Climate change is the major challenge
25 May 2006
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Sir David Attenborough was sceptical about climate change but has since spoke out about how the Earth climate had changed and is changing.
Extract:
But I’m no longer sceptical. Now I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. I have waited until the proof was conclusive that it was humanity changing the climate. The thing that really convinced me was the graphs connecting the increase of carbon dioxide in the environment and the rise in temperature, with the growth of human population and industrialisation. The coincidence of the curves made it perfectly clear we have left the period of natural climatic oscillation behind and have begun on a steep curve, in terms of temperature rise, beyond anything in terms of increases that we have seen over many thousands of years.
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I have seen the ice melting. I have been to parts of Patagonia and heard people say: “That’s where the glacier was 10 years ago – and that’s where it is today.” The most dramatic evidence I have seen was New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina. Was that climate-change induced, out of the ordinary? Certainly so. Everyone who does any cooking knows that if you want to increase a chemical reaction, you put it on the stove and heat it up. If you increase the temperature of the oceans, above which there are swirling currents of air, you will increase the energy in the air currents. It’s not a mystery.
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I’m 80 now. It’s not that I think, like any old man, that change is wrong. I recognise that the world has always changed. I know that. But the point is, it’s changing more extremely and swiftly than at any time in the past several million years. And one of the things I don’t want to do is to look at my grandchildren and hear them say: “Grandfather, you knew it was happening – and you did nothing.”
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Sir David Frederick Attenborough, OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born on May 8, 1926 in London, England) is one of the world’s best known broadcasters, humanists and naturalists. Widely considered one of the pioneers of the nature documentary, he has written and presented nine major series (with a tenth in production) surveying nearly every aspect of life on Earth. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC2 and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1985, Sir David was knighted, he was given the Order of Merit in 2005. Over the years he has received honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards including Fellowship of The Royal Society. He is a Trustee of the British Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and President of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.
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