Liz Bonnin: ‘Most of the things I do for work are affecting me –but if I give up, I’m part of the problem’

Witnessing environmental impacts in her work every day, the presenter and biologist often despairs. Here, she tells us why she’ll keep fighting for the planet, and gives us an insight into her latest project, podcast ‘Dead River’

Environmentalist Liz Bonnin. Photo: Pip

Tanya Sweeney

Presenter/biologist/academic/environmentalist, Liz Bonnin has worked in nature and wildlife programming for nearly 15 years, and has seen both the beauty of the natural world and the way humans, and specifically commerce, are slowly but inexorably destroying it.

While the French-Irish broadcaster knows that there are great people fighting the good fight when it comes to the environment, the reality of climate change can often bring with it moments of despair. In her line of work, Bonnin has watched on as tiny shearwater chicks vomited up shards of plastic, despite never having even been in the sea. She was upset to discover that toxic plastics were found in her own body. She was so affected during the filming of a BBC documentary on the animal beef industry and its environmental impact, that it reportedly put her off eating red meat.