Suzuki, a Canadian geneticist and environmental activist, has hosted the CBC documentary series for 43 years. In this letter, he reflects on his long career, the importance of science and the challenges of the Anthropocene.
Suzuki describes his “post-secondary education at Amherst College and then the University of Chicago during the Cold War” and explains the cultural and political reasons why he chose to return to Canada in the 1960s rather than find a scientific job in the United States. “I was stunned to see how poorly Canada funded scientists,” he writes. “[Science] influences medicine, the military, industry and more, and its story was not being told.” He expresses gratitude to have hosted and learned from The Nature of Things, and confidence in the show’s future as he passes the torch to “another generation with a younger perspective.”
“This is the Anthropocene, a period in which we [humans] have become the major factor altering the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet,” Suzuki writes. “It has all coalesced into crises created by our own species—climate change, massive species extinction and global toxic pollution—that threaten our well-being and existence. Time to act is running out.”
Original source can be found here.
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