Sir David Attenborough on life, death, climate change and the future of the planet | Triple J Hack

thank you so much for making time for us it's a it's a real honor now people of all ages and all generations love you and love your work but young people seem to absolutely love you their eyes light up at the mention of your name what's it like for you to connect so strongly with the younger generation well it's you know anonymous in all honestly it's not me it's it's what I bring with me that is to say great shots in the natural world I mean that's what it's exciting it's in my experience anyway and if you see some of these fabulous sights I mean wonderful waterfalls or coral reefs or that's a paradise is dying or something you know that's something that's real and that's that's our world you know and I've had the luck of introducing that sort of vision for 70 years I mean okay we'll speak more about young people in a moment particularly I'd love to get your thoughts on the school climate strikes but I'd love to go back into your decades in the field I know from reading about you that you're most feared animal is the intoxicated male homo sapien but apart from that what other animals have really put you on edge out in the field I don't know many things but I do hate rats I really do hate about I've had I've had rats run over my face at night you know and that's not too good which Australian animals fascinate you all the corny ones really I mean you'll laugh just because I'm a pom and coming over here but I mean there is there is nothing more extraordinary duckbill platypus I mean there really isn't and it's my eyes and sitting on a riverbank and New South Wales somewhere or loving Victoria and seeing one of these things quiet going about its business in a pool and then coming out here's your eyes pop out I mean of course the kangaroo I mean or all those big macro parts all those big party appeals they're amazing too they are I mean they are mind blowing and the revelation I mean it's interesting you know I've been in this business long enough when I first started nobody had ever seen the vision of a little neonate a tiny little creature like a worm come out of a female and call up its phone go into the pouch I mean these days we've all filmed it we've all done it and we've all seen it like if we wanted to but it is that is unbelievable absolutely let's go under the water just off the coast of Australia when did you first go diving at the Great Barrier Reef what did it look like then and how much has it changed I first went in the 50s late 50s and I would hope with underwater swimmer mind you most of us were I mean that the kids you had in the end in the 1950s were pretty primitive stuff I wasn't much good anyway but that magical moment which which is in the Australians birthright I mean it you do it more than their own except perhaps people in Hawaii or somewhere bunny and when you do it on on in the place like a Barrier Reef well you have this fantastic paradise of things with you when you do if the first time here here are 50 creatures you've never seen before in your life and all of them are fantastically beautiful you don't have the name of any of them your and they aren't afraid of you I mean what more do you want and you can go so that was your initial reaction to diving the Great Barrier Reef I know that you went back just ten years ago what did you see then I was looking for evidence of things going wrong and we found plenty I mean the bleached reef is a tragic side I mean desperately attached exactly particularly if you if you've seen it before you know and you know what it could have been like and you just see this acre after acre of of white pallid deathly white and for you was that a real a real moment I guess in your journey of observing climate change Oh because it's one of the permanent things you can see particular be there before and something you see you see that I mean that's not serious yeah what else have you seen that's really graphically Illustrated the impact of climate change well that's one of the most graphic because it's one of the most extreme in the sense of of full of life I mean there's nothing fuller of life than the barrier coral reef I mean two places in in the Antarctic or you know in South Georgia where I the first time I filmed there in what 60s 70s I suppose and I would see a glass here that was it was coming down within 100 yards of the sea and then you go to the same place and way up it's very difficult if someone is actually hell-bent on proving you wrong they'll say well I can go to a place in the Antarctic where actually there's more ice and that's quite right I mean you can so the would you have to go I miss what that's what they call about being objective science is well you have to go and get data from everywhere and see what the overall picture is but whereas 10 years ago 15 years ago people would say find it hard to believe I mean no I think hardly anybody can be any doubt that the world is heating up and what you've been going through in Australia you've been having interest from all accounts that have a really bad time we in our own little way we in the last few weeks and it be people going around saying oh it's intolerably hot I mean you would laugh the temperatures that we were making us said that but nonetheless it was a case I also found a very interesting that when you spoke to the UK parliamentary committee you talked about a need to continually debate climate sceptics in public some people feel like it's too late for those people to have a voice in the public debate that the the science is settled and we should shut them out what are your thoughts yeah I I think speech police are not things to be welcomed free speech is what you have to welcome and and as long as them there represents a serious section of the community they should be allowed to speak their piece I mean as a broadcaster I mean I was involved the BBC for a long time and you have a responsibility to see both sides of the debate and I'm well aware that the moment comes when you can say look science is this so you just did a documentary climate change the facts you don't think that completely closes the door on the skeptics and it's time to move on from those debates no no I get one this morning I got that from mom and said it isn't true and then producing actually about about a dozen pages of graphs statistics and so on and I have to say when you get two or three of those a week you say I haven't got enough time I am now personally convinced the world is sick we really have to do things about it and there's enough time no more time for argument and you've been much more outspoken in recent times about the need to act on climate change was there a moment where you you had a personal reflection and thought I need to have a stronger voice in this debate no not really because importantly I've been saying it at the same sort of level as loudly as I can for a long time I mean I made a program at