Sir David Attenborough, the prominent British broadcaster and environmentalist, has spoken about the Australian bushfires in a new interview with the BBC.
Attenborough categorically rebuffed the suggestion there could be any other explanation for the bushfires than climate change. With an evident tone of solemnity, Attenborough told BBC News the “moment of crisis has come.”
Watch: Sir David Attenborough on life, death, climate change and the future of the planet
He may be 93 years old, but Attenborough’s determination to incite action on climate change is unflagging. “As I speak, south-east Australia is on fire,” he said. “Why? Because the temperatures of the Earth are increasing.”
A reported 10.7m hectares of land have burnt so far this bushfire season. Approximately one billion animals are thought to have perished. The urgency of this issue may still elude our Prime Minister, but it is certainly not lost on Attenborough.
Watch: Scott Morrison defends his government’s climate policies
“This is not just having nice little debates and arguments and then coming away with a compromise. This is an urgent problem that has to be solved,” he said.
What causes particular dismay for Attenborough is that we’ve already developed the intelligence and resources to turn things around. Stubborn, self-interested global leaders are now the only ones halting progress.
“We know how to do it, that’s the paradoxical thing – that we are refusing to take steps that we know have to be taken,” Attenborough said. “And every year that passes makes those steps more and more difficult to achieve.”
