David Attenborough Warns About The Extinction Of Species
Sir David Attenborough returns to the screens this weekend with a landmark new production.
Britain's favourite naturalist is not here to celebrate the incredible diversity of life on Earth but to issue us all with a stark warning.
"We are facing a crisis", he warns at the start, "and one that has consequences for us all."
What follows is a shocking reckoning of the damage our species has wrought on the natural world.
There are the stunning images of animals and plants you would expect from an Attenborough production, but also horrific scenes of destruction.
Pangolins are trafficked in great numbers for their scales. There is a small army of experts on hand to quantify the scale of the damage to the ecosystems of the world.
Of the estimated eight million species on Earth, a million are now threatened with extinction, one expert warns.
Since 1970, vertebrate animals - birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians - have declined by 60%, another tells us.
These great beasts used to be found in their thousands in Central Africa but have been pushed to the brink of extinction by habitat loss and hunting.
"Many people think of extinction being this imaginary tale told by conservationists," says James Mwenda, the keeper who looks after them, "but I have lived it, I know what it is."
James strokes and pets the giant animals but it becomes clear they represent the last of their kind when he tells us that Najin and Fatu are mother and daughter.
Species have always come and gone, that's how evolution works. But, says Sir David, the rate of extinction has been rising dramatically.
It is reckoned to be now happening at 100 times the natural evolutionary rate - and is accelerating.
"Over the course of my life I've encountered some of the world's most remarkable species of animals," says Sir David, in one of the most moving sequences in the film.
"Only now do I realise just how lucky I've been - many of these wonders seem set to disappear forever."
Sir David is at pains to explain that this isn't just about losing the magnificent creatures he has featured in the hundreds of programmes he has made in his six decades as a natural history film-maker.
The loss of pollinating insects could threaten the food crops we depend on. Trees and other plants regulate water flow and produce the oxygen we breathe.
