Nature’s our saviour, Sir David claims

Interview: Naturalist praises young

The natural world can be a source of solace during times of crisis, Sir David Attenborough has said.

Speaking about the climate, the broadcaster and naturalist, 93, said we are at an “unprecedented” point in history.

He told The Big Issue magazine: “In times of crisis, the natural world is a source of both joy and solace... The natural world produces the comfort that can come from nothing else.

“And we are part of the natural world. If we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves.”

But he has hope, saying: “Kids these days are knowledgeable, aware of what’s happening and are concerned. They are vocal. I haven’t known a generation of children that could be placed alongside these today.”

And he said of the environment: “We’re in an unprecedented situation.

“We know quite a lot about the history of the world. We go back 500 million years and there is no species with anything like the power homo sapiens have over the natural world.

“There is nothing remotely like the situation we’re in at the moment.

There’s no moral to be taken from what happened in the past. We’ve got a completely blank sheet of paper in front of us ....

“The plain fact is that every mouthful of food you eat comes from the natural world – there’s no food that nourishes you that doesn’t come from the natural world.

“Every lungful of air that you take is refined by the natural world, oxygen breathed out by plants. If you can’t breathe and you can’t eat, you don’t exist.”

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IN PRAISE OF NATURE: Sir David said nature allows us to breathe and eat – to exist