‘Despair is a luxury we can’t afford’: David Suzuki on fighting for action on the climate crisis

‘Look, mother nature is making it undeniable that climate change has kicked in. The consequences are going to be enormous,’ says David Suzuki. Photograph: Supplied

David Suzuki is in an office, shirt unbuttoned, sunglasses on, a bookshelf over his left shoulder overflowing with a mess of boxes, bottles and binders, some barely hanging on to the top shelf. We’re speaking via video between his family cabin on an island off the Canadian west coast and my barely-more-organised home office in southern Tasmania. But the celebrated science broadcaster and environmental activist is considering something else.

“Maybe I can just give you an idea of what I’m looking out at,” he says, turning his laptop so I can see what he sees: a beautiful bay in late afternoon sun. My response is involuntary: “Oh, wow.”