David and Greta in Conversation: The Planetary Crisis | Wildscreen Festival 2020

[Music] hello and welcome to what promises to be an absolute highlight of the festival it's my enormous pleasure today to introduce sir david attenborough and gretekenberg in conversation they are both separated in age by 77 years but they're united with a passion and determine to try and help solve the planetary crisis um greta where are you today where are you speaking from i'm speaking to you from my couch in stockholm very comfortable how about you david i'm at home uh in richmond just in west london close to richmond park well the plan this morning is that i say as little as possible um but i would like to start off david with the opening question to you please um you've been recording and filming the natural world now for over 70 years i just wonder when the moment was when you first realized when you first saw evidence that the natural world was in trouble well i probably saw it and didn't recognize it um you look at the glacier and you can't tell whether it's unless you've been there before whether it's coming or going but um but the first time i had incontrovertible demonstration of something awful uh was on a coral reef i i first dived on coral reefs in the 50s i'm no sort of an underwater swimmer i can use a scuba gear but not much but i remember the first time i dived on the reef in the 50s i thought it was the most extraordinary wonderful paradise of variegated life that i'd ever seen in my life every color in the rainbow all kinds of animals you had no idea what they were i mean of course you saw fish which fish you like you've never seen before and then all kinds of organisms and then and i suppose this must have been 20 years ago i've been coming and going on the parry reef all the way since then and i dived in just off lizard island it was i think and suddenly instead of this pageant of wonderland it was like a cemetery i mean quite literally because all the coral was white it was dead and suddenly i realized that what i'd heard about coral reaching was actually happening and actually real and and devastating that was the first time that i was absolutely convinced that something really appalling was happening in the natural world and greta can i ask you a similar question um when was it that you first as a a young child realized that you had to do something and devote your long life to fighting the climate crisis first when i became aware of it and became worried about it was i was maybe eight years old and that's when i started to feel worried about it but then i started to read up about it more and more uh during a few years and during that time i slowly realized that this is something i need to do something about because it felt it felt like no one else was doing anything about it and someone needed to do something about it and that someone could be me so i thought that then i need to do something it is my since i have seen this i've seen and i i've understood what happened and no one else seems to understand and take it seriously then i have some kind of moral responsibility to to do something about it well that's absolutely astonishing uh much less of a dramatic stimulus than mine um and that you recognize that so you what you did was to start striking was it was that once a week first it was every day for three for three weeks up until the swedish election and then after the swedish election i decided to continue once a week and how long have you been doing that for now i think yesterday was week 112. well it's obviously working i mean it was sensational that you started that and your image has gone round the world and your dedication has gone round the world have you had evidence that it's actually working that particular policy of yours i guess that question has many different answers in one way yes it has shown that it has led to some kind of change since since it has among many other things led to an increase of awareness and concern among the public and that but also in one way it hasn't i mean it hasn't led to we still aren't treating the crisis like a crisis and of course that change can't just come from one thing like that that needs everyone to work together and to to push so um but there was a switch from being just doing it um in stockholm and then doing it on the world stage what was the first time you did it on the world stage uh well first it was it was only in stockholm we were a few people and then it started started spreading to other swedish cities like people stood outside the um the municipality buildings or and so on and then it started spreading to other countries the first country was um the netherlands and then i think it was finland and and so on and then it just took off from there and i think one one tipping point was when australia started striking that was massive and that really got out in the media and then people saw that young people saw that and said i want to do the same thing i think many young people are concerned about these kinds of issues but they don't know how to express that concern and how to to turn that feeling of of sort of that they feel desperate into actually doing something and i think many were given some kind of tool to to actually turn those feelings into into something concrete to do spreading it through america must have been an extraordinary thing to do certainly when i read about it i i was hugely impressed that you decided to stick to your principles and not burn carbon when sitting in an airplane but to do it any in a yacht and and that's that's hard going isn't it i mean wasn't it hard it's it's not like i i didn't have a choice i choose myself to be there and it was an incredible opportunity which many people