People You Should Know About - David Suzuki

David Suzuki is a long standing environmental campaigner and ambassador for nature. The Japanese-Canadian conservationist studied zoology at university in Canada and went on to host a children’s TV show – Suzuki on Science – in the early ‘70s. In the late ‘70s Suzuki began hosting ‘The Nature of Things’, which has aired around the world and has been his main vehicle for discussing matters of human-wildlife conflict, renewable energy and sustainable development; how we can continue to develop our societies without having harmful affects on nature.

David Suzuki is outspoken about his views on climate change and has been a leading voice in many campaigns to urge governments around the world to act on their carbon emissions. In 2007 Suzuki travelled across Canada in a bus, meeting the public and discussing climate change in a bid to raise awareness in his own country.

His website, The David Suzuki Foundation is a great way to keep informed about climate change but also about many other conservation topics around the world. You can even log on to his site for kids and take the nature challenge to learn about energy saving and lowering your carbon footprint: www.davidsuzuki.org/kids/challenges

Another great page on the kid’s site is an environment glossary – a place you can go to look up words that you don’t understand about the environment, but also to find out about things such as ‘acid rain’, ‘fossil fuels’ and ‘reforestation’: www.davidsuzuki.org/kids/fun_stuff/glossary