the environment and remedies.
Friends of mine have accompanied him along the coast of Labrador,
others along the Pacific Ocean's island properties and mainland near
Alaska.
His Social Commentary:
On
Education:
Education
has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson
science can teach ~ skepticism. An educational system isn't worth a
great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living!!! But
doesn't teach them...'how to make a Life!'
On
Social Responsibility:
Now, there are some things in the world we cannot change ~ gravity,
entropy, Thermodynamics and our biological nature that
requires...clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy and
biodiversity for our health and being. Protecting
the biosphere should be our highest priority...or
else, we sicken and die!
On
the Environment:
Human use of fossil fuels is altering the chemistry of the
atmosphere.
Oceans are polluted and depleted of fish.
80% of the earth's forests are heavily impacted or gone, yet their
destruction continues.
We drop millions of tonnes of chemicals (most untested for their
biological effects...many highly toxic)
into the air, water and soil.
An estimated 50,000 species are driven to extinction every year.
We have created an 'ecological Holocaust.'
Our very health and survival are at stake...
yet, we act as if we have plenty of time to respond.
On
the Future:
We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall
and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit!
The human brain now holds the key to our future.
We have to recall the image of the planet from outer-space ~ a
single entity
in which air, water and continents are inter-connected. That is
our home!
Written by Merle Baird-Kerr...March 26. 2015
Your comments I appreciate...email to:
No comments:
Post a Comment