I still don’t know the facts really! All I know is that compared with when the referendum came, I realised it is much more complicated than i thought. “The decision to call a referendum was an abrogation of parliamentary democracy in my view because we didn’t know the facts. Later when we return to the topic, he is more specific. It’s hard to know what to say after that. “I’m not an economist, I certainly don’t understand the political and economic implications of Brexit…but philosophically I would rather the people embrace one another than spat in one another’s face.” But when we come onto the subject of Brexit, he can’t quite help himself. What then, does the scientist, broadcaster and ex-BBC controller make of the political events of the last year? What do “alternative facts” and climate denial mean for truth-telling about climate change?Īttenborough clearly wants to shy away from anything political – as he told Louis Theroux, it is easy to be a national treasure if you keep any controversial views to yourself. You have to be a generalist and you have to take a survey. “It’s very dangerous to just point a finger at that place on the map and say “There you are, that’s what’s happening”. And I’m too much of a flibbertigibbet, I go from here to there and I don’t go to the same place every time.” “You’ve got to get a timescale to talk about change, you’ve got to know somewhere intimately over a period and see what the changes are. He folds his arms, looks down and takes several breaths. Where has he seen it most powerfully, we ask? Yes he has seen climate change, but he is reluctant to pinpoint it. It’s a free world and we aren’t thought dictatorsīut while Attenborough is a storyteller, he is also a scientist. “There are people right now, just right here, around the corner, who have never seen a picture of a lion catching a wildebeest! We’ve been showing that every year, three times a year, for the past fifty. (His opening gambit entails extolling the characteristics of the “extraordinary” common slug.) Technology may change, but what interests people does not. So despite the technological advances, storytelling for the world’s most famous naturalist seems as straightforward as it ever was. What it’s about is that life underwater is amazing.” It’s true to an extent but it’s not what it’s about. “I’m going to have to say we’ve got new techniques and new technologies and we’re going to places we’ve never been before. It promises new filming techniques, from probe cameras that can capture life in miniature to suction cameras that sit on the backs of sharks. The series, which has been four years in the making, visits every continent and ocean. I just hope we realise that that is the case.” For the first time in 500 million years, one species has the future in the palm of its hands. We may think we live a long way from the oceans …but w hat we actually do here – and in the middle of Asia – has direct effect on the oceans and what the oceans do affects back on us. “We have a responsibility, every one of us. He said: “ We could actually do something about plastics right now….internationally, tomorrow. The naturalist used the opportunity of the premiere to call for action.Īsked what concerned him the most with regard to the health of the oceans, Attenborough chose to highlight two challenges: climate change and plastic pollution. The prequel is out now – with a soundtrack from Hans Zimmer and Radiohead. It’s a topic Attenborough was keen to return to at the documentary’s premiere in London on Wednesday. “There’s a shot of the young being fed, and what comes out of the mouth of the beak of the adult? Not sand eels, not fish, not squid…it’s plastic. Such marvellous birds! They form partnerships for 50 years, they circle Antarctica searching for food, they come back to their mates in the same place, but they also feed their young.” “The one I would choose because I feel most strongly for them…is the albatross. Which example do you choose as being the most heart-breaking? There are so many of them.” There’s a shot of the young being fed, and what comes out of the beak of the adult? Plastic. One change he has noticed is the plastic. The programme he has been writing is about how the oceans are changing. “ It wasn’t until the 50s that I first got put on an aqualung, but when you do – here is the richest, the most diverse, the most beautiful, the most exciting, the least known of all earth’s ecosystems.” Sixteen years on from the first Blue Planet series, Attenborough is both delighted and saddened by his return to the oceans. And last night he was up late writing the latest programme for his new series: Blue Planet Two. As we set up in his Richmond home, he is upstairs studying footage of orcas and humpback whales on a herring hunt. Sir David Attenborough may be 91, but he is a busy 91.
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