Sir David Attenborough is calling on the government and its leaders to start taking the threat of climate change seriously. The TV naturalist has said that the current path we are on in terms of the environment will lead to nothing but destruction and that a more concerted effort to curb our climate problems must be taken soon.
Sir David has also said that the leaders of Western countries are in denial over the effects of climate change, or in some cases the reality that is happening at all. This is in spite of the historically large weight of evidence saying that we are killing our home.
Attenborough said to those who wield power that, “Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that people in authority and power deny that, when the evidence is overwhelming and they deny it because it’s easier to deny it – much easier to deny it’s a problem and say ‘we don’t care’.” Sir David would continue to say, in regards to climate change, “we won’t do enough and no one can do enough, because it’s a very major, serious problem facing humanity; but at the same time it would be silly to minimise the size of the problem,”
Later this year the UN climate summit will be held. At this summit the world leaders will meet and have pledged to agree to tough cuts in their carbon emissions, to ensure the increase in global warming does not exceed 2°C. When we get beyond a 2°C increase in temperature the consequences become increasingly devastating to the world.
This meeting will not be taking place however until December and a great amount can change in 11 and a half months’ time. The task which is being presented to these world leaders is truly enormous and we have little more than hope that a solution can be agreed upon which is reasonable.
The reason these comments were made by Sir David however is that he fears that the leaders we are putting our trust in are not taking the problem seriously enough. “Never in the history of humanity in the last 10 million years have all human beings got together to face one danger that threatens us – never. It’s a big ask, but the penalty of not taking any notice is huge,” said Sir David.
These comments come just days after Attenborough made similar comments about the environment saying, “It’s desperately difficult, the dangers are apparent to anybody.” He also went on warn us saying, “We can’t go on increasing at the rate human beings are increasing forever, because the Earth is finite and you can’t put infinity into something that is finite. So if we don’t do something about it – the natural world that is – we will starve,”
Sir David Attenborough is no lay-person when it comes to this topic and the environmental problems the Earth is facing could become catastrophic unless something is done soon. Our leaders owe it not just to the people who are alive now but to countless untold generations yet to come to preserve this planet, the only home we have ever known.