JUDY WOODRUFF: There is perhaps no one whose name is more synonymous with documenting the
natural world than filmmaker Sir David Attenborough.
He has been at it since the 1950s. And in his latest book and film, both out this week,
he offers a grave and alarming witness statement about the crisis facing our planet.
William Brangham talked with the 94-year-old recently.
It's part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, Naturalist: The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: No one has given us a more intimate or stunning look at our planet than
Sir David Attenborough.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Dazzling in their variety and richness.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But now, after a near 70-year career, he says we are running the planet
headlong into disaster.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Yet, the way we humans live on Earth, you're sending it into a decline.
Human beings have overrun the world.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In his new Netflix documentary and companion book, both titled "A Life on
Our Planet," the famed filmmaker wants us to recognize what's happening, and to act
before it's too late.
I spoke with him recently from his home in London.
Sir David Attenborough, it's a great honor to have you on the "NewsHour." Thank you very
much for being here.
Anyone who knows your work knows that you have increasingly talked about man's impact
on the natural world.
But this film really hits this point very directly. Was it your sense that things had
just gotten so bad that that needed to be the focus of this project?
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Yes, I think I have been speaking about this the last 20, 30 years,
really.
It's just what anybody who knows the natural world and spends time looking at the natural
world stares it in the face. And anybody with whom to that happens feels a huge responsibility
to talk about it.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you say in the film and in the book, that when you were a young man,
going to all these exotic places, you had the sense at the time that man's imprint was
not being felt.
Was there a moment where you first recognized and said, I see it now, I see very directly
the imprint that humanity is having on the planet?
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Yes, the problem is making global assessments like that.
I mean, you can go to a glacier that you were there maybe five, 10 years ago, and it has
retreated, but you think, oh, well, that's just this glacier. Maybe there's another one
that's increasing.
But there are some things that are irrevocable and so dramatic and distressing that you can't
brush them away.
The one, I suppose, was the tipping point was when I dive on the coral reef, which I
have known perfectly well, on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and suddenly saw a cemetery,
and, suddenly, it was dead. And these corals, this extraordinary, wonderful construction
of corals was dead, white. And that was a shock.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There is, if I may say, a genuine sense of sadness and melancholy
that is throughout this project.
I mean, in the past, you would often talk about man's impact on the world, but would
move on, in a sense. This film, you really clearly seem to say: We are not moving on.
I cannot stress this point strong enough.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Well, you put it very well. That is exactly what I think.
And we -- you know, you feel that, sitting in London or New York or wherever, you may
feel the what the wilderness is, out there, and, of course, it's interesting, and, of
course, we know theoretically we depend upon it.
But when -- but now it's more serious than that. It affects every man and woman and child
on this planet. I'm an elderly chap. And I look at my grandchildren and wonder what's
going to happen.
And all I know is that, if you see these things and realize what they mean, you simply can't
sit back and say, well, I'm not going to bother.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I should say, I don't want to leave people with the sense that you don't
address what we might do to remedy this. And a good portion of the book and of the film
is looking at solutions.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: This film is my witness statement and my vision for the future.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Attenborough argues, for a rapid shift to renewable energy, to sustainable
agriculture, for a slowing of population growth, and for what he calls a rewilding of the land
and the oceans to give them time to rebound.
How confident are you that we will, in fact, move from these isolated examples to a true
moment for change?
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: I'm not in the least confident that we will do so in time.
And I certainly feel, although the situation is worse, I believe that the world is becoming
more aware of what needs to be done, to a much greater extent than only, say, five,
10 years ago.
It does seem to me a worldwide realization of the crisis which we are facing. And it's
been spearheaded, of course, by young people, and quite rightly, too. It's their future.
The kids of today are -- that's their life, you know? And we owe it to them to do everything
we can to make sure that disaster's averted.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Could you talk a little bit about the role that our own human complacency
plays in all of this? We all love the benefits of our gas-powered cars and our air-conditioned
homes.
And when we talk about sixth extinction or global climate change, it's still very easy
for so many people to put this view out of their minds and just keep on.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: But, actually, in your country, it's more unlikely for that
to happen than in mine.
I mean, you have faced disaster after disaster. You have got rising sea levels. You had cyclones,
hurricanes moving through with greater ferocity and frequency than ever before.
We see on our television usual coverage of appalling things that happen in your country
because of climate change, seem to me overwhelming.
And it's nice to say, oh, it's nothing, it's just a passing threat. It isn't. And the statistics
show it isn't. It is a major movement that's happening.
And your country and my country and the rest of the world have got to do something about
it. And we can. And we know what to do.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you have to dig deep down to come up with this optimism, or is
the -- is the long arc of your career what gives you this optimism? What is it?
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: I don't regard myself an optimist, to be truthful.
But, having said that, we have to recognize that, if we are going to solve it, we are
going to, as humanity, act as one. And that means that people will have to give, as well
as take.
And if that's to happen, it's got to be supported by the electorate, who says, we want it to
happen. We want to solve it. And tell us what the price is, but we want to pay it.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The book and the film is called "A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement
and A Vision for the Future."
Sir David Attenborough, thank you so much for talking with us, and thank you for your
remarkable career.
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Thank you so much.