Sir David Attenborough has delivered a stark warning to MPs about climate change as he predicted future generations will experience “great social unrest and changes” within 30 years.
The legendary broadcaster addressed Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee and warned “we cannot be radical enough” in dealing with the issue of climate change.
The 93-year-old was quizzed on Tuesday about whether or not the UK’s new legal “net zero” target for 2050 was sufficient or whether calls from campaigners for a 2025 goal were realistic.
He replied: “The question is what is practically possible, and how we can take the electorate with us in dealing with these problems. Dealing with problems means we’ve got to change our lifestyle.
“The electorate of tomorrow are already making their voices very clear, and that’s a source of great comfort.”
Sir David Attenborough speaking on climate change
He added: “I’m okay for the next decade, all of us are okay, we won’t face the problems that are coming.
“The problems of the next 20 to 30 years are great problems that are going to cause great social unrest and cause great changes in what we eat and how we live.”
Sir David described the most vivid example he has seen of the changing climate – revisiting the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and seeing how it had bleached because of rising temperatures.
He told the committee that, when visiting the landmark in the 1950s, he had “the extraordinary experience of diving in the reef and suddenly seeing this multitude of fantastic beautiful forms of life.”
But of returning 10 years ago, he said: "Instead of multitudes of wonderful forms of life I was struck by how it was bleached white because of the rising temperatures and increasing acidity of the seas."
When he started out in natural history, Sir David said he did not talk about climate change, because "we didn't know, I didn't believe we could change the climate, or worse the changes we were going to inflict were irreversible, which they are if we go on as we are."
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And he said: "I'm not by nature a propagandist", but added: "If you become aware of what is happening you don't have any alternative".
On the issue of plastic, Sir David said: "I've been going on about plastics for 20 years. Anybody who swims knows that, or anyone who travels can see, the horrors of what plastic pollution can do."
"I've been putting it in programmes for years, and nobody took any notice,” he added, before saying a two-minute clip in his programme Blue Planet II “rang a bell with people”
His comments came after the veteran broadcaster appeared on the main stage at Glastonbury as part of a surprise appearance, where he praised the Somerset festival for going plastic-free.
Sir David told the festival: "There was one sequence in Blue Planet II which everyone seems to remember.
"It is one in which we showed what plastic has done to the creatures that live in the ocean. It had an extraordinary effect - and now this great festival has gone plastic-free."
He said the move had saved more than one million plastic bottles of water from being drunk.
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