Suzuki hopes autobiography will inspire Canadians to become environmentalists

TORONTO (CP) - It would be hard to conceive of a Canadian who has not heard of David Suzuki - accomplished scientist, internationally renowned environmentalist and the face and voice of TV's The Nature of Things for more than 25 years. But when it comes to the nature of David Suzuki, Canadians might be surprised to learn that despite the fame and accolades for his work to help save the planet and to communicate the wonders of the natural world, he remains a man often uncomfortable in his own skin.

Now 70, Suzuki is still haunted by the childhood memory of being forced with his family from their Vancouver home into an internment camp for Japanese-Canadians a few months after Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

It is a humiliation that he has never been able to completely shake and one that has shaped his character and helped chart the course of his life.

"I've been very ambitious to do well, and part of it is because after the war we were completely impoverished, and my dad said the way out is education and hard work," Suzuki explains during a stop in Toronto to promote his new autobiography. "He said if you're ever going to compete with white people you have to work 10 times harder.

"It's within me," concedes Suzuki, the Canadian-born son of Canadian-born parents of Japanese descent. "When I meet a white person, I still feel that the first thing you're seeing is a Jap."

That sense of not being "a real Canadian," sown so long ago, continues in part to drive him to accept requests that he lend his name and time to numerous environmental projects, even though he insists he'd like to slow down a bit and spend more time with his wife Tara Cullis, his five grown children (three from his first marriage) and his grandchildren.

"I do it because, in my gut, I'm trying to still show that I'm a worthwhile Canadian. It's one thing to do that when you're younger. When you're 70 years old, it's sick," he says with a gallows chuckle and an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

It is a surprising admission from one of Canada's most admired and beloved celebrities, a man whose name has become synonymous with environmental causes.

And they are causes for which his passion still burns, a passion he especially hopes to pass on to young people through his latest book, entitled simply David Suzuki: An Autobiography (Greystone Books). It arrives in stores Saturday.

His first memoir, called Metamorphosis and published almost 20 years ago, was never intended as an autobiography. He wanted to write a collection of essays, but was persuaded by his publisher to tell readers about "more personal stuff."

"Now at the age of 70, I look in the mirror, and it's undeniable I'm an old man," says Suzuki, not with self-pity but with the knowledge that it's time to tell his story. "But I've had a number of experiences over the last 20 years. I thought they'd be worth recounting. Because what I want people to realize is that being an environmentalist doesn't mean all doom and gloom. I wanted people to see, 'Wow he's had amazing adventures. He's met incredible people and been to wonderful places.' "

As recounted in his book, Suzuki's environmental journey has taken him from old-growth forests in British Columbia to the rainforests of the Amazon and Papua New Guinea to raise awareness about threats to the "lungs of the Earth" from logging, industry and rapacious development. He has also voiced repeated warnings about global warming, air pollution, humankind's assaults on the oceans, rivers and lakes, and the poisoning by pesticides and refuse of our ever-shrinking farmland.

"Right now, we're using air, water and soil as if it's limitless and that it can be a garbage dump," he says, punching the air with his hands to punctuate his point.

"And yet how can you exist without air? We think the air goes up to the stars. It's only 10 kilometres thick. If you took the entire planet and reduced it to the size of a basketball, the air would be thinner than a layer of Saran wrap. And that's what we're pouring all of our crap into."

And while stopping the relentless destruction of the planet may seem an impossible task, Suzuki wants people to realize that even a single individual can make a difference.

"Everyone of us is a part of the problem and everyone of us can be part of the solution," he says, repeating the oft-spoken mantra. "But don't think 'you' have to carry the burden of being the one. . . . You're not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. But know if lots of other people have the same commitment, we can add up to be quite a strong force."

There are simple things, he said, that Canadians can do: give up meat one day a week (it takes 10 to 15 kilograms of grain to grow a kilogram of meat); eat locally grown food one month a year, which he said would create tens of thousands of jobs; leave the car at home one day a week and take public transit, carpool or walk; and buy energy-efficient products for the home.

So, if we don't start taking such steps, where are humans and other species on the planet headed?

"Right down the chute," predicts Suzuki. "The direction we're going is we're undermining the life-support systems of the planet. And the tragedy is we've been told this for over 40 years by the leading scientists in the world."

While that doesn't mean there is no hope, we're running out of time, he says.

"Even if we were to do a massive shift on climate change, reduce greenhouse gases and all that, polar bears are toast. Our North is going to undergo massive change, we will lose huge parts of our coastline because oceans are going to rise. There's nothing we can do about that because we've already started the ball rolling.

"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," concludes Suzuki, noting that the environment is not one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's stated five priorities and he doubts it will become one any time soon.

That's why he will spend the next couple of years doggedly pushing for government action on the environment and urging the public and politicians to make it THE issue of the next federal election.

"The decisions that are being made now are setting us on the course that is essentially going to be the world of our children," says Suzuki, who is donating all royalties from his autobiography to the charitable foundation created in his name.

"What we have to do now is heroic. We have to have a massive shift in the way that we use energy and the kind of energy we use. We have to have a massive shift in the way we do everything.

"But that takes us saying this is the highest priority we've got. We've got to act as if this is war."

© The Canadian Press, 2006