Dr David Suzuki

Widely recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology, award-winning geneticist and broadcaster Dr. Suzuki has received a UNESCO prize for science and a United Nations Environment Program medal.

Kids go play outside and explore nature up close. This is much more important than learning about nature in a textbook. David Suzuki’s 75th birthday request – 30 March 2011

He is familiar to audiences around the world as host of CBC TV’s long-running series, The Nature of Things. From 1969 to 2001 he was a faculty member at the University of British Columbia and is currently professor emeritus. He has authored over 40 books, and is widely recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology.

“We are intimately connected. There’s no separation between us and the air, between us and nature.”

Dr. Suzuki has received numerous awards for his work and is a Companion of the Order of Canada. He has 22 honorary doctorates from universities in the US, Canada, and Australia. For his support of Canada’s First Nations people, Dr. Suzuki has been honored with six names and formal adoption by two tribes.

If all humans disappeared today, the earth would start improving tomorrow. If all the ants disappeared today, the earth would start dying tomorrow.

The way we see the world shapes the way we treat that world.

Dr David Suzuki
World leader in sustainable ecology

“We’ve so polluted our environment that we’ve got to buy water in bottles.”

CBC Interview – 18 minutes (2022)

“When I’m dead, I don’t give a shit about what people think about me because I’m dead. So, I’ve done my job.”

CBC Interview – 18 minutes (2016)

I’m in the death zone. This is the most important time in my life. I’m really free. I don’t have to kiss anybody’s ass. I can say the truth that comes from my heart and if that offends …

CBC Interview – 9 minutes (2010)

“Trees and fish and birds have constitutional rights.”

WWF Interview – 19 minutes (2007)

We are a new kind of force on the planet.

There has never been, in the 4 billion years that life has existed, a single species able to alter the biological, chemical and physical features of the earth as we are doing now … and we are doing it with the power of our science and technology and our absolutely insatiable consumptive demand. We now are transforming the earth. We have always been a tribal, local species. We’ve never had to worry what that tribe is doing on the other side of that lake or the other side of the mountain or the ocean. We are a local animal. We may have known 200 people in a lifetime and traveled over a few dozens of kilometers. And if we trashed our area, we just move somewhere else. It’s different now. We’ve filled up the planet. We can’t move somewhere else. And now, for the first time in history, we have to consider what is the impact of 6.5 billion people. And it’s not easy. We’ve never had to do this before. Nature is telling us … the evidence is very striking.

We don’t have people coming together all working for the same objective because, apparently, profit and greed trump the future for our children and grandchildren.

One has no right to say it’s too late. If you feel it is hopeless, then shut the bloody hell up … because you’ve given up, that’s your decision – but there is not point in telling people that nothing can be done.

Optimists believe good things are going to happen. Pessimists believe bad things are going to happen. I just have hope … if Nelson Mandela can hang in there for all those years, I don’t think anyone has the right to say it’s too late and nothing can be done.

I don’t care for the future of the planet at all. The planet will do very well without is. It got along well for billions of years without human beings. The planet will be here after we ago. I don’t fear for life on the planet. I believe that life is incredibly resilient … We, as predators at the top of the food chain, however, are unbelievably vulnerable because we depend on that pyramid of all of the diversity of all of life below us. If there is a species at risk, it’s humanity.

What we are talking about is the near future for our great grandchildren. What kind of a planet are we leaving them? It is a very perilous one.

30 March 2011 – Happy 75th Birthday

Using Cisco’s teleconference technology, David Suzuki and entered over 120 classrooms across Canada and answered environmental questions from students of all ages.

Q: Is nuclear power good or bad for the environment?

A: Good question. Lots of people say nuclear power is better because it’s cleaner than burning fossil fuels. But I think it’s too early to tell. There are major problems associated with nuclear energy that we can’t ignore. For instance, there’s only so much of it. We will run out, and then what? Also, at the end of it, you’ve got nuclear waste to deal with. It’s not really a good long-term solution. Think of Japan, there’s a big lesson there. It’s a rich nation, they’re prepared for everything, but you can’t anticipate the force of nature. It’s not fool-proof.

Q: How do I get on a greener path?

A: Getting on a greener path involves developing a different way of looking at the world. Developing a new lifestyle. We’re all living creatures and we need to understand that. We’re living creatures just like animals are. And like animals, we need basic things to survive. We need clean water to drink, clean air to breathe. Without those things, we get sick and won’t last long. So many kids today have asthma – that’s not normal. We need to put those pieces together and acknowledge them.

Q: Why are there more natural disasters happening than normal?

A: Well, humans have changed the climate, the atmosphere. We’ve become an epoch. Humans have become a force just like nature is a force. And we’re contributing to these ‘events’. These natural disasters. More earthquakes are the result of global warming. More water equals more weight, and more weight equals more tremors. More tremors equal more volcanic eruptions, and more natural disasters overall.

In nature there is no such thing as waste. In nature nothing is wasted; everything is recycled.

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