'This is an emergency': David Suzuki addresses profanity-laden climate rant

Power Play: One-on-one with David Suzuki Environmentalist David Suzuki talks about calling out the government on climate change, saying Canada's emissions record is 'embarrassing.'

The Canadian government's baby steps toward addressing the climate crisis are "embarrassing," famed environmentalist David Suzuki said Monday while expanding on the profanity-laden criticism he launched during a federal announcement last week.

"We are the only one of the G7 nations that hasn't reduced our greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels," Suzuki told CTV News Channel's Power Play.

"We haven't even capped our emissions. We're 20 per cent above our 1990 levels, and we're saying that we're leaders? How could we possibly be leaders with that kind of a record?"

Suzuki was waiting for a seaplane in downtown Vancouver on Friday when he happened upon a news conference with Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, who at one point remarked on the scenic waterfront view of the region's North Shore Mountains.

"If a picture’s a thousand words, the view today’s a million," the minister said.

Suzuki was put off by the comment, noting the view was obscured by thick smoke coming from several nearby wildfires, which resulted in an air quality advisory for much of B.C.'s Lower Mainland.

Those hazy skies remained throughout the weekend and all day Monday, as did unseasonably warm and dry weather that has caused drought conditions in many parts of the province and toppled dozens of daily temperature records in various communities.

"The fire season normally is ended by September," Suzuki told Power Play's Mike Le Couteur. "The environment that is this big attraction that we're touting is under threat."

When the federal announcement of $1.2 million in new tourism funding ended and a government staffer opened up the microphone to questions, Suzuki decided to take the stage – delivering several expletives while laying into officials for failing to act on climate change.

"It was just an opportunity that came up. I just happened to be there," he said.

Suzuki lamented that climate change remains a partisan political issue in Canada, pointing to Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre's pledge to revoke the carbon tax, and envisioned a government of elected leaders who could rally behind the cause as they did in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"All of the parties came together and acted the way we should when you have an emergency," he said, adding that the current and coming impacts of climate change should be treated similarly.

"This is an emergency."

Continuing his criticism of the federal government, Suzuki noted that Canada's approval of the controversial Bay du Nord offshore oil megaproject in Newfoundland back in April came just days after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure "moral and economic madness."

The ongoing support for the fossil fuel industry can't be balanced by what Suzuki described as minor strides toward addressing the problem.

"A tax increase here, an incentive there, a little park over here, those are incremental," Suzuki said. "We've got to start reducing our greenhouse gas emissions very quickly – not net zero by 2050, right now."