It’s not every day you get a legendary environmentalist with a rock star status visiting town, but last week Copenhagenize/Copenhagen Cycle Chic were quite pleased to have hosted David Suzuki, his daughter Sarika and a film crew from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. [CBC].
David Suzuki, 72, hosts Canada's longest running documentary programme The Nature of Things. He is in Europe filming an hour-long programme on sustainability in Europe and Copenhagen's bike culture will feature prominently. We spent two days cycling around the city, with me leading Suzuki and his daugther, Sarika, on a tour of our bike culture. The goal of the programme, he said, is to highlight how far behind Canada is compared to European countries with regards to sustainability and to encourage Canadians to wake up and smell the renewable energy.
Suzuki is a scientist and environmentalist and if you're in Canada, Japan or Australia, you've probably heard of him. When we were down in the touristy areas, like near the Little Mermaid, Canadians and Aussies kept coming up to say hi. The man is an inspiration. He is so passionate about his work and he is constantly hungry for knowledge. It is worth having a look at the website for his David Suzuki Foundation. He was completely amazed at Copenhagen's bike culture and by all accounts he hopes to get on board the bike advocate train when he gets home. He'll be an amazing advocate for bike culture and separated bike infrastructure in Canadian cities.
Most of the filming was done on bikes, of course. We had three bikes for me, David Suzuki and Sarika Suzuki and were followed by two rickshaws carrying the camera and sound boys as well as the director. The guys from Baisikeli provided a cargo bike, as well, from which some shots were filmed. There was also a quick tour out to the IKEA store that has launched the bike and trailer concept with Velorbis bikes - as you can see in the first photo. It's amazing how many people have picked up on that story since we broke it here on Copenhagenize. Everyone speaks IKEA, I suppose.
After two days of filming in Copenhagen, the CBC crew moved on to Berlin, travelling throughout Europe by train, of course. On the last day he gave an autograph to a Canadian who lives here and wrote "I'm Copenhagenized...". We're pleased he had a good time. Look forward to the programme's premiere in, I believe, October.
