David Attenborough on Climate Change

There would be few who do not know David Attenborough as the genial and informative presenter of all those nature and animal programs over the last years. So, when he speaks on things around us in the world his is a voice of whom one ought to at least take note:

"I was sceptical about climate change. I was cautious about crying wolf. I am always cautious about crying wolf. I think conservationists have to be careful in saying things are catastrophic when, in fact, they are less than catastrophic."

So begins an article in The Independent today by Attenborough. He goes on:

"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."

Read why Attenborough has lost that scepticism of his here - and why he reckons that climate change is the major challenge facing the world.

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