‘We have made a desperate mess of the planet’
Attenborough urges people ‘Look after natural world’ as he launches new television series
SIR DAVID Attenborough has spoken of the “tragic, desperate mess” human beings have made of the planet as he prepares to air his new natural history series.
Seven Worlds, One Planet, which has been four years in the making, features wildlife firsts and has already been snapped up around the globe.
It breaks with the tradition of previous BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit programmes – putting a conservation message “at the heart” of each episode, instead of being tagged on at the end.
Producers took drones over “volcanoes, waterfalls, icebergs and underground into caves” to shoot heart-wrenching “animal dramas”.
Dramatic scenes include a lone, grey-headed albatross chick in Antarctica being blown off its nest as a result of increasingly intense storms in the region.
Speaking at the launch of the series, which begins a week tomorrow, Sir David said: “We are now universal, our influence is everywhere. We have it in our hands, and we made a tragic, desperate mess of it so far.
“But, at last, nations are coming together and recognising that we all live on the same planet... and we are dependent on it for every mouthful of food we eat and every breath of air we take.”
Asked what people can do to save the planet, Sir David, 93, said: “The best motto... is not to waste things. Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste paper, don’t waste food – live the way you want to live, but just don’t waste.” Clockwise from top, Sir David Attenborough on location filming Seven Worlds, One Planet on Stokksnes beach in Iceland; a gentoo penguin comes face to face with its main predator, the leopard seal; a huge diversity of life is under the sea ice in Antarctica. PICTURES: BBC/PA
The broadcaster said: “Look after the natural world, the animals in it and the plants in it too. This is their planet as well as ours. Don’t waste.”
The seven-part series reveals “new species and behaviours”.
Highlights include “a new species of jumping spider, in Australia, with dance moves that need to be seen to be believed”, and “the most extraordinary gigantic gathering
of great whales” in Antarctica.
BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall said there had “never Sir David Attenborough’s advice on what people can do to help save the planet.
been a more important time to bring nature’s wonders to everybody”.
He said: “This series has conservation at its heart. Each one of the seven episodes takes on some of the major threats facing the world today.”
Sir David said he was perceived as a “crank” when he, and the Natural History Unit, began broadcasting messages about caring for the natural world.
But suddenly he “hit the right note”, he said, with Blue Planet II raising awareness around the world of the environmental damage caused by plastic pollution.
“We don’t understand how it happens but with Blue Planet II, suddenly the world was electrified about the crime of chucking plastic into the ocean that can throttle creatures, that can poison creatures, including ourselves,” Sir David said.
Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste paper, don’t waste food.