news
November 6, 2008
Canadian icon David Suzuki and daughter air 'Suzuki Diaries' on CBC
VANCOUVER – David Suzuki, scientist and environmentalist icon, is ever the realist.
The reality is that "we're in deep trouble and we've been sleepwalking into the future,'' he says.
But in spite of the almost daily revelations about global warming, pollution and climate change, Suzuki is also an optimist.
"With children and grandchildren I can't give up and say it's too late. It's very, very late, but you have to have hope.''
Some of that hope can be seen in "The Suzuki Diaries,'' part travelogue and part environmental crusade.
The documentary is also, in part, the lament of a man who has spent four decades preaching, ranting and railing against the tide of environmental degradation.
In the documentary airing Nov. 16 on CBC (8 p.m.), he tells viewers in one revealing aside that he's in "the last part of my life'' and the future is in the hands of the young.
One of those is youngest daughter Sarika, a 25-year-old marine scientist who accompanies him on a three-week journey through parts of Europe where they examine renewable energy efforts and preach sustainability.
"The Suzuki Diaries,'' environmental messages aside, is also a gorgeous travelogue, taking father and daughter on tours of Germany, Denmark, the Loire Valley in France, and Spain.
In the boardroom of the Suzuki Foundation offices, with Sarika at his side, the two discuss the program - and their philosophies.
"It's boring not to be hopeful. I don't think you can be anything but,'' she says, agreeing with her father.
"Something that let's you be hopeful is to remember that there has always been incredible suffering in the past and we've persevered.''
Just as they talk to each other in the documentary about what they encounter in their travels through Europe, they talk to each other in the boardroom.
"You have to cling to that hope,'' Suzuki tells Sarika, "but the reality is the indicators.
"When I hear that 20 per cent of birds may be gone by the middle of the century, that 80 per cent of the mammals might be gone by the end of the century, when I hear that honey bees are disappearing for reasons we don't understand . . . those things fill me with fear because we are the top predator on the planet.''
Sarika understands her father's concern. She's heard it before.
"You wonder why I wanted to see if there are solutions out there,'' she tells a reporter. "I grew up with this everyday. It's hard to hear, day in and day out.''
They were inspired to undertake the trip to examine renewable energy efforts around the world and to use them to inspire others.
People become so overwhelmed by doom and gloom scenarios that they "don't know whether there are real solutions out there,'' he said.
"We used to say, `Think globally and act locally.' I found that when people think globally, they go `Oh my God, we're insignificant. What difference does it make.'''
Sarika said she grew up concerned about the environment and wondering if there were solutions.
"So it was important to go out and actually find what the opportunities are,'' she says.
In Germany, they saw efforts to harness solar energy and even how vegetable oil can provide energy.
In Denmark, wind turbines dot parts of the countryside and a bicycle revolution sweeps Copenhagen, where peddling people almost seem to outnumber automobiles.
Through France and Spain they saw other methods to harness solar energy.
Sometimes Suzuki sounds as if things are too late, then he launches into a brief but uplifting history of environmentalism's progress.
He got involved in the early 1960s, after the publication of Rachel Carson's seminal Silent Spring. In 1972 the UN held its first global conference on the environment.
When Carson's book was published, he said there was not a single department or ministry of environment in any government in the world.
But despite now having endangered species acts, clean air and water acts, "the reality is that in terms of really curbing our impact on the planet, we haven't slowed down.''
For the planet's sake, and for the sake of the young like Sarika, his message hasn't changed in four decades.
"We should be talking about building a society that is truly sustainable, building a society that is fun and where you can be happy."