the end of the last last century there to the year 2000 which said how many people on earth can live on earth you know it's not a population girl nobody took a blind bit of notice I've been going on about global warming for at least 15 years but there's something you you as broadcasters we know that you can't predict actually what is gonna ring the bell as you weigh there's a moment come when everything comes in the right sort of way together and suddenly you say something and bang it makes it makes an effect and you can't predict what that's going to be and you probably don't understand why it's that way but it is that way and it has been that way particularly over over plastic I did a program called pallette true in which we share pasture we're not I've been talking about plastic indices for for certainly twenty years and but suddenly there was a shot of an albatross coughing up plastic and so um and everybody was have motivated about plastic in the seas well hooray but but I've been going on about it for a long time and recently you singled out the Australian government and that was when you spoke to the UK parliamentary committee singled out our leaders for not doing enough on climate change basically why did you feel Australia deserved a special mention there because I say Leah it seemed to me was it was saying all the right things previous governments were and and you are keepers of an extraordinary section of the earth of the surface of this planet including the power reef and what you do what you say what you do really really matters and when you've been standing and talking what I see is the truth about what we don't know to work and then you suddenly say no no it doesn't matter we doesn't matter how much coal we burn or needs saying well there's a this is the economic solution to some of our economic problems but then go on to say but we don't care damn what it does to the rest of the world what do you say yeah well a lot of people will draw attention to the fact that our prime minister and his former role as treasurer brought a lump of coal into the parliament he said it was a joke but a lot of people didn't see it as I didn't think it was a joke and if he weren't owe me a coal mine ok I would agree but you are opening a coal mine well that was a very big issue in our recent election the Adani coal mine basically you know labour and the Greens are offering stronger action on climate change than the the coalition and the voters in Queensland swung towards opening the coal mine rather than taking strong action on climate change to me that says the job of taking people with you on climate change is is very hard as a politician how do you think they can do that better I don't know I mean just have to go on talking about it and so on but fundamentally in the end you you have to appeal to to what people I think you're right I mean what did it do you think it right that we go on destroying the natural world how do we you know convince people who worried about putting food on the table or getting a job that they should somehow make sacrifices for the long term and for the planet it's a problem certainly but but the fact of the matter is that the world is going to be running short of food since they fell short of food and we are gonna have to change our feeding habits our eating habits you know there are there's a real danger there's going to be starvation there but I mean I mean it's happened before that's not that's not that was kind of a new disaster because there have been famines in Africa before but why because the land can't produce enough food to feed them and that's not gonna becoming a global problem okay let's talk about the younger generation they're certainly a very loud voice now in the climate debate we saw over a million school students strike for for climate change action earlier this year I'm sure those people walking out of their classrooms would love to know what you think of the stand they're taking do you have a message for them yeah I mean like young people see things very clearly I mean the older you get you start thinking of this above this but on the other hand there's that and you know but young people see things very clearly and they are speaking very clearly to the politicians but if they actually do something in the way that they have been doing in this area then politicians have to sit up and take notice and you can say well it gets no we're just stopping the traffic and are disrupting the London shuttle Isis it gets you nowhere it gets you noticed people listen to what you say and that your input and they are important there are the people are going to inherit the mess that we've made so do you think they have made a difference already yes IIIi think it and well they are part of it and and and precisely what has happened is it's actually rather strange I occasionally say there was a time in the 19th century in the middle of the 19th century when civilized human beings like you and me and all around the world thought it perfectly acceptable that you should own another human being as a slave no and in this period of about 15 years not much more suddenly it became intolerable suddenly no civilized human being could actually look you in the eye and and say it's it's perfectly a morally acceptable deceptive slave now historians or production produce various names will be for some people if that the others daily but somehow or other the whole world became absolutely clear to them that this was this was intolerable and I think that's happening about reactions to the way we're dealing with the planet I honestly think the people all around the world rich and poor and from all all continents are all seeing the same thing this is intolerable to go on treating the natural world that we've been doing so ok but America just voted for someone who promised to take them out of the Paris agreement in Australia they just voted for the coalition as we discussed earlier do you think that's still the tide still has a way to turn sure sure but I think it's turning and I mean I've been going on about whales or whatever for a long time and nobody thought much of a notice but they do now and and and so we talked about the high school students and their activism how radical do you think the climate change activism should be we had the extinction rebellion in London this year which shut down parts of the city for several days do you think I went too far or do you think we need that kind of radical action I don't know oh I don't know but and the situation is changing all the time the the key of course is going to be when you actually demonstrate they're that economic future lies in this bullying and tightening in the mouth when in fact you we've got to convince every part of civilization of our societies that you have to go that way and and convince bankers and big business that actually in the end the long-term future lies in the hope being having a healthy planet and that if unless we do something about