Over his storied career as a science communicator and environmentalist, Suzuki has earned a reputation for many things, but being mild-mannered is not one of them. As he prepares for his next chapter, the 86-year-old said now more than ever, it's his responsibility to call it like it is.
for saying that if the government doesn't take climate change seriously, people will blow up pipelines. Critics have also suggested that the environmentalist is a hypocrite for living in a multimillion-dollar waterfront home in Vancouver.
"This kind of attack is used as somehow a reason to avoid whatever I'm saying. But that doesn't mean the message isn't real," Suzuki told CBC's Ian Hanomansing.Looking back at his on-air career, he said he feels privileged to have been a part of the seriesSuzuki said he hopes people have learned something from his work, but added that "when I'm dead, I don't give a shit what people think about me. I'll be dead.
"We are intimately connected. There is no separation from us and the air, between us and nature," he said.'We can now speak the truth' "As an elder, you're way beyond worrying about more power or money or fame. We can now speak the truth. We can look back and say 'this is BS.'"Just days ago, Suzuki did exactly that at a news conference in B.C., and accused the federal government of "bullshit" for promoting tourism while falling short on addressing climate change.
A young Suzuki, right, a third-generation Japanese Canadian, is shown with two of his sisters at an internment camp in Slocan City in the British Columbia Interior, between 1942 and 1945.