Liz Bonnin: ‘Our economic system is completely outdated and unsuitable for the 21st century’

Liz Bonnin’s broadcasting career began in RTÉ more than 20 years ago. With a Masters in wild animal biology and conservation, she has since become one of the UK and Ireland’s best-known nature presenters, for programmes including Blue Planet Live, Super Smart Animals, Galapagos and Horizon. More recently she has branched out into investigative environmental reporting, with documentaries on plastic pollution and the impact of the meat industry for the BBC. She is back on our screens this week with The Island, a new series exploring the geological forces that created Ireland, and how the landscape has been shaped over the last 1.8 billion years.

How did The Island come about?

New Decade Films approached me and I honestly didn’t think twice. My passion, and the reason why I ended up in television in a roundabout way — the reason I have stayed in it and not gone back to academia full time — is in understanding just how magnificent our planet is and how much we rely on it for our ability to thrive.

We have become disconnected from what is really important and this show makes you feel suitably small and insignificant in comparison to the incredible geological forces at play that will continue to play out after we are long gone. I think it is going to make viewers take stock and go “wow”.

I hadn’t been back to the west coast (of Ireland) for ages. It was a joy on a personal and professional level. The Burren is one of my favourite places in the whole world. There is something very special about that place, not only because of its rare vegetation and species of insects, but the way it looks is unusual and stunning. I felt a bit like a kid in a sweetshop. Geological time is so vast in comparison with our existence on the planet as humans. It was a wonderful adventure to learn about what the rocks of Ireland had been through.

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[As a presenter] I ask the questions that I would want to ask if I was sitting on the couch, not always as a scientist, but as a human being who wants to know more about the island I grew up on. Programmes like this inspired me to study science. I imagine young people on the couch watching the programmes like this thinking, “this is amazing, I want to do what that geologist does”.

I am not going to say I fell in love with Ireland again, I never fell out of it, but it helped me (to reconnect) because I had been so busy, and so lucky, on these endless adventures around the planet

For the most part, we are taught that humans are amazing and we are at the top of our food web and nature is ours to do what we please with, but the planet is so much more than we are. When these geologists chat to you, their eyes light up. That’s how I feel as a human when I learn more about our incredible planet. Hopefully, that comes across in the series.

When you made the documentary did you feel an emotional reconnection with Ireland?

Very much so ... I had come back to Ireland a little bit, but not that much over the last two decades. I was really missing it (during Covid-19). [The Island] had been commissioned before the pandemic and was put on hold. Then we got the green light to do it, and we got an opportunity to spend a longer period of time in Ireland. It was an absolute gift.

[During] the pandemic, myself and my old schoolfriends (from Mount Anville), girls we have known since we were nine years old, were all on Zoom calls drinking cocktails and trying to keep each other sane. We really leant on each other during that period. I came to Dublin to hang out with them for a bit. I am not going to say I fell in love with Ireland again, I never fell out of it, but it helped me (to reconnect) because I had been so busy, and so lucky, on these endless adventures around the planet.

During Covid-19, you had to stop travelling. How was that for you?

I had slowed down anyway for many reasons, the most obvious one being that as an environmental presenter, I can’t be moving around the planet non-stop. We were mindfully not flying as much, and using local crews abroad. Then it came to a full stop. I really love my job and I missed it a lot. Like everybody else in other industries, I did a lot of work online.

Our economic system is completely outdated and unsuitable for the 21st century. It has created a massive problem that we need to dig ourselves out of

What’s the future for big budget nature documentaries, given that you have to fly crews out to remote places for weeks on end?

I think the flights I take for the work I do are justified. We are still not all on board when it comes to understanding how magnificent and important and special our planet is. Those stories need to be told. [The television industry] needs to remind everybody what is happening to our planet. That is not to excuse the fact that we as an industry have a huge responsibility to mitigate and to reduce our impact. We have many conversations about how to use more archive footage, use local film crews, not travel to one location without thinking about how we can maximise that location.

[Nature documentary makers] have been lucky enough to witness the majesty of our planet. We understood before most people what was happening. I filmed recently in the Amazon, which is nearing its tipping point; where there is a 30 to 40 per cent loss of trees, there is a runaway effect, where the whole place cannot support itself as a rainforest, and will turn into grasslands. As communicators, this is the stuff we need to tell our viewers. But we also have to be mindful of the footprint we place on the planet as we do so.

