Can We Save Planet Earth?
Dir. Nicolas Brown, 2006, UK, 60mins
Attenborough had confessed to previously being sceptical about the belief that global warming is predominantly caused by humans. But now, he argued, the evidence of it was too overwhelming to ignore. He became sure of it when he saw graphs provided by climatologists that demonstrated the link between increasing temperatures and the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, with the growth in population and industrialisation: “I was absolutely convinced this was no part of a normal climatic oscillation which the Earth has been going through and that it was something else.”
“It’s true to say these programmes about climate change are different, in that previously I have made programmes about natural history, and now you could say I have an engaged stance.”
“In the past, we didn’t understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it: individually and collectively; nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe.”
– David Attenborough, in closing.