David Takayoshi Suzuki – Canada

inked with The David Suzuki Foundation, and with Kids in the Nest.

David Takayoshi Suzuki CC OBC (born March 24, 1936), is a Canadian science broadcaster and environmental activist. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his TV and radio series and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running CBC Television science magazine, The Nature of Things, seen in syndication 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 co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work « to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us. » The Foundation’s priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge. He also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982-1987 … (full text).

David Suzuki is renowned both for his unwavering dedication to sustainable development and for his criticism of human activities that threaten our planet. For more than three decades, he has been one of our foremost science broadcasters, environmentalists, and grassroots activists. He has increased public awareness of a multitude of issues as the host of the long-running television series « The Nature of Things » and as the author of several books, including From Naked Ape to Superspecies. In 1990, he established the David Suzuki Foundation to promote resource conservation and environmental protection. Always forthright and thought provoking, he continues to reflect on the impact of our behaviour on the natural world that sustains us … (full text).

He says: … « You have lived your entire lives in a completely unsustainable period, » he told students and fans. « You all think growth and [climate] change is normal. It’s not. »

His full-bio, 16 pdf-pages.

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David Takayoshi Suzuki – Canada

Watch these videos:

  • a Suzuki Interview, 17.42 min, Dec 18th, 2008;
  • David Suzuki: Vote Environment 2008, 5.10 min, 19 Dec 2008 – David Suzuki doesn’t care which party you prefer. He does care passionately that you know what’s at stake in the federal election, and that you let politicians know that;
  • an Interactive Video on asterpix, no time and date indication.

His climate change activism on wikipedia /climate change activism.

… David Suzuki’s Japanese name is Takayoshi Suzuki (鈴木 孝義, Suzuki Takayoshi?) but he is always known by his English name to the public, even in Japanese scientific and popular literature (using Romaji). Suzuki lives in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver. (full text).

A lecture-audio, 106,16 min.

… David has authored more than 40 books, and has received numerous awards for his work including a UNESCO prize for science, a United Nations Environment Program medal and the Order of Canada. He has 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. For his work in support of Canada’s First Nations people, David has received many tributes and has been honoured with five names and formal adoption by two tribes. (full text).

David Suzuki has received 22 honorary degrees from universities in Canada, the United States and Australia.

… David has authored more than 40 books, and has received numerous awards for his work including a UNESCO prize for science, a United Nations Environment Program medal and the Order of Canada. He has 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. For his work in support of Canada’s First Nations people, David has received many tributes and has been honoured with five names and formal adoption by two tribes. (full text).

David Suzuki’s photos and videos on weblo.com.

Find him and his publications on wikipedia /publications; on amazon; on Google Video-search; on alibris; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

… For more information, please check out the NHLPA website and the David Suzuki Foundation website. For more information about the partnership, please check out the NHL’s news release, the David Suzuki Foundation’s news release, and the NHLPA’s news release … (full text).

… While voluntary offset programs should not be seen as a substitute for comprehensive government regulations to reduce greenhouse gases (e.g. through implementation of the Kyoto Protocol), they are a step in the right direction, and an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on climate change. Carbon offsets also offer flexibility, as you can choose to offset just one – or all – of your major emission sources. For example, you can purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the emissions from your air travel, automobile use, or home heating. If you wish to offset the emissions from electricity, you can use either carbon offsets or a special product known as a « Renewable Energy Certificate » (REC), which is like purchasing renewable energy … (full text).

He tells:

  • We can’t shout about global warming and then shout even louder about the ‘dangers’ of windmills
  • 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 interconnected. That is our home.
  • Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism
  • We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyones arguing over where they’re going to sit.
  • In the environmental movement . . . every time you lose a battle it’s for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.
  • We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options.
  • It’s time we stopped ignoring the environment, … Let’s not let another election go by without making this a high priority.
  • The Canada we see in this report does not reflect the one we hold in our hearts, … Canadians expect more and they expect better. We should be outraged that we are among the worst in the industrialized world.
  • Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.
  • The question is whether we’re going to start taking the steps now to avoid the really big jumps that are in store if we don’t do something now.
  • The voluntary approach to corporate social responsibility has failed in many cases.
  • … (full text).

… David Suzuki is a rock star of the environmental movement in Canada, perhaps the US equivalent of Al Gore. His diversity of friends – from Anita Roddick and Richard Branson to Amory Lovins and Sir Isaac Stern – shows he’s a magnet for other extraordinary people. David’s eponymous foundation works to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world. By focusing on four program areas – oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and the « Nature Challenge » – the David Suzuki Foundation aims to use science and education to promote solutions that conserve nature and help achieve sustainability within a generation. David is of Japanese descent and was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1936. During World War II, at the age of six, he was interned with his family in a camp in BC. After the war, he went to high school in London, Ontario … (full text).

He writes: … But sometimes it seems like I’m in the minority. All across Europe and North America, environmentalists are locking horns with the wind industry over the location of wind farms. In Alberta, one group is opposing a planned wind farm near Cypress Hills Provincial Park, claiming it would destroy views of the park and disturb some of the last remaining native prairie in the province. In the UK more than 100 national and local groups, led by some of the country’s most prominent environmentalists, have argued that wind power is inefficient, destroys the ambience of the countryside and makes little difference to carbon emissions. And in the US, the Cape Wind Project, which would site 130 wind turbines off the coast of affluent Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has come under fire from famous liberals, including Senator Edward Kennedy and Walter Cronkite … Are windmills ugly? I remember when Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 1976 to 1992, told me how when he was growing up in Egypt, smokestacks belching out smoke were considered signs of progress. Even as an adult concerned about pollution, it took him a long time to get over the instinctive pride he felt when he saw a tower pouring out clouds of smoke … (full text).

… He called on his audience, and beyond that, the developed world, to embrace the environmental agenda he’s been promoting in Canada under the name of « sustainability within a generation. » He also has 180,000 Canadians committed to « the Nature Challenge, » a 10-point program of steps that individuals can take toward sustainability … Suzuki said that what he has learned from his time with Canada’s indigenous peoples – First Nations, as they are known – is the need to belong to and be in harmony with the Earth. Given the fundamental importance of air and water to human beings – from the first breath an infant draws – Suzuki has come to believe, he said, that « the Earth is our mother, not poetically, not metaphorically, but literally. » Invoking the American national experience after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, which led to the space race and ultimately a man on the moon, the global telecommunications revolution, and other beneficial developments, Suzuki suggested that a major push onto the path of sustainability could provide a similar economic impetus. « There’s huge opportunity in doing the right thing, » he said. (full text).

links:

Seventh Generation /about;

International Mathematics and Science Study;

Geijin Ryn International Ninja Training Camps and Academy;

Sustainable development on amazon;

Kids in the Nest;

The blog: moving images, moving people;

Global Footprint Network.