Dr. David Suzuki

the 36th Annual Watts Lecture, University of Toronto Scarborough

When I was taking a course called the 'Civics and Career' back in grade 10, I had to pick a Canadian role model and do a short powerpoint presentation. From the list of names of great Canadians, I choose Dr. David Suzuki over the others. It's hard to recall why I came to that decision; but perhaps because he and I share same ethnic background, or because he was one of the only few public figures who was not an athlete nor politician. One thing I can definitely still remember about him, is that his public perception, both as a scientist and environmentalist, left me a strong image on my head. 

Luckily, Dr. David Suzuki came to visit my campus and I had an opportunity to go sit on his special lecture last night. The lecture did not have a specific topic, but the two main focuses were on the issues of lack of public interests on environmental issues and the unsustainable development of the current generation. He began talking in a quiet casual manner- about what he does these days and left this unforgettable punch line: "Now that I don't think about sex all the time, I am now smarter and more focused than I was ever before". As the lecture went deep into the session, despite the weight of the issues, he explained various concepts and his ideas in quiet thoroughly manner; Some of the ideas were on the Shift from the 'ecology' based agricultural society to 'economy' based industrial society, New geological period of 'anthropocene'- where humans became the major influence on the geology of earth, difference between unavoidable forces of nature such as gravity and fabricated forces such currency, boders, and markets. 

One of the important ideas of the lecture came out when he talked about 'why the young generation must take a great amount of interest on the environmental issue and the related initiatives'. He believes that the current society lacks the idea of 'sustainability' and doesn't consider the environment issue as a high priority which it suppose to be. This is partially due to the flaw of democracy that encourages political leaders to take short term development initiatives, that benefit themselves within their political term, and prevents them from taking a long-term sustainable growth initiative. Therefore it's important for the current, young generation to realize that the political leaders of today don't have the best interest on the benefit for the future, the time period beyond their elected term. The same idea also applies to the private industries that are driven by quarterly profits.  That's why Dr. Suzuki urges that It's up to the young people, including myself, to take the initiative to change the paradigm of exploiting the future's prosperity. 

I see David Suzuki in the same manner as I see Carl Sagan, who was a science communicator with great interests on astrophysics and produced the award winning television series in the 1980s. One can agree or disagree with his ideas, but he is certainly a great science broadcaster with much passion on the nature- that's what got me interested in his CBC documentary series, the Nature of Things. To the public, He will be remembered as an environmental icon and a figure once voted as the 5th greatest Canadian. For me, he would be remembered as a great speaker with inspirational mind and will-do attitude.

p.s.) His daughter, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who also became an environmental activist attended the Rio De Geniro Earth Summit in the 1992 and gave a speech to the assembly at the age of 12. The viral video is called 'The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes'. In recent years, it's been easier for young people to taking initiatives through all the social media and social networks, but it wouldn't be the same back in 1992.