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4.1 Earth Day 2014
On Earth Day April 22, 2014, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired a
documentary film across North America via satellite titled “A Fierce Green Fire:
The Battle for a Living Planet”. The film, which was directed by Oscar-nominated
Mark Kitchell, had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, the film was
aired as part of the PBS American Masters special. The film presents a history of the
environmental movement and is structured into the following five acts. Each has a
central story and protagonist.
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon
• Lois Gibbs and Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic
chemicals
• Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaign to save whales and baby harp seals
• Chico Mendes and the Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon
rainforest
• Bill McKibben and the twenty-five year effort to address the impossible issue of
climate change
Many media outlets and blogs picked up the film’s story focusing on humankind’s attitude towards the world’s oceans. Paul Watson, who is an eco-crusader,
whale warrior and one of the interviewees in Kitchell’s film, said that the images of
vast, floating piles of debris including plastic and discarded junk in the southern
Indian Ocean have been etched into TV viewers’ minds ever since the month before
Earth Day when the search for missing passenger jet Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
began on March 8, 2014. Watson estimated that more than 100 million tons of plastic is floating in the Earth’s seas. He added that films like Kitchell’s opened people’s
eyes to what is going on. After that, it is up to viewers to decide whether to act. Their
actions could range from something as simple as recycling and cutting back on
personal waste to becoming an active campaigner for environmental protection.
Watson is best known to casual viewers as the star of the Animal Planet Program,
Whale Wars (Kitchell 2014).
4.2 David Suzuki’s Documentaries
David Suzuki’s documentaries on CBC television also reach out to millions across
North America and raise awareness of climate change and the climate crisis and the
need to protect Wilderness areas. “Beyond Climate” (2018) a documentary directed
by Ian Mauro and narrated by David Suzuki shows how citizens living on Canada’s
west coast live with climate change that features burning forests, melting glaciers
and acidic oceans (Mauro and Suzuki 2018).
Protected Wilderness: Is It Still Possible?
4.1 Earth Day 2014
On Earth Day April 22, 2014, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired a
documentary film across North America via satellite titled “A Fierce Green Fire:
The Battle for a Living Planet”. The film, which was directed by Oscar-nominated
Mark Kitchell, had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, the film was
aired as part of the PBS American Masters special. The film presents a history of the
environmental movement and is structured into the following five acts. Each has a
central story and protagonist.
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon
• Lois Gibbs and Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic
chemicals
• Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaign to save whales and baby harp seals
• Chico Mendes and the Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon
rainforest
• Bill McKibben and the twenty-five year effort to address the impossible issue of
climate change
Many media outlets and blogs picked up the film’s story focusing on humankind’s attitude towards the world’s oceans. Paul Watson, who is an eco-crusader,
whale warrior and one of the interviewees in Kitchell’s film, said that the images of
vast, floating piles of debris including plastic and discarded junk in the southern
Indian Ocean have been etched into TV viewers’ minds ever since the month before
Earth Day when the search for missing passenger jet Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
began on March 8, 2014. Watson estimated that more than 100 million tons of plastic is floating in the Earth’s seas. He added that films like Kitchell’s opened people’s
eyes to what is going on. After that, it is up to viewers to decide whether to act. Their
actions could range from something as simple as recycling and cutting back on
personal waste to becoming an active campaigner for environmental protection.
Watson is best known to casual viewers as the star of the Animal Planet Program,
Whale Wars (Kitchell 2014).
4.2 David Suzuki’s Documentaries
David Suzuki’s documentaries on CBC television also reach out to millions across
North America and raise awareness of climate change and the climate crisis and the
need to protect Wilderness areas. “Beyond Climate” (2018) a documentary directed
by Ian Mauro and narrated by David Suzuki shows how citizens living on Canada’s
west coast live with climate change that features burning forests, melting glaciers
and acidic oceans (Mauro and Suzuki 2018).
Protected Wilderness: Is It Still Possible?