Sir David Attenborough | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
Sir David Attenborough, 94, delivers a witness statement in his new Netflix film *A Life on Our Planet* and book, chronicling 70 years of planetary exploration—from pristine wilderness to human-driven destruction like dying coral reefs, expanding African deserts, and a two-thirds wildlife decline—warning that climate change is the greatest threat in millennia. He urges an immediate global shift to renewable energy, rewilding, and ending fossil fuels, rejecting tech fixes or denial in our finite world, as saving nature saves humanity. Optimistic about youth demanding action, he calls on leaders like Trump, Xi, and Modi to prioritize international survival over national ambitions.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
For nearly 70 years, Sir David Attenborough has explored the planet, taking hundreds of millions of television viewers on journeys through jungles, island archipelagos, deserts, and deep under the sea. No place too remote, no animal too elusive for him and his team to document. Known as a national treasure in Britain, he is 94 years old. Age and the pandemic have not slowed him. He has a new book and a remarkable new film, A Life on Our Planet, premiering on Netflix next week. They are his witness statement, a firsthand account of planetary changes and a dire warning if we do not act quickly.
The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel... dazzling in their variety and richness.
Human beings have overrun the world. We're replacing the wild with the tame. Our planet is headed for disaster.
You call the film a witness statement. A witness statement is given when a crime has been committed. >> Yeah. Well, the crime has been committed and it so happens that I'm of such an age that I was able to see it beginning.
He prefers thrill, excitement, pleasure, joy over saying doom, but responsibility demands it. Interviewed via Zoom near his London home in isolation.
His house has a cellar full of rocks from travels. Studied geology and zoology in college. In 1954, at age 28, working as a BBC producer, convinced bosses to let him travel the world.
Wherever I went, there was wilderness, sparkling coastal seas, vast forests, immense grasslands. You could fly for hours over untouched wilderness. It was the best time of my life.
Became a household name in 1979 with Life on Earth, seen by an estimated 500 million people worldwide.
I know it sounds like a publicist slogan, but it is the greatest story ever told. The story of how life developed on this planet and led to you and me sitting here talking across an ocean.
First filmed encounter with endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
It was really very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolize all that is aggressive and violent when that's the one thing that the gorilla is not and that we are.
Two baby gorillas sat on him; the biggest compliment, accepted into the family, unforgettable.
Known for unforgettable moments in the wild; barely a corner of Earth unvisited, species shown in new ways. Gives natural world a story full of characters, complexity, excitement. Example from Planet Earth 2.
It's the job of a narrator for natural history films... really pretty easy because the animals are so fantastic.
Early 1960s founding member of World Wildlife Fund. Rarely focused on habitat destruction or climate change in films. Was skeptical of climate change, making current warnings more powerful.
If you're going to make a statement about the world, you better make sure that isn't just your own personal reaction... see the work of scientists around the world... temperature, humidity, radioactivity, ecologically.
Climate change is the greatest threat facing the planet for thousands of years.
Even the biggest, most awful things that humanity... civilizations have done pale to significance when you think of what could be around the corner unless we pull ourselves together.
Deserts in Africa spreading; areas where people can no longer safely live. Hottest temperatures recorded in Death Valley. We optimistically dismiss extremes.
Repeatedly visited Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
A coral reef is one of the most dramatic and beautiful and complex manifestations of life you can find anywhere.
Last trip: reef like a cemetery, corals died from temperature and acidity rise.
To those saying it's not bad or technology will solve it:
No, we live in a finite world. Ultimately, we depend upon the natural world for every mouthful of food... every lungful of air... if it wasn't for the natural world, the atmosphere would be depleted from oxygen tomorrow. If there were no trees, we would suffocate.
During pandemic, people discover need for nature for sanity, thrilled by birdsong, realize they are part of it.
So by saving nature, we are saving ourselves. >> Oh, without question.
We're not just ruining the world, we've destroyed it. >> It's not beyond redemption.
Redemption requires complete shift to renewable energy, end reliance on fossil fuels.
The fossil fuel industry does not want the world to move off fossil fuels. >> No, it doesn't. But... we know ways... from the sun... tiny fraction of the amount of energy that sprays on this earth 24 hours a day... for nothing. If we could solve... storage and transmission, the world is ours.
Why should we go on poisoning life on Earth? >> It sounds simple when you say it. >> So it is.
Wants rewilding of the planet, giving plants and animals time and space to recover. World Wildlife Fund: two-thirds of Earth's wildlife disappeared in past 50 years.
Repopulation of the oceans can happen... in a decade if we had the will.
To President Trump, President Xi of China, Prime Minister Modi of India:
The time has come to put aside national ambitions and look for an international ambition of survival.
Nations looking inward will sink us.
Can you be optimistic at all? >> We don't have an alternative... not if you love your children, not if you love the rest of humanity.
Puts faith in youth; huge global movement of young people demanding government action. His generation failed.
We've allowed this to happen, despite being the smartest creatures that have ever lived. Now we need... wisdom.
This planet is all we have. There is nowhere else to go.
Do you believe there's life elsewhere? >> No, not really... Why would I want to go and live on the moon? I've got this world of badgers and thrushes and jellyfish and corals... I'll stay where I am and watch hummingbirds.
Received huge reception at Britain's largest music festival last year.
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