don't get to to experience so i saw it as as just a unique opportunity and an amazing experience so i didn't see that something that was hard or um or difficult i i really enjoyed that sailing trip because i was so lucky to be here to be there but most people haven't been able to to experience that and they haven't seen the consequences of what is happening to to the natural world even though i mean with your help you've you've um succeeded in spreading that awareness but still it isn't the same thing as experiencing yourself do do you feel like since you have experienced it and seen it with your own eyes does that come with some kind of responsibility to speak up to try to to defend to defend it yes it certainly of course it does um and the in in the curious way i i experienced something which no responsible person really could now experience which is of actually being totally cut off you with with no kind of email no kind of connection with the outside world entirely on your own i mean i've done that in in new guinea um and and i've done it in borneo too and that is something quite other when but it only matters what you're going to do today it only matters whether it's going to rain or not it only matters whether you've got on the last bag of rations or not um and uh if something if you fell over and broke your leg that's it i mean i mean well you'll have to get back somehow but um nobody would know where you were and that that's a feeling it's a loss really it's it's an experience which which i've never forgotten um and nobody could nobody responsibly can do that to themselves these days um moving on to something else have you heard about the earth shot awards uh i have heard of it i'm not very i've not read about it that much but could you explain about it a bit more yes well um this is prince william's idea um it's saying to the public at large and uh i suppose it's in britain but i'm not sure but whether it's international but certainly it's in britain they're saying if you've got a great idea um together about the problems in the earth or the sky or the sea or on conservation or on how to deal with plastic there will be a million pound award for every one of those things that's going and i'm wondering whether in fact that's the sort of thing that you think might help in this procedure i think yeah definitely initiatives like that are great we need we need everything right now all the initiatives that will help get us in the right direction is good and are needed um it feels like today we we talk about either we need to do these things either individual change or either voting or either demonstrating people seem to forget that we need to do all these things simultaneously and so so yeah all these initiatives need to be um encouraged you know you have to be a very very broad base scientist to understand climatology and ecology and marine science and the physics of how you deal with with plastic waste or these things um but um so it it's tough um this this our conversation is is going out in wild screen uh which is um i think the first wildlife film festival which started in bristol quite a long time ago um do you think that this sort of conference is like like the one we're taking part in now actually help i think it definitely could it's it's a big opportunity to to to to to be able to change things um the the way that got me into the climate crisis the thing that introduced me to the climate and environmental emergency was films about the natural world and what was happening so films and movies have have an extraordinary power to to open up our eyes and um so that's also i mean that's what you have been doing you know more about this than anyone um i mean do why do you think that is why do you think that films and movies have such power over us and uh and i just i just saw your film your new film and um it was amazing and so i i thank you very much for doing it and and for making it um what i mean why do you think films have such power well there's nothing uh there's there is no way of conveying reality as as impactful as these sort of pictures i mean you've only got a show going back to the coral reef you only got to show a picture of the coral reef with turtles and all the rest and it takes your breath away and if it moves and it's in color it is so impactful what i'm astonished by is that of course um the united nations tell us that the majority of the human race are now living in towns to some degree are now urbanized i mean they're cut off to some degree from the natural world and yet the paradox is that now because of television worldwide um everybody uh can get a picture of the of the wild world in a way they never did before my father never would never have heard of a pangolin for example i mean and now you talk to anybody in the street they don't know what a pangolin is and so it is this strange business that that people are cut off from nature and yet happily know more about it than there but it had that opportunity because of of what the festival this our conversations going out the people there they have been responsible for doing this so it's a consciousness and an awareness of the natural world which is moving things forward i think yeah well how about your new film you you've just made a film uh in the same way what's that like what's that about what's its focus well i haven't been involved in the process of making it i've just been it's just literally been a guy following me around as i have done activism and then he himself have i mean he was the camera guy the director the sound guy everything and yeah he was just following me not making too much noise and then yeah they have made a film so but it's it's more about me as an individual rather than the