it big business is gonna suffer you know you're gonna lose your money what do you think the impact of Greta Thornburg has been the sixteen-year-old swayed well I think it's just that I think the politicians have I mean there's some be too rude about polish either have been politicians but in your country in my country you've been going on about this for a long time so it's not as though the greater Rundberg or me or anybody else has suddenly put it on their head put it into existence maybe we have moved it up the headlines a bit but that's about it and and so yes it they they had to make that statement and I'm glad they did but now it's up to the politicians and they were young people keep the pressure on I'm sure at the end of your documentary series Blue Planet - there are some very strong words about needing to take personal responsibility for our everyday choices and then those choices add up so let's talk about those personal choices starting with aiding mate what are your thoughts on mediating and has this reality affected your appetite for me well yes I mean it certainly affected by a bit I've certainly changed my my eating habits how to disentangle that from from my age I don't know maybe everybody when they get into their seventies eighties or nineties this is a taste some eat but I've sent it lost mine I mean I haven't eaten mistake for I can't remember okay one of the other movements that seems to be starting is flight shaming which is a translation from a Swedish word and Greta Thornburg is traveling to the Americas for climate summits and she's taking a sailing boat because she doesn't want to fly do you think we should stop flying I I travel I would hesitate to travel a long way for a purely trivial purpose but if I'm traveling to do something or to make a program about climate change yeah I think that's justified and you mentioned before you've done a program on population growth and you've you've spoken openly about the need to curb it how do you suggest we do that is it feeding people to the lines or having less children or well you have to be to start with you have to be very very careful about how you tell other people how they how they use the privileges that they have of being a human being and having children is one of the great treasures and privileges and rewards of being alive so you have to be Johnny careful when you didn't to say this but all the evidence is that wherever women are educated and literate and have the vote and are able to determine what they do and when they have children they have medical advice to help them that the birth rate which is not the same as population the birth rate for one of the great boons that you have come with in medicine but then there is the ability to be able to control the bracer which we breed well just let us use it your programs have helped draw attention to the plastic problem how far do you think we have to go on plastics what we need to do is to find out a way in which we can use plastic and get rid of it in the in a way that is not harmful and preferably in a way that is actually useful I can't help feeling we invented them the stuff surely happens we are clever enough to think of a way of disposing of it now David you've documented the life cycles of many species what about your own you're at a very interesting stage of your life and it doesn't seem like you're slowing down you're still doing so much for someone in their 90's how do you do it luck God have luck I mean I mean I've got dear friends my age or younger who can't walk about you know and it's on the air fault and they can't remember things but I can't remember things but seriously and and why it happen to them and have something to me I don't know and it's not because I eat anything peculiar or anything is it because you've had a really deep passion that's driven you through life Oh lots of people have known depressions you're driving them through life no I uh well I think what would be a pity is that if you actually are able to walk around and put two words together that you don't do it I mean and that society should condemn you to sitting in the chair knitting or something I mean I'm just just extremely lucky what are your thoughts on what happens after this life I know a lot of people have written to you in the past asking why you don't give God the credit for the natural wonders that you've seen what are you believing I've no idea I'm what they call an agnostic I don't know I am quite sure that the mechanism by which this world has become populated with all these different species of animals and plants we understand pretty well now and Darwinian evolution and so on is is long studied and and then maybe that's we don't know yet I don't think that's what was certain but by and large you know how it works now whether that says whether you say that means that God doesn't exist isn't is another question I don't believe that the first man actually complained to God that he hadn't got a partner and God said all right well in that case lie down I'll take your rib but now and then I blow into it and you've got a partner I don't believe that I mean it well maybe that there is a creator overall creative spirit that we don't know about I have no idea and well there's a life after death I've no idea he's scared of dying no I just hope it won't be painful and hope it won't be touched and for for others you know have your views on how this world came to be and what happens to us after we pass away have they they change much through the course of your life given what you've seen not really I never believed that Genesis was literally true sadaiva done bruh it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you thank you so much for your time pleasure you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 82,335

Rating: 4.8772922 out of 5

Keywords: David Attenborough, Environment, Climate change, David Attenborough interview, global warming, Scott Morrison, Australia, Greta Thunberg, Climate strikes, science, sir david attenborough, abc news, sir david attenborough interview, news, abc, triple j, triple j hack, australia

Id: XaSXN2K05Ls

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

one monday night i was feeling emotionally depleted, tired and sick of entertainment, like i watched and read everything with an once of entertainment value and nothing could possibly move me emotionally but since sleep escaped me i decided to try this planet earth documentary and just like that i was lost in nature, even thou i already knew everything they were covering, because they didn't just state facts they made me experience the natural world and its creatures from lions on the savannah to small rodents in meadows i was one with them!! it ignited something inside me that i haven't felt since i was studying biology i was fascinated once more. from that point i watched everything Attenborough produced and the bloke not only pioneered his field but he is still a leading it to this very day.