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Sir David Attenborough urges urgent action on plastic

Sir David says for the first time in the history of humanity, one species has the future of the world in its hands.

Sir David says for the first time in the history of humanity, one species has the future of the world in its hands. Photo: Supplied/ABC

David Attenborough has urged the world to cut down on the use of plastic by “tomorrow” to curb the danger it poses to the world’s oceans.

The much-loved TV nature expert told how filming the second Blue Planet series showed him the threat that plastic causes to the underwater environment.

At a Q&A about the show ahead of its broadcast on the BBC later this month – 15 years after the original series – the 91-year old said rising sea temperatures and plastic in the ocean were his main concern.

“Now what we’re going to do about 1.5 degrees rise in the temperature of the ocean over the next 10 years, I don’t know, but we could actually do something about plastic right now. And I just wish we would,” he said on Saturday (UK time).

“The albatross parent has been away for three weeks gathering stuff for her young and what comes out? What does she give her chick? You think it’s going to be squid, but it’s plastic. And the chick is going to starve and die.

“But we could do things about plastic internationally tomorrow. We have a responsibility. Every one of us.

“It is one world. And it’s in our care. For the first time in the history of humanity, for the first time in 500 million years, one species has the future in the palm of its hands. I just hope he realises that that is the case.”

The program was filmed all over the world, in locations such as Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Mexico, Japan and Norway.

-AAP

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