Home · Arts & Entertainment · Media · David Suzuki: Scientist, Activist, Broadcaster
Topic spans: 1972 - 2002
David Suzuki: Scientist, Activist, Broadcaster
For over three decades, David Suzuki has been Canada's foremost environmental conscience. From his experiments with fruit flies to his warnings about genetically modified food, Suzuki has made science relevant, interesting and full of wonder to his audiences. As a broadcaster for the CBC, he has issued frank warnings against industry, the economy and his fellow scientists. Passionate and outspoken, he has also won his fair share of critics. But despite, or perhaps because of this, Suzuki remains undeterred in his message.
9 television clips
8 radio clips
'We are all fruit flies'
Broadcast Date: Jan. 4, 1972
David Suzuki is quickly gaining notice as one of Canada's most promising scientists. He is poised to move beyond the classroom as he continues to flirt with the electronic medium of television as in this CBC documentary. Teaching zoology at the University of British Columbia, Suzuki's classes are crammed with enthusiastic students. He speaks about the interconnectedness of life and nature, science and art. "We are all fruit flies," he tells his students, sitting cross-legged on the campus lawn.'We are all fruit flies'
• David Suzuki and his twin sister Marcia were born on March 24, 1936 in Vancouver, B.C.• Suzuki credited his father, Kaoru Carr Suzuki, with inspiring a love of nature. Kaoru Suzuki, who owned and operated a dry-cleaning shop, liked to take his children on nature walks. David's own call to action came after reading environmentalist Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring, which warned about the dangers of pesticides damaging the fragile interconnected ecosystem.
• For three consecutive years (1969 to 1971), the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship named Suzuki the best Canadian scientist under age 35 for his groundbreaking work in the genetic engineering of fruit flies. Suzuki contributed to the field of pest control by breeding a fruit fly that perished in hot weather. By releasing the engineered fruit fly into the wild, it would mate with conventional flies and produce flies that died in the heat.
• Suzuki was hired as a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia in 1963.
• From 1971 to 1972 Suzuki hosted a series of half-hour, weekly shows called Suzuki on Science on CBC Television. Filmed in Vancouver, the show featured interviews with scientists.
'We are all fruit flies'
Medium: Television
Program: Telescope
Broadcast Date: Jan. 4, 1972
Guest(s): David Suzuki
Duration: 5:53
Last updated:
Aug. 19, 2009
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For Teachers - Educational activities
- All GradesDavid Suzuki: Just the Facts
- 6-8The Nature Challenge
- All GradesPresenting Suzuki’s Issues
- 9-10The Nature of David Suzuki
- 11-12Science in Everyday Life
Out of curiosity,I ask"this fossil fuel that everyone is exracting from the interior of the earth souls eventually leave an empty cavity which, if the earth happens to move as it constantly does could possibly fill-up with ocean water. If such was the case, the ocean water may be affected by the heat of the center of the earth and evaporate leaving the planet high and dry" The other concern that I have is that, if the center of the earth is fire, is the fossil fuel that we are extrating actually feeding that fire? And if so, will that fire run out of fuel as a result of this exesssive thirst for oil that the people of the planet need so much?
Submitted by: George Robillard