Cook: You've been visiting the world's ecosystems
for over 50 years now. What changes are you
seeing in places that you're going back to
like the Great Barrier Reef?
Attenborough: Just recently I've been in Borneo,
and I've been going to Borneo for 50 years
or so and it's very evident there, particularly
if you fly by air and take a helicopter journey
across the width of Borneo or sections of
it anyway. It's very revealing. The Kinabatangan
River, which used to be a really wild area
when I first went, there's a fringe of about,
I suppose, a couple hundred yards on the other
side of the river where there's riverine forest
and then beyond there there is uniform oil
palms.
Cook: As you talk to scientific experts, what
is it that convinced you that humans are causing
these kind of changes, particularly climate
change?
Attenborough: Well, I think you put your finger
on it. It's when you talk to the experts because
by and large looking for human effects on
the natural world you just don't go out and
walk into the bush and say, "Oh, yes, that's
human effects." You need much more solid observations
than that and particularly observations through
time. What convinces you is measurements of
the component gases in the atmosphere, for
example. When you have got records, as we
have in Europe, going back to the 18th century,
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution,
and you suddenly see the figure of CO2, for
example, and other gases, too, steadily increasing.
If you plot against that population, as well,
you have not much doubt that human beings
have had an effect upon the atmosphere.
Cook: Based on what you've seen and talking
to the experts, how do you think that life
on Earth will be affected if we don't resolve
the climate change problem?
Attenborough: Well, I think one of the most
sensitive places is here in eastern Australia
in Queensland. The two effects of climate
change that I think we can be absolutely certain
about, beyond any question, is that the temperature
of the ocean is rising and the acidity of
the ocean is rising. Work has been done here
in Heron Island and elsewhere that makes it
absolutely clear as to what the effect those
two factors will be upon coral growth. The
increasing, the time passing, increasing those
figures lead to disaster unless something
is done. There are those who say that there's
nothing that can be done except, and my response
to that is that it will be worse if we do
nothing. There's not an excuse for doing nothing
saying you can't stem it - you can slow it
down, that's for sure. It will be really culpable
if we don't.
Cook: Are you optimistic that we can make
the changes we need to avoid the worst impacts?
Attenborough: I have no real evidence to feel
one way or the other. It's only gut feeling,
and gut feeling is not a good way of going
around and judging things. All I know is that
a responsible biologist has to say what these
facts are and to take very chance of influencing
those people who can change or can influence
those circumstances and those are primarily
politicians.
Cook: I guess that brings an important question,
what advice would you give scientists and
experts who are trying to communicate the
realities of climate change to the public
and the policy makers?
Attenborough: I don't have advice to give
them really because all the circumstances
are different. Except that we have to go on
proclaiming the truth. That's what science
has done ever since Galileo. For 500 years
that's what scientists do. Thought scientists
don't take notice of fashion and don't take
notice of political influence and don't take
notice of any other kind of influence. The
only kind of influence that they should take
notice of are the evidence which they find
and which their discipline teaches them to
assess.
Cook: You must get a lot of feedback from
people who watch your shows. How do you respond
to people who don't accept the science of
climate change?
Attenborough: It's very difficult if they
don't, if they won't take notice, if they
won't believe the figures, what can you say?
It seems to be an extraordinary offensive
thing to do to say to a scientist, your figures
are wrong. Of course there are complex statistics
and simple statistics and we know that statisticians
and the science of statistics is a sophisticated
one. Figures don't automatically yield up
the truth, but you can only be honest and
you can only work to the facts as you see
them and as your discipline teaches you to
deduce them.
