David Attenborough's speech at Davos

David Attenborough's speech on the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos:

Thank you, Professor Klaus Schwab, Hilde Schwab and the World Economic Forum for this generous recognition and for inviting me to Davos.

I come from another era. I was born during the Holocene, the name given to the 12,000-year period of climatic stability that allowed humans to settle, cultivate and create civilizations. Those conditions shaped our minds, giving rise to the exchange of ideas, as well as becoming the globally connected species we are today. Much of what will be discussed here is a consequence of that stability. Global business, international cooperation and striving for great ideals are possible because for millennia nature has been predictable and stable on a global scale.Now in the time span of a lifetime - in fact, the time span of my lifetime - all that has changed. The Holocene is over. We are no longer in the Garden of Eden. We have changed the world so much that scientists already consider that we are living in a new geological era: the Anthropocene, «The Age of Humans.» When I think about it, this is perhaps one of the most disturbing ideas. The only conditions known to modern humans are changing and changing fast.

It is tempting and understandable to ignore the evidence and go on with our lives or perhaps sink into pessimism. But there is also vast potential in the things we can do. We need to overcome the guilt and begin the practical tasks at hand. We did not get to this point deliberately and this has happened surprisingly quickly.

When I did my first television program, most of the audience had never seen a pangolin, in fact few pangolins had ever seen a television camera! In 1979 I did a series that traced the history of life on the planet and at the time I was aware of the environmental problems but didn't realize that we were fundamentally changing nature. In 1999, while filming the Blue Planet series on marine life, we filmed a coral bleaching event, and even then I was not able to realize the extent of the damage that had already begun.

However, we now have evidence, knowledge and the ability to share it on scales unimaginable until a few years ago. Movements and ideas can spread at breathtaking speeds.

The audience for my first series, 60 years ago, was restricted to a few million in the south of England. My next series to be released - Our Planet - will instantly reach billions of people in almost every country in the world via Netflix. And the evidence shown in the series will be available for free to anyone with internet access via WWF.

If people understand what is at stake, I believe they will give businesses and governments permission to move forward with practical solutions.
And as a species, we are expert problem solvers, we just haven't yet dedicated ourselves to this problem with the focus it requires. We can create a world with clean air and water, unlimited energy and fish stocks that will feed us into the future. But to achieve this we need a plan.

For the next two years, the United Nations will be making decisions on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and a New Deal for Nature. Together, these strategies will form part of our species' plan to exist in the Anthropocene.

What we do in the next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years.

I look forward to the discussions and exchange of ideas this week.

Thank you again for the honor.

David Attenborough

Source: WEF