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.
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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.
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