climates and the environment itself uh but it also but by doing that they also sort of show this absurd reality that we are instead focusing on the individual on like activists like me rather than actually seeing the problem by portraying this absurd celebrity culture um so but also showing that this is not fair that all this responsibility falls on on on people like us and and especially like children and activists to to be able i mean to communicate this mind you you know you you are now a worldwide celebrity has that been awkward for you it's it's so it's so strange that it has become like this and that we because i i thought that yeah i might become a public figure when this started to become bigger but but i mean it just got so it just escalated so much and it feels like instead of focusing on the actual fire we are we are talking about discussing spending all our time debating about the fire alarm um and that shouldn't be because that takes up all our time and we need to be able to to move from that and even though i understand that people like like you and me um are bridges to to these issues and make make make it easier for people to identify with it it's still it takes away focus from the climate crisis but i mean you have you have al also um you also share the same experience how has that affected you and and your work well uh of course all i all i can contribute is is words to these films these days it wasn't so back in the 50s and 60s when when i was a producer and i wasn't really supposed to be appearing at all and only had two because somebody else fell ill um and and then i did what what alastair does now and and did every part of it um but but since then um television and making these films has become more and more specialized more and more expertise i mean now you aren't can't well i said you can be just a wildlife cameraman but many of the great wildlife cameramen have become great experts i mean i could introduce you to a chapel there are plenty of people who specialize in birds but i but there's a friend of mine who who if you really wanted a really difficult bird to find a really shy bird you'll go to him um and um there are others who either have other specialisms like that there's one guy who really does nothing but ants and the man or if he had his way that would be you can't get enough film about that or or indeed people do time lapse of speeding up plants so you can see plants strangling one another and so on and they are these these great specialists now they they weren't there 50 years ago and now um programs uh of the programs i make they could be as many as the dustin cameraman working on any one program um and so i everybody thinks of course and i'm i'm there doing it myself that i would and so they said to you what was it like when you suddenly uh encountered this charging bull or one elephant or whatever and i have to say uh oh well because i wasn't actually there i was just putting on the work and they're saying yes of course i realized that what was it like i said it wasn't there you know and and uh so i get much more reflective glory than than is comfortable to be truthful people we are listening to us now are the people who've made these films and it's my belief that that the world would not be as aware of the crisis if it wasn't for the work that they do um the question is um is it is it really working well i tell you conversely about talking about the expert my my view is what you have done is that you have activated uh young people around the world all over the place and who are up in arms about what's happening and if there's any sign of hope which i think that is to be truthful compared with what was 25 years ago um it's what you've done and what you've done for young people and young people around the world are really really going for it now because of you so honestly the world owes you a lot and and i hope it's not paying too high a price for it but it looks to me from what you're saying that you're managing to survive all right [Music] yeah well i haven't really done that much i mean it's i mean you are such such a loved figure by everyone and you speaking up really makes all the difference i think because when you say it people listen because everyone respects you so much and and also to to all the people attending this conference i mean it's it's thanks because it's thanks to their work to to a very large extent and i think yeah with without without their work and your work we wouldn't be where we are where we are right now but uh another thing when when i saw your your new your newest film i i was positively surprised on how how well it connected all these different issues like the climate crisis loss of biodiversity biodiversity and the loss of fertile soil and overfishing and i mean just all these different problem problems piling up on each other because we we fail today so so bad to connect these issues we see it as well it's climate change and then it's this and then it's this but this is these are all just symptoms on one one bigger sustainability crisis and environmental crisis and we can't just tackle one we can't just tackle two because if if we are to take a one we need to tackle all of them how and you've been you've been very successful in communicating that image how do how do you think we can make people understand more and connect these dots because that is what needs to be communicated right now i quite agree uh and it is a problem and it's asking a lot after all it's asking for a lot for people who are uh living uh away from the natural world living in cities in the middle of cities who who don't understand so much of the way that the wild world works so that i think that the natural history films have to have to