Sir David Attenborough says we have overrun the planet (Photo: Johann Edwin Heupel)
David Attenborough says humans have overrun the planet, with the population tripling since he started making programs in the 1950s.
The veteran broadcaster – who recently became the fastest person to reach 1,000,000 followers on Instagram – made the comments during a BBC Breakfast television interview this morning.
During the conversation, Sir David talked about how effective Extinction Rebellion’s message is, and how much he respects the young people who are engaged in the climate movement.
Human destruction
According to Sir David, we are starting to realize how much damage we have done to the natural world – and how much we rely on it for everything we need.
He added that he first realized how much we were destroying the world was when he first saw a dead coral reef in the 60s. He said a once-colorful and thriving community was now bleached and barren.
It shows him that humanity is capable of ‘exterminating whole enormous communities of living creatures, just like that’.
Staying positive
However, he said, it is essential to try to reverse the damage, saying if there is ‘only a fragment’ of responsibility and opportunity, ‘we must take it’ and we ‘have to do what’s in our power’ rather than ‘crying in a corner and giving up’.
Sir David was also vocal about young people engaging with the environment, saying that young people are the ‘most important place there must be hope’, saying it is ‘their world and it’s their tomorrow’.
He warned that the world will get ‘hotter and hotter and hotter’ in the years to come if humans don’t change their behavior.