A lot of people I speak to feel guilty about taking one or two flights a year. Every little [change] we make makes a big difference. It is collective. I don’t have a car. Because I fly for work, I take the train to France for a holiday. When I come to Dublin I take a flight every now and then. I think we have to be realistic about the travel that we do take, and what it is for, and not feel too guilty.

On Twitter in 2019 you were asked what you did to mitigate your own carbon footprint. You responded: “I don’t have children, don’t drive a car, don’t eat red meat, offset my flights, with each production calculating its carbon footprint and impact. I work to raise awareness about the plight of our planet.” Are those decisions you took as a result of climate change?

They are as a result of what I have learned about the planet as I grew up, both as a human being listening to what we are doing to our planet, and as a communicator with the privilege of speaking to the experts — I know in no uncertain terms what we are doing and what we are continuing to do.

Our economic system is completely outdated and unsuitable for the 21st century. It has created a massive problem that we need to dig ourselves out of. It is complicated and it is overwhelming. We can’t stick our heads in the sand. It is not just about how we behave harms wildlife, but how we live our lives that is destroying our life support system. We will not survive this if we don’t start taking care of the natural processes that keep us alive and allow us to thrive.

There are people who don’t want to have children because people consume resources and they don’t want their children to live in a world wasted by climate change. Is that a rational choice, given what we are facing as a species?

I think [the issue with] a lot of people who say they don’t want to have children is also that they don’t want to bring up a child in a world that is so scary because the future is uncertain for the human race. Why would I bring a human being into a world that is unsafe and unsure?

The other reason is, as you say, there are too many of us and we are consuming too much... yes we are overpopulated, but more than that, it is how we consume that is more pertinent to our problem.

You believe Covid-19 is a result of our own abuse of the planet. Can you explain?

It is not that I think that, it is what the experts say. I’m not an epidemiologist; my work is to communicate the rigorous signs that have being taking place over decades if not hundreds of years when it comes to better understanding our planet. For a very long time we have known that degrading natural places, especially if they remain healthy rainforests, places that host the largest biodiversity and the greatest variety of species, we are allowing viruses that are endemic in certain species in those forests to jump to young species. We have known that for ages.

The AIDS pandemic, the Sars epidemic, Ebola; all of these things are related to either the degradation of forests or the exposure of wild animals to farm animals or to humans. This is nothing new. There are papers that date back to 2007 [which showed] a reservoir of Covid-related viruses in wild animals that could be threatening to the human population. All the information was there. The Covid pandemic is that warning writ large.

You have spoken of the climate anxiety you are suffering. Is that anxiety for yourself, for the planet or for future generations?

When I was digging into the harder-hitting documentaries about plastic and the meat-intensive industries, I didn’t sleep very well for a long time. I have this real anxiety about being on my death bed and thinking, “oh my gosh, we buggered this up. We didn’t get it right”. I feel this really deep sense of sadness for my species.

For the most part, we are taught that humans are amazing and we are at the top of our food web and nature is ours to do what we please with, but the planet is so much more than we are

It’s also because of my blood. I’m from everywhere on this planet. (Bonnin was born in France and came to Ireland when she was nine. Her mother is Trinidadian of Indian and Portuguese descent, her father was French-Martiniquan). I see the gift that is this planet, this miracle, this paradise. I don’t know why people wait for heaven. Heaven is right here. How beautiful life could be here if we just tweaked our lives, we would thrive.

A lot of conservationists have to get therapy as a regular part of their job because what they are seeing is so writ large, so hard to swallow, that they need help. We are all going to have to lean on each other and be strong and lean into the anxiety. Anxiety is a natural part of what we are. It is an important feeling to recognise. The antidote to despair is action.

You spoke of heaven. When you look at the beauty and perfection of this planet, do you have a sense of a god?

I have a sense of spirituality with respect to nature. I am borderline obsessed with researching indigenous knowledge at the moment for a project that I am working on. I am realising that we are all intimately connected to the planet and nature in a way that modern people have forgotten. Indigenous people have never forgotten.

When I dig deep into who we were and looking into indigenous societies now, it is a beautiful reminder of how intimately connected we are with the majesty of nature. That to me is my god, that to me is spirituality. There are no words about what nature makes me feel. That’s all the spirituality I need and then some.

What’s next for Liz Bonnin?

I have got some lovely projects that I can’t tell you about yet, but I am very excited. I am finishing a series about the Arctic which is coming out on Sky. I am doing a series for the BBC about climate change, and then a really exciting project in the new year going back to my roots, and exploring the wildlife and culture that is very close to my heart.

The Island airs on Sunday at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.