The Issue With Tissue - A Boreal Love Story

Part 1 is divided into 3 segments starting with an overview of what the 6-part series covers, including an introduction to what the boreal forest is, followed by a segment about interconnectivity, a foundational principle posited by the documentary, followed by a segment that illustrates what transpires when disconnection is the method of operation - clearcut logging and deforestation. The viewer learns that the boreal forest is the largest remaining intact forest landscape on planet earth, that it is home to iconic species like caribou and bears, that it is North America’s nesting ground for billions of birds and that it stores more carbon than any other terrestrial landscape on planet earth. Its size, its scope, its diversity, its critical importance to Earth’s long term sustainability. The viewer meets the First Nations Peoples of the boreal. The idea of interconnectivity is explored, how all species on earth are intrinsically connected and how our industrial practices, like clearcut logging, are destroying this intrinsic connection. We learn that by violating our human connection to the rest of creation - the trees, the plants, the animals, we are simultaneously destroying ourselves.

Part 2 is divided into 3 segments: Caribou, Innu Gathering and Colonization. We learn that virtually every herd of caribou across the boreal have seen their numbers cut substantially and that as an indicator species, their reduced numbers indicate that the boreal ecosystem is in significant distress. We visit an Innu First Nation gathering in Mushuau-nipi along the George River in Northern Quebec where we learn that caribou are critically important to the sustainability of the Innu people who call themselves a “caribou people” because for generations their needs were met by the caribou - their food, their clothing, their lodging, etc. We see that as caribou herds are extirpated across the boreal, because of habitat destruction, including by clear-cut logging, the impacts this is having on the Innu’s ages-old way of life. As is said by an Innu Elder: “If there are no more caribou, then who will we become?” This inevitable loss of way of life for the Innu leads us into a segment on colonization and the undeniable intersectionality between colonial violence and unfettered, extractive, industrial exploitation.

Part 3 is divided into 3 segments: Treaties, Ceremony and Trees. The natural follow-on to the segment on colonization from Episode 2 is a segment on Treaties, which is the legal side of how Canada violated agreements and understandings between Indigenous Peoples and those who colonized North America, eventually forming the nation state of Canada. We learn how the principle “terra nullius”, (nobody’s land), was used to claim the right to lands that were already occupied by Indigenous Peoples and that this so called legal construct was used to perpetrate a genocide on the original peoples of what are now called North, Central and South America. This segment transitions into a segment on Ceremony which according to the Elders and Leaders gathered in our documentary is what they contend saved them, allowed them to survive the genocidal treatment they received at the hands of the Canadian state. Ceremony, which is rooted in the long-held connection that Indigenous Peoples have to the rest of creation transitions into a segment on trees and the symbiotic, co-evolving nature of life that thrives in the forest - the boreal forest.

Part 4 is divided into 4 segments: Birds, Carbon, Climate Change and Toilet Paper. This episode is in part a showcase for some of the distinct qualities native to the boreal ecosystem. We learn that the boreal is the annual nesting ground to approximately 2 billion birds, as many as 5 billion migrate south in the fall and winter but because of habitat destruction, primarily attributable to industrial development, the number of birds coming out of the boreal each year has decreased by more than 30 percent in the last 50 years, another disturbing sign of boreal forest degradation. We learn of a critically important feature to the boreal landscape - its unmatched ability to sequester and store carbon, designating it as the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon on planet earth. This eco-system service that the boreal provides must motivate a concerted effort to protect and conserve it, at a minimum from the manufacture of toilet paper and other tissue products. We learn that a coalition of Procter and Gamble descendants are lobbying P&G to change their sourcing practices, demanding the company change their processes that currently result in the deforestation of the boreal ecosystem.

Part 5 is divided into 5 segments: Water, Biodiversity Loss, Disrespecting Mother Earth, Ancestors and Indigenous Knowledge. The boreal is sometimes referred to as the blue forest because there is so much water across the boreal. Not only is it the largest storehouse of carbon, it holds more surface freshwater than any other terrestrial biome, making it doubly important to the sustainability of life on planet earth. We learn that industrial exploitation across the boreal, including pulp & paper mills, are contaminating these fresh water sources at an alarming rate. Scientists warn of a knock-on crisis - biodiversity loss. Approximately one third of all species have already gone extinct, signaling a growing possibility that a mass extinction event is now underway if we don’t quickly change the ways we interface with the rest of creation. The viewer is invited to explore and embrace the ages-old wisdom shared by Indigenous Elders and their Ancestors, that we must restore our relationship to nature, stop viewing nature as a commodity to be exploited for commercial profit, but to view and treat her as family, with respect and love for what she provides - the gift of life.

Part 6 is divided into 3 segments: Indigenous Led Conservation, Forest Stewardship Council and The Way Forward. As the 6-part series turns to solutions, we focus on Indigenous knowledge and stewardship. We hear from several First Nations Elders: “Take only what you need, give thanks for what you take, with an eye towards the seven generations to come.” This is contrasted with the western ideal of identifying ourselves with how much we can accumulate and appropriate, the need for more, more, more, the greed that has overtaken our way of being. We learn of ways Indigenous Peoples are working to repair and restore our relationship to the rest of creation, advocating for and stewarding Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, guardian programs and tribal parks, helping redefine our sense of responsibility to care for the land, the water and the rest of creation. We learn about the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and its classification system for sustainable forestry practices. The series closes with a segment on the way forward and how we as consumers can alter our choices, lightening our footprint so as to ensure that we are leaving the generations to come with a viable future on a habitable planet.