A progressive interview with: David Suzuki.

• Position: Interview

David Suzuki is a geneticist and broadcaster, who has hosted since 1979 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's long-running series, "The Nature of Things." He's the cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Q: The first chapter of your autobiography is entitled, "My Happy Childhood in Racist British Columbia." How was it racist?

David Suzuki: As a child, you live in a bubble, a world very carefully protected by your parents. I was totally unaware that I was different than the kids I grew up with. Morn and Dad were born in Vancouver, and we spoke English at home. I was born in Vancouver. Even after Pearl Harbor, I was totally unaware of what the hell was going on. I was five. I didn't know there was a war going on. I didn't know it involved people I was identified with. Next thing I know, my dad was gone. He had volunteered to go to a camp hoping that by his volunteering to go away his family would be left alone. But we were all swept up like everybody else. There were 22,000 Japanese Canadians put in camps.

Q: I suspect a lot of Americans don't understand that Japanese Canadians were swept up.

Suzuki: I suspect a lot of Americans don't understand that Japanese Americans were swept up. It was a time of great fear. Now that I'm older and have spent time in the civil rights movement, you realize, when times are easy, you can guarantee all sorts of things: equality before the law, freedom to associate and speak, and all that stuff. The only time those rights or guarantees matter is when times are tough. And if you can't guarantee it now, what the hell is that society? America and Canada failed that test miserably after Pearl Harbor.

Q: They failed that test after 9/11, too.

Suzuki: Absolutely.

Q: You once were asked what society would be like 100 years from now, and you said, "If there are still human beings around, they'll curse us for two things: nuclear weapons and TV." Are human beings going to be around?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Suzuki: It's very difficult to say. If we don't make the right decisions now, we're going to determine the future of humanity and God knows how many species of plants and animals. We're at that moment. We've already started a major, major experiment with the planet: We've added 30 percent more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than there were 150 years ago, but we seem determined to double that before the end of the century. If we carry on that trajectory, we're going to really pull apart the stability of the...