>>FEATURE
DAVID SUZUKI
Monday, May 8
Knox United Church
David Suzuki is that rarest of iconoclasts – one whose media simulacrum, created over years of protest and television, isn’t too far from the real man himself.
His autobiography has been a long time coming. Continuing where his book Metamorphosis: Stages in Life (1987) left off, it traces his childhood in British Columbia, where his father’s love of nature had a profound effect on him. His early experiences hiking and fishing throughout Valhalla Provincial Park led to the creation of Canada’s, and perhaps the world’s, best-known iconoclast of the environmental movement.
The passages describing his life in an internment camp in the B.C. Interior have generated the most interest, despite being described at length in Metamorphosis as well. This is due to the candour he uses to describe its effects on him – due to the racism he experienced not only at the hands of the Canadian government, but other Japanese children who singled him out for not being able to speak their language.
"It’s a part of my life that I’ve assimilated, a part that I’ve accepted," says Suzuki. "It still motivates me. I regret that at the age of 70, I feel the need to prove myself to Canadians."
Under Brian Mulroney’s government, an apology and one-time payment was issued to all Japanese-Canadians who were interned. "I refused to take it at the time," Suzuki says. "Were we supposed to keep our mouths shut? One realizes how fragile democracy is. I did take it and put it to good use."
While The Autobiography is a detailed account of his first marriage, parenthood, the CBC and the history of the David Suzuki Foundation, don’t expect a naked tell-all. "It’s not as intimate as my editor wanted it to be," he says. "No dirt or sex. (It’s) simply showing that environmentalism isn’t all doom and gloom. I can’t save the planet, but want others to see what an amazing one it is.
"I want people to read about this experience, what one person did. My wife says she’s afraid to read it… she wants to keep things inside the family. My daughter read the excerpt in the Globe and Mail (on the internment camp) and she cried."
Much of the book details his efforts to increase public awareness and concern about the effects of global warming and the destruction of our oceans. "Stephen Harper has been saying Kyoto won’t work," Suzuki says. "He’s had the Liberals not doing much. Will the government demand standards to reduce greenhouse gases? I think they’ll say the economy comes first. But Canada has the most to lose with climate control.
"I don’t understand why the media pays attention to the skeptics. I really thought the climate escalating was a century away, but the evidence has piled up. We know that methane is 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The permafrost is melting. The rise of carbonic acid in the ocean is killing various species. We’re going right down the chute – it’s a complete catastrophe and we’ve little time left. It’s increasingly difficult to live a healthy life."
The David Suzuki Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to environmental awareness, has had much of its success working at the grassroots level, with volunteers and scientists all aiding in public education. This initiative includes the Nature Challenge, offering ways in which anyone can make small changes to better the environment, through food, nature and transportation – to date, almost 200,500 individuals have signed on.
"Food travels an average of 2,000 miles to get to where you buy it," he says. "We suggest trying to buy only locally for one month a year, to give up meat once a week. Try to live close to where you work, buy energy-efficient appliances and give up your car once a week.
"People love very simple, effective suggestions. Canadians value nature, yet compared to 30 other industrial nations, we’re number 28. There’s a disconnect between what we feel and do. Where in the election debates was there any discussion of the environment? Why wasn’t Kyoto part of it?"
Much of the book becomes, then, a series of vignettes – moments of victory and struggle, memories of home and meditations on mortality. Not an unexpected approach from a man who has lived his life in much the same way, traversing the globe, culling organizers and being the media face on a global campaign.
"In 1962 I was just beginning my career, raring to go. Then I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, saying, ‘You scientists are clever, but forget that the lab isn’t the world, cannot duplicate it.’"
Suzuki gets his fair share of detractors, which is something he’s learned to live with over time. "The National Post likes to take shots at me," he says. "People are going to have to make their own decisions."
We haven’t heard the last of Suzuki, although the book has put this era of his life to rest. "I realize I’m not a deep thinker," he says. "When I look in the mirror, I don’t feel like a profound elder. I didn’t want to have a party for my 70th birthday – I squirm when I get compliments.
"It’s another stage of my life, one where I can slow down. There’s a lot of things I’ve put off doing – geology, painting, my grandchildren."
This has emerged as one of his greatest priorities. "It’s such a responsibility, to pass on that knowledge. When I was a child, my dad would take me out in a rowboat in Stanley Park to fish. Now I can’t take them there. Something is fundamentally wrong if we can’t share that.
"What happens now is of no consequence to me, but it is to them." |
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