Crossroads

David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet is the pioneer’s most personal project yet. GEORGIA HUMPHREYS finds out why

convince them we are prepared to take an increase in tax if necessary, to make sure something is going to happen.” The film starts and ends in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and the team also travelled to the Maasai Mara in Kenya.

The elephant in the room is that making such a big documentary like this must rack up quite a large carbon footprint.

But Sir David matter-of-factly defends this issue when it’s pointed out.

“We’re all damaging the environment just by sitting here and breathing,” he suggests.

“The amount of carbon dioxide that is going out through the window as a consequence of us meeting here is significant. And do we always say, ‘Now was that really worthwhile, you spending that breath?’

“If you behave economically and sensibly, I don’t think you should feel guilty if it’s cost you some ergs in your engine to get you from A to B.”

Being wasteful is “the real sin”, he adds.

“We are astonishingly wasteful. I remember my dear father-in-law coming back in the middle of the war from America, and was appalled that he had actually seen an American at a meal stubbing his cigarette out on a half-eaten steak, because of the waste.

“We put a light on in a room when we don’t need it – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put it on when you do need it. But it’s just being profligate and careless and immoral... Waste is immoral; the wasting of power, the wasting of paper, the wasting of energy.

“We shouldn’t waste space; we are wasting space that could be occupied by the natural world.”

David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet premieres in cinemas across the globe on Monday, featuring an exclusive conversation with Sir David Attenborough and Sir Michael Palin.

The film will then launch on Netflix globally on Sunday, October 4.