be doing the the arguments that you describe but at the same time we have a responsibility to try and explain how it is that the natural world works why it is that if you actually make this action here it'll have that action there how it is if you cut down uh the rain forest in in in brazil uh it could well have an effect on what's happening to the glaciers in the arctic you know and and to show that this is one world what being one world has produced another and another phenomenon i think with and one which is perhaps the most important thing i mean people say to me you know what what can we do why can't we do something about it we have to we have to convince our politicians but we have to convince them not only about the reality of what's happening to the world but the need that there should be give and take i mean the the the urban nature the industrial natures of the world uh like ours have been taking from the natural world for centuries um and now we discover that we have a big debt to other countries which we've been taking their stuff so now maybe the time has come that we've got to we've got to pay back and that that if you're going into an international conference the six the aim that the the delegates should have is not to come back and say we did well we got we came out we we with a profit as it were we we managed to get a good bargain that's not the issue not getting a good bargain the issue is is the world a better place as a consequence and and that means that the electorate has got to have a different requirement from their politicians and the requirement is that we've got to get agreements that's what the real the problem is and we you and i can do all that we can and what you do more than me i'm quite sure actually well in terms of your personal life i suspect you do more than i do but uh but the uh and and that's very important you have people have to have the the things that they can actually physically do in terms of not wasting plastic or not wasting food or not and so on but in the end um it's the world has to unite so it's a it's the era of internationalism not not nationalism and um and if our films and your film and my film what you saying what i say has helped in that well that that's the very important thing i think i hate to butt into your fantastic conversation but there is a question that i know that everybody uh asks us a lot as filmmakers and and i'd love you to answer what do you think in people's own personal lives what's the most important thing that people individually can do to help save the planet can i start with you on that greta please yes well there isn't one thing that is best to do like i said earlier we need to do everything that we possibly can there's not we don't have enough we don't have the time uh nor the carbon budget left to uh to argue about this is better than this and we should be doing this instead of this but everything that we possibly can we need to do so um and i'm not telling anyone that we we need to do these things but i mean that there are i think if i were to choose only one thing which we shouldn't but the most important thing is to um to try to understand the problem try to educate yourself read up on it and spread that information to others and spread the sense of we are in a crisis and because if you understand the problem if you fully understand the magnitude of it then you will you will know what you can do in your everyday life as well and then i mean we need to do we need to be active democratic citizens we need to come out on the streets we need to put pressure on people in power and and we need to and then there are also many many things we can do in our everyday life and like going vegan stop flying stop buying new things um what else is there uh stop i mean there's yeah there are endless things that you can do but the most important step the introduction is i think to to understand it and to understand why these changes are are needed and david if you were to choose one i think in a sentence what i would say is don't waste in your personal life don't waste don't waste electricity don't waste gas don't waste power in any form don't waste food um it's it's it's the it's the we're surrounded at least i'm surrounded by luxury you know by anything you want and we in and be encouraged to indulge ourselves we're encouraged to want things we should want less and less and less and what we should above all is don't waste and come to that don't waste time let's get on with this particular problem and can i ask you both whether looking forward you are optimists or pessimists for the future of our planet greta how do you feel about it uh neither i am a realist [Laughter] bravo thank you very much all i can say is ditto no i absolutely agree i mean to people it's it's it's not an uncommon question people say are you not to mr pessimist what's that got to do with it um who is this genius who can evaluate way on the one hand we've got this and on the other hand they're not that and this is this weighs a bit more this is more likely than that it can't you can't do it all you can know is we've got an urgent problem we have to get on with it as as fast as we can i don't know what you think that the virus has done to it um i'm i'm worried that it takes that people will take their eyes off of the environmental issues because of the immediate problems that they have on them on on covid and of course it's put off the the series of cop consciences uh that in which all the nations get together and and and talk i got a letter from somebody the other day and said i'm fed up with these politicians talking what they should do there was some issue in africa i remember a long time ago in which the leaders are put in a room and and