David Suzuki shares 5 books that influenced his life's work
The environmentalist and Nature of Things host shares the stories that inspired his activism
David Suzuki is a celebrated environmentalist, scientist and science broadcaster.
His book The Sacred Balance examines significant changes in science and climate change while emphasizing humans' inherent connection to nature. The Sacred Balance offers practical suggestions for addressing ecological problems in order to create a sustainable and equitable future.
A new 25th anniversary edition of the book was published in 2022. With a foreword by scientist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Suzuki's The Sacred Balance has been updated to reflect present-day climate issues while maintaining the core messages that made the book famous back in 1997.
Suzuki, an author of over 50 books, recently reached another milestone: the 86-year-old announced in October 2022 he is retiring as the host of The Nature of Things in spring 2023 after a 43-year run.
First broadcast in the 1960's, The Nature of Things is television's longest-running science series.
While reflecting on this period in his life and the new edition of his book, the Vancouver-based environmentalist spoke to CBC Books about the books that have inspired, changed and reaffirmed his life's work.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
"Her book was very, very important in shaping the rest of my life. It certainly is because of her that I got involved in the environmental movement. I believe that she created the modern environmental movement and that millions of people were galvanized by her book.
Her book was very, very important in shaping the rest of my life.
"It came out in 1962 when there wasn't a single department of the environment in any government on the planet. The word 'environment' just didn't mean anything back then.
"We had come out of the Second World War and everything was just full speed ahead: bigger and better. The suburbs were booming and technology was the key. There was tremendous optimism and enthusiasm about how science was going to make a better world.
"At that time, I'm this young hotshot professor. I wanted to make a big name in science. Then I picked up her book and what she said to me as I read it was: science is very powerful but science is limited.
"When you focus in — and I was in genetics which is about as focused as it comes — you lose sight of the context of where that piece of nature you're studying is and how it is connected to everything else. Most of modern science is about isolating a part of nature and those connections are everything.
"Without that book, I don't think I would have gone into environmentalism the way I did."
WATCH | David Suzuki on Rachel Carson's Silent Spring:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
"The only known groups of people who have lived sustainably for thousands of years are Indigenous people all over the world, the ones who are fighting for their territory. For me, it's been Indigenous people who have taught me everything I know about environmentalism.
What Indigenous people have done is give me insight into that eyed way of looking at the world.
"Albert Marshall, a Mi'kmaq elder in Nova Scotia, says, 'This is two-eyed seeing: Indigenous eyes and scientific eyes and they've got to come together.' What Indigenous people have done is give me insight into that eyed way of looking at the world — and all I have ever done is try to make sense of it through science.
"Robin's book was a powerful influence to see Indigenous knowledge and science in that two-eyed way."
LISTEN | Robin Wall Kimmerer on finding beauty in the world:
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
"This book blew me away.
"It just gave me another way to think about the acquisition of knowledge. Harari points out evolution in the brain, not biological evolution but cultural, and our ability to invent symbols. It gave me a greater insight into the role of language in our cultures."
LISTEN | Yuval Noah Harari reflect on the biggest challenges facing humanity:
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
"People pushing capitalism have jumped on this idea of competition [in nature], survival of the fittest and that that's the way things are.
"What Bregman says in this book is that the Lord of the Flies is just one way we've shaped the way we live. That story that we are highly competitive dominates our lives. He discovered a story of a group of kids in the South Pacific on an island who were trying to get out of school so they stole a boat and set off to go to a neighbouring island, but a storm came in and blew them off course and they disappeared.
"A year and a half later, they discovered those kids on an island far away. They had a garden growing vegetables and they had animals they had captured that they were eating. They decided, 'We must not fight. We must agree.' That was the basis on which we did everything.
We are not going to get out of the mess we're in if we don't come together and see ourselves as belonging to a single species.
"He's now written an entire book saying Lord of the Flies is one way of seeing it but it doesn't have to be that way. He's drawn on different examples throughout history of different ways of people being together.
"We are not going to get out of the mess we're in if we don't come together and see ourselves as belonging to a single species."
LISTEN | Rutger Bregman reflects on humanity's kindness:
The Sacred Balance, 25th anniversary edition
"I've been reading The Sacred Balance for an audio book [recording]. Remember, I wrote the first version way back and even then, I had Amanda McConnell help write it with me.
I wrote the basic thread or the skeleton but there's been so much embellishment to the way that it's written.
"She covered the chapters on love and spirit in a way that I couldn't. Successive people have gone through and updated it and changed it. I'm reading it now as if I wrote it 25 years ago and I'm going, 'Oh my god, this is so incredible!' I have just been having a ball.
"I wrote the basic thread or the skeleton but there's been so much embellishment to the way that it's written; it's a wonderful read."
LISTEN | David Suzuki on our connection to nature:
