David Suzuki - 9781553651567

The world has waited a long time for David Suzuki's full autobiography describing a life dedicated to making the world a better place. This complete account expands on the early years covered in Metamorphosis and continues through the past couple of decades to the present, when, at age seventy, Suzuki reflects on his entire life - and on his hopes for the future.
As a boy, Suzuki enjoyed an idyllic life, fishing, camping, and hunting for mushrooms in the mountains with his father, until World War II intervened and he and his family were sent to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia. But plunked down in a valley where the rivers and lakes were filled with fish and where bears, wolves, and deer roamed the forests, Suzuki felt that he was in paradise. Both his experience of racism and his days of freedom in nature while he was interned marked the rest of his life.
The book goes on to describe Suzuki's teenage years in southern Ontario, his college and postgraduate experiences in the U.S., his early career as a scientist, and his forays into radio and TV as host of various science shows, including The Nature of Things. With characteristic candor and passion, Suzuki also discusses his metamorphosis into a leading environmentalist, writer, and thinker; the establishment of the David Suzuki Foundation; his many travels throughout the world and his meetings with international leaders; and his dismay at the scientific illiteracy of many political leaders and at the culture of celebrity, which gives as much weight to the opinions of film stars and other celebrities as to the words of scientists and other experts. Finally, he speaks eloquently about old age and death, the abiding role of nature and family in his life, and the legacy he hopes he will leave behind.