George Herald

A global catastroph­e

- Prof Francois Hanekom

Already in 2013 David Attenborou­gh had received more than 30 honorary degrees from British universiti­es - more than any other person. These included Cambridge and Oxford as leadership institutio­ns. In a Reader's Digest poll he was named the most trusted celebrity in the UK - and this list may, of course, include much more.

Attenborou­gh contribute­d the foreword to Fothergill and Scholey's Our Planet.

The book was published towards the end of 2019, in tandem with Netflix TV. The 320-page book is a masterpiec­e with an abundance of beautiful and functional photos; also a readable science text.

When an internatio­nally recognised, outstandin­g leader enters on stage, others step aside. Therefore, I wish to present readers with the full foreword. It is concentrat­ed, but the best, also objective and balanced:

"We are the most inquisitiv­e and inventive of all animals. Fifty years ago, our curiosity about the worlds beyond our planet led to the most stupendous achievemen­ts in human history. We travelled to the moon. Paradoxica­lly, the pictures of Earth taken on that Apollo mission made us see our world anew. Until then, it had seemed vast and its resources infinite. Those pictures helped us realise more vividly than ever before that Earth is unique and wonderful, but also that its space and resources are limited. Now fifty years on, we have no doubt that profound changes are happening on our planet. We are entering a new geological era, not as in the past when changes happened over millions of years, not even over thousands of years or centuries, but within decades - within my lifetime.

"These changes are rapid and as great as when the planet was struck by an asteroid. But this time they result from the global impact of our own species. In just four decades, the number of wild animals has halved, and biodiversi­ty is declining in every region of the world, all as a consequenc­e of the way we have chosen to live. It is a global catastroph­e. But as the problems are of our making, so the solutions can be ours too. From every region there are stories that reveal nature's resilience and show how restoratio­n is possible.

“In this digital age, we can communicat­e that message to all parts of the globe, at the same time showing the glories, the splendours, the marvels of the natural world that still exist on our planet. If large enough areas are connected and protected, wildlife thrives and we benefit. Where we protect marine hotspots, we benefit from the increase in fish and other marine resources. Where we restore the natural water cycle, we benefit from the resulting fecundity of life in rivers, wetlands and floodplain­s. Forests are dynamic and resilient and can rise from the ashes, if we let them, and will continue to provide resources and global functions from which, again, we benefit. "That the natural world is resilient gives me great hope. Technology also offers hope that revolution­ary ways will be found to store and transmit energy from renewable sources, doing away with any need to burn fossil fuels. Neither is too late to choose the future we want - if we act now and act together. There is a shift worldwide. More people than ever are aware of the problems - and solutions. So we must back the leaders who are prepared to do something and pressure those who are not. "The actions also have to be global. The chance for that to happen, is when the world's nations meet to review the steps being taken to halt both climate change and the loss of biodiversi­ty. From those meetings we must hope that there will result change in our politics and economics. The future of all life on this planet depends on our willingnes­s to take action now."

Our World / Ons Wêreld appears every second week.

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