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Rivers Lost, Saved and Restored: A Global Perspective
Thursday, June 13, 7:30 pm
$20.00 /person (FREE for the lucky winners)
Although Mark Angelo’s roots are in British Columbia, he is renowned for his work in helping to protect river systems around the world. His multimedia presentation will touch on his personal experiences as an advocate for wild rivers. Currently, Mark is working in a major film production that is documenting the plight of the world’s river systems and which is set for widespread international release next year. In his presentation, Mark will highlight environmental pressures on river systems, sharing his perspective drawn from examples of rivers around the world that have been lost, saved or restored.
Mark Angelo hails from Burnaby, British Columbia, and is recognized internationally for his work in conservation. He is also a renowned speaker, teacher, writer and paddler. He is founder and Chair of World Rivers Day, an event involving over 60 countries and millions of people. He is also Chair Emeritus of the Rivers Institute at BCIT. Mark has received both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada in recognition of his conservation efforts with river systems. Other awards include the inaugural United Nations Stewardship Award and the National River Conservation Award. Over the decades, Mark has traveled on and along close to 1000 rivers around the world, perhaps more than any other. His acclaimed “Riverworld” program, launched in conjunction with National Geographic, has played to sold-out audiences across North America and the program’s website had more than 40 million visits. Mark also hosted and co-produced Global TV’s Water for Life special in 2011, one of the highest rated programs of its kind in many years. Mark continues to work on conservation issues in his community and province, as well as across Canada and elsewhere in the world. The film Mark is currently working on is highly anticipated and has been described as one of the most ambitious documentaries of its kind that has been undertaken.
Challenges of the 21st Century: Setting the Real Bottom-Line
Presented by Dr. David Suzuki
Followed by live music from The Grand Trine
Saturday, June 15, 7:30 pm
$30.00 /person (FREE for the lucky winners)
Human beings have grown so rapidly in numbers, technological prowess, consumptive demand and a global economy that we are altering the physical, chemical and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. Nobelist Paul Crutzen calls this the Anthopocene epoch, a period when we are the dominant force but we are undermining the very life support systems of the earth that have enabled us to thrive. The biosphere, the zone of air, water and land where all life exists is our home and without all of nature, an economy and we could not exist. But we have lost our sense of connectedness with nature in our move from rural villages to big cities where our priority becomes our jobs and the economy becomes our major concern.
The current economic paradigm is a human creation and profoundly flawed – it is predicated on the belief that it must grow forever, which is impossible, so we never ask how much is enough or are there no limits. The DSF has estimated the cost of replacing nature’s services such as cleansing air, filtering water, pollination, flood control, etc, (if we even could), and they are astronomical, yet those costs are not included in our economy. So we cut down our natural capital to keep the economy growing while depriving future generations of her services.
Scientists now warn that we are on the edge of catastrophic ecological collapse.
Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. He is Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, the 2009 Right Livelihood Award, and Global 500. Dr. Suzuki is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and holds 28 honorary degrees from universities around the world. He is familiar to television audiences as host of the multi-award winning long-running CBC science and natural history television series The Nature of Things, and to radio audiences as the original host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, as well as the acclaimed series It’s a Matter of Survival and From Naked Ape to Superspecies. In 1990 he co-founded The David Suzuki Foundation to work with “government, business and individuals to conserve our environment by providing science-based education, advocacy and policy work for social change that today’s situation demands”. His written work includes more than 54 books, 19 of them for children. Dr. Suzuki lives with his wife, Dr. Tara Cullis, and family in Vancouver, B.C.
