1. David Suzuki 1936- Refining Progress
Leo R. Sandy

2. David Suzuki
Suzuki was the host of the longest-running nature and science series in the history of television
He went from being an alien enemy living in a Canadian internment camp during WWII to being chosen as the greatest living Canadian in a nationwide poll (Nelson Mandela went from 40 years in prison to becoming president of South Africa)
He has written more than 30 bestselling books promoting a cleaner environment
Suzuki was born in Vancouver, British Columbia as a third- generation Japanese-Canadian

3. Suzuki cont’d
At age 4, Suzuki’s father started to take him fishing and camping in the waterways and temperate rainforests in British Columbia. This was when he developed his love of nature
In 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, all Japanese- Canadians were seen as enemy aliens. Their property was seized and they were sent to concentration camps as was done to their Japanese-American counterparts at that time
He and his family lived in a dilapidated, bug-infested building for three years
While there, Suzuki explored the pristine wilderness in the area and this got him interested in biology

4. Suzuki cont’d
After WWII, the Japanese-Canadians were released from the camps and ordered out of British Columbia. They could either go to Japan or east of the Rocky Mountains
The Suzukis then moved to London, Ontario
The war years left Suzuki with a profound sense of inferiority as a person of Japanese descent
He found refuge in visits to a nearby swamp that later became a mall and parking lot
After high school, Suzuki earned a BA in biology from Amherst College in 1958 and a Ph.D. in zoology from The University of Chicago in 1961

5. Suzuki cont’d
Suzuki came to see that all humans are genetically linked, and this strengthened his resolve to oppose racism
While studying fruit flies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Suzuki joined the local chapter of NAACP and was its only non-black member
Later on, Suzuki returned to his birthplace, Vancouver, and began a teaching career at the University of British Columbia. There he read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring which reawakened his environmental consciousness
He married a Japanese-Canadian names Joane, and they had three children

6. Suzuki cont’d
One day while taking his children to visit the forest, he came upon a clear-cut section of the woods. Being shocked and saddened by the experience, he vowed to act to protect the environment
He began hosting science-themed radio and TV shows, and by he was the host of the CBC program series, The Nature of Things
The program became so popular that it ran in 55 countries, and became the longest-running TV series in Canada
In 1985, he hosted an eight-part series called A Planet for the Taking

7. Suzuki cont’d
In his broadcasts, newspaper columns, and books, Suzuki dealt with issues such as clear-cut logging, acid rain, and global warming, and he urged people to reconnect with nature and critically examine and redefine the notion of “progress”
Suzuki believed that when people were disconnected from nature, crimes against nature could be committed with impunity
His radio series, It’s a Matter of Survival received more than 17,000 letters from listeners asking how they could help
In 1989, Suzuki, with his second wife, Dr. Tara Cullis, founded the David Suzuki Foundation which focuses on balancing human and nature’s needs

8. Suzuki cont’d
Suzuki has been critical of the overuse of energy and resources to grow economies as well as the degree of consumption that is unncessary. Echoing the findings of Positive Psychology research, he asks if having so much stuff really makes people happier
Suzuki advocates for a totally different accounting and value system that can restore humans to be in balance with the realities of the earth (it is believed that the number of people on earth has already exceeded its capability to sustain that number)
Some of the anticipated problems he sees are frequent droughts, extreme weather events, expanding diseases, and fresh water scarcity

9. Suzuki cont’d
He believes that environmental degradation is a serious threat to world security and peace
He noted that terror, genocide, and war further contribute to ecological disaster. He used the example of the atomic bomb, napalm, and Agent Orange to make his point
To ward off further environmental destruction, Suzuki launched a comprehensive plan in 2004 called Sustainability within a Generation the focus of which is to reduce consumption, e.g., energy conserving cars, low energy refrigerators, etc.

10. Suzuki Quotes
War is more than a metaphor: we are in a very real struggle to protect the life support systems of the planet from a degradation that is every bit as threatening as a bomb or bullet
I believe the overarching crisis resides in the modern, urban human mind, in the values and beliefs that are driving much of our destructiveness
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it
There is hope. People have a groundswell of goodness in them and something can be done. We can make it a better place if we try and that’s all that matters

11. Video
David Suzuki Talks Tough on the Environment

12. References
Beller, K., & Chase, H. (2008). Great peacemakers: True stories from around the world. Sedona, AZ: LTS Press David Suzuki Talks Tough on the Environment. Retrieved from mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs- 001&hspart=mozilla&p=TED+talk+David+Suzuki#id =1&vid=a158b155edc4ad415e262e c3&action= click