CBC Radio One Book Club with David Suzuki

To follow-up on the previous post about going to this event, it’s really hard to sum up the whole experience. Rebecca posted something yesterday while it was still fresh in our memories, and I probably should have done something similar to give you the best account of the nearly two hours we spent in the same room as David Suzuki[wiki].

He is a remarkable man. He’s more personable than you would think, but there is an obvious sense that he is a very busy man with a lot on his mind and just as much, if not more, to do. Even with the David Suzuki Foundation, he pounds the pavement to spread the message of numerous causes in the world. For a man of his age, he is in shape, healthy, and doing what he loves to do.

I left the CBC building in Vancouver feeling very empowered. For what reason, I was really unsure. Suzuki has that effect on you. He doesn’t butter up the situation. There are some serious, evironmental issues in this world that makes me wonder how a guy like this sleeps at night. These issues blow my mind everytime I think about it, but being a victim of popular culture, I’ve conditioned myself to occupy those concerns with other things that pale in comparison.

I might have been the only American in the room. I won’t say that with any certainty, but a large portion of the people who ventured up to the microphone to ask him a question seemed to live in or near Vancouver. And at one point, he mentioned something about the U.S. government, as well as those other countries avoiding the Kyoto Protocol[wiki], as being renegades in relation of an obvious lack in combating the ongoing damage to the environment.

It took a long time, but I finally came up with a question in my head. Isn’t that the way it always goes? You have this one opportunity to have an open and direct dialog with someone that probably will never present itself ever again. The moment you have it all put together, it’s too late. At the same time, maybe your question is a stupid question anyway. Regardless, I’ll do the best with was I was going to try to say here. If it can’t be broadcasted, why not blog it?

Hello, Mr. Suzuki.

My name is John Bollwitt. I live in Vancouver, but am not from here originally. I’m actually one of those renegade Americans. I’ve been living here with my wife, for the past several months, who was born and raised here, but am becoming more and more familiar with your work and the message you work so hard to spread.

I’m from Iowa, a land locked state that is a long ways from the issues that plague an area like British Columbia, but there is so much of what you present that rings true.

My wife and I love the outdoors. And being here, I’m experiencing some of the best countryside the world has to offer. When she came to visit in Iowa, I decided not to take her to the lake for fear that field run off in the water would over come her immune because she wasn’t used to it. My first time at Cultus Lake here in BC, I was amazed at how clear the water is. I just couldn’t believe it.

I come from an area that is not as densely populated as others, but these issues impact all us in some way, shape, or form, and I somedays I feel like I could see it more than the other people around me. And I’ve heard people tell me that global warming and climate change is a lie. It scares me, and it shows an obvious disregard for taking care of the environment at all, regardless of how good or bad of shape it’s in.

But I have to agree with you that we are a culture that doesn’t know when to say enough is enough. The economy always needs to be stronger and there is always something more that needs to be achived. But I want to ask, that in your opinion, and this is a very rhetorical question that can be answered through a rhetorical answer or another rhetorical question, but is there hope?

Even if would have got in line by the time that I thought all of this through, I would have missed asking my question by a few minutes and been the last in line. Perhaps the host would have allowed time for my question, but I missed the chance. It wasn’t about nerves to ask the question. It was more about putting the thought together enough in my head among all the rest of everything else that was mentioned during the session.

I think the biggest thing that I can take away from this is to remember that everything in the world is connected. This fact is becoming more and more true with everyday that goes by. If you can understand that, then you stand a chance of working on the ground level of reverse engineering global issues.