The banging of the drum just grew much quieter...

Environmentalist Suzuki to Quit Spotlight for Simple Life
By James Regan
Reuters

Sydney - Environmentalist David Suzuki, best known for his television programs on nature and the environment, is ready to step out of spotlight and live the simple life, lamenting that he has not had a greater impact.

Releasing what he insists is his "very last book," a second installment to his autobiography, the 70-year-old Japanese-Canadian says he is looking forward to spending more time in the Canadian wilderness, carving wood and fishing.

He regrets that after decades of campaigning for everything from cleaner air to sustainable farming, his work has not had more impact.

"Nobody any longer knows what a sustainable future is," the bearded, bespectacled environmentalist told Reuters in a recent interview in Australia to promote his book, "David Suzuki: The Autobiography."

"I feel like we are in a giant car heading for a brick wall at 100 miles an hour and everyone in the car is arguing where they want to sit. For God's sake, someone has to say put the brakes on and turn the wheel."

Suzuki is no less passionate about preserving the planet than when his first series, "Suzuki on Science," aired in 1969 but he wants more time for himself.

Over his career he has written more than 40 books, including the best-selling "Looking At" series of children's science titles, and set up the David Suzuki Foundation.

But he regrets having never learned to surf and admitted in his first autobiography in 1987 that the first of his two marriages failed because he refused to give up his work for family time.

The second installment of his autobiography begins with the racism that Suzuki experienced when he and his family were forced to live in an internment camp in Canada during World War II.

Suzuki, who has been affectionately called a "gladiatorial geneticist" for mixing education with entertainment to get his ideas across, says he also no longer sees television as a great education tool.

Over the years millions of viewers have tuned in to his shows, first in Canada and eventually some 40 other countries.

"Planet for the Taking," a 1985 hit series, averaged over 1.8 million viewers a episode and earned him a United Nations Environment Programme Medal in 1985 and "The Nature of Things," produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corp, has been a long-running series.

But Suzuki is ready to leave the limelight.

"I always thought our programs on nature would be different ... but now I realize that I, too, am creating a virtual world, a fabricated version of the real thing," he writes in his autobiography.

Suzuki welcomes a new generation of media-friendly environmentalists, notably former US vice president Al Gore, whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" raises fears of global warming and is broadcast in mainstream cinemas.

But he expresses regret that most people still live out of step with nature.

"We are intelligent, so we create our own habitat and we don't need nature except as entertainment or for the extraction of resources," he said. "We still don't get it, that the simple acts of eating a pizza reverberates around the world."

Originally published Wednesday 25 October 2006

After an illustrious career, Suzuki is calling it quits. I'm sure he will still be called on often for soundbites and panel discussions, but despite all his work, he's very frustrated that his pleading for more action on environmental issues over the years has consistently fallen on deaf ears. I don't blame the guy for being pissed off -- how many years could you possibly stand not being heard, while your predictions come true? I will always consider David Suzuki the ultimate Cassandra. His efforts to educate on environmental issues resounded with a generation of Canadian kids, and I hope that his wishes of a call to action do come true before it's too late.