Environmental activist David Suzuki will speak at John Abbott College and be on hand for the inauguration of its new Science and Health Technology building on Oct. 24.

The lecture is open only to John Abbott students.

Student response to the lecture has been so enthusiastic that organizers are expecting the gymnasium to fill up quickly, so live video feeds of the talk will be available in classrooms on campus.

Grade 11 students at Lester B. Pearson’s 12 high schools in the West Island competed to win a seat at the lecture by writing a one-E D s o page essay on Suzuki’s lecture topic, The Challenge of the 21st Century: Setting the Real Bottom Line. The deadline for essays was Tuesday.

Suzuki will talk about how the human drive to work, win and live big is destroying the planet and why young people should become more engaged in the battle to change those behaviours.

Two winning essays are being selected from each school. Winners will attend a breakfast before the lecture and, following a lunch, tour the Science and Health Technology building.