I used to be a climate sceptic but not now, says Grylls

BEAR GRYLLS used to be a climate change sceptic, he has admitted, as he believed the world was too big for humans to affect it.

Speaking at Cop26, the presenter, survivalist and UK chief scout urged those in positions of power to use their influence for good.

“When I started out in my career of filming and expeditions and travelling to all these weird places… I was maybe a little bit of a climate sceptic.

“I figured, the world is pretty resilient. How much impact can humankind have on a world that is so big and powerful? Fifteen years later, I’ve changed.

‘I figured… how much impact can humankind have on a world that is so big and powerful?’

I no longer ask those questions. I don’t ask them because I know the answers.

“I’ve seen it in every corner of our great planet – extreme ‘one off ’ weather freak conditions, totally unseasonal flooding, unprecedented wildfires, polluted broken oceans that are often… starting to turn to swamps.

“Thousands of remote Pacific islands covered… in plastic and rubbish. Habitats and wilderness starving.”

Protesters marching through Glasgow yesterday included Greta Thunberg who called the event a “greenwash festival” with “empty words and promises”, adding that world leaders were “fighting to maintain business as usual”.

“Righteous anger” about the climate crisis, Grylls said, was a good thing as long as it was channelled correctly.

“Obviously, we don’t want all the bad stuff, but an essence of outrage, an essence of the ‘no more blah, blah, blah’ stuff is important, because it’s the voice of experience – it’s called righteous anger,” he said.