so we won't let you out until you've come to an agreement well that's so all very well if in fact um that is effective if in fact the so-called leaders are totalitarian but then they can just go in say syringing take swinging decisions but you you can't do that in a democratic society in the democratic society the electorate has to decide whether they want to follow you or not so that what you're doing and i hope what i'm doing and what everybody's listening to is doing is to form a body of of active opinion demand as you demand and so effectively the the the the politicians do something about this sort of thing that we understand that it could cost taxes that they understand that that if we are really going to share the thing we're going to give up as well as take we understand that we really have to get i mean one of the most obvious things it seems to me is is the oceans i mean it is a pain any fool can see that you can't go on fishing forever and ever any fool can see that you've got to actually stop at some stage and allow fishing stocks to recover and that requires agreements and that requires somebody saying yes okay we understand we had it good here but we will unders stop that we're doing it and we have to give things up as well as take and it's um i mean i i i don't envy a politician trying to negotiate these things through but dear politicians the electorate is that now i think through what you are saying and what we all are saying everybody who who's in this uh uh in in my screen is saying is we understand that actually protecting the world means we have to be less selfish and if you if you make laws that that costs us but it are demonstrably good for the environment we'll accept that and i think gutter that's what you've been demonstrating no i mean that's that's what we all are trying to do to to raise public awareness to create public opinion it is after all public opinion which runs the free world and that is one of the biggest sources of hope right now that if people become aware if enough people become aware and if enough people put enough pressure on on people in power on the elected officials then then they will have to do something because a politician's job is to to get elected and to do as the voters ask as the voters want um and so right now we need to to spread awareness to make to build up that public opinion that public pressure so and that's why why conferences like like these when we when the purpose is to to spread awareness to spread information knowledge and to to communicate to communicate feelings or information or whatever it might be this is so important because that that's the most efficient tool we have the media to to influence people may i ask you both one last question please um greto what would be the advice of your generation the younger generation to david's generation the older generation maybe that yes we we know you have much more experience than we have and we know that you are more educated than we are and that you understand the world in in a different way but we we still need to keep we need to keep an open mind this is a crisis that requires us keeping an open mind and thinking outside the box so um and that is one of the many things that i admire with with you david that you you you you are keeping such an open mind and i don't know how you do it but you you still are very you you still learn and taking new things in and keep an open mind so that's that's i think my advice from my generation to to the older generations that keep an open mind just because we have always done this way doesn't mean it is right doesn't mean it is morally defendable and david how about you convincing uh in the end it has to be a political decision that we're going to save the world it has to be that there is give and take between nations and the electorate people like you and me and greta and we must persuade people that we back them on the policies that have been loosely caught green and fair play in this country at least in britain there have been statements from the government about backing green policies backing policies uh that are taking more and more power from from renewables there have been other policies too about looking after rc's and so on and they have been making statements which um give you hope and i just hope that they really come into play it's uh if you're faced with the crisis of of of this the proportions of the epidemic we're facing it's very difficult to lift your eyes from immediate problems and for to problems in hospitals to think about what the like is life is like in another five years time but we have to do that we really really have to do that and i just i think the future of the world depends on it david greta thank you so much um it's been an amazing privilege sitting here in bristol listening to this very special this very unique conversation between you two if you want to catch up with those movies greta's movie i am greta was released on hulu on the 16th october in the uk and it will be released on november the 13th in the states while david's movie david attenborough a life on our planet is already streaming on netflix thank you very much for watching and stay tuned if you'd like to see the trailers for both those movies thank you

Channel: Wildscreen Festival

Views: 54,672

Rating: 4.8641014 out of 5

Keywords: wildscreenfestival, wildscreen, festival, virtual, events, bristol, city, of, film, david, sir, attenborough, greta, thunberg, united kingdom, celebration, natural world, wildscreen network, conversation, planetary crisis, conservation, extinction rebellion, strike, climate, school strike, news, latest

Id: fRFY4ss2W2A

Length: 36min 7sec (2167 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020