Sir David Attenborough

5 May 2010

The Big Sir

Our job is to protect the marvellous world which we are part of, right now.

Sir David Attenborough knows how marvellous our natural world is - for 50 years he's been making nature programmes for the BBC.

His most recent series for the BBC was Planet Earth. It was his 80th birthday whilst making the programme - he spent the day filming giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands.

Ice Green

At a talk in London recently he spoke about climate change:

...grass is now growing on the Antarctic continent, the first time it has been seen.

We can have no doubt that the world is warming. If the far North gets warmer and the ice cap begins to melt, polar bears may well have nowhere to go.

The Human Factor

The first evidence about climate change began to appear in the 1970s. At the time, Sir David thought:

Let us not get too alarmed. There have been ice ages, there have been warm periods. And then I saw some graphs that plotted C0₂ in the atmosphere against human population over time. They were almost identical.

...humanity has changed the climate... We can have no doubt the world is warming.

Making a difference

He believes that small changes can make a real difference:

Turn off that light. Don't book that expensive aircraft seat when you could go by rail. Switch off the standby on your television set...

The small things add up to a complete change in the way you view your life.

Find out more about the climate change threat to plants and mammals >

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