Sir David Attenborough was joined by royalty of the actual and celebrity kind, at the global premiere of Our Planet this evening.
Joined by the likes of David Beckham and his son Brooklyn, as well as Ellie Goulding and Dougie Poynter at the Natural History Museum on Thursday night, esteemed guests gathered to bring in the latest series from the documentary stalwart.
At the black tie premiere in London, the Prince of Wales was joined by sons William and Harry as he welcomed everyone to the night and applauded the 92-year-old naturalist for his latest contribution to the arts and to nature.
‘Secretaries of state, ladies and gentleman. I must say I was enormously touched to have been asked here this evening along with both my sons to launch this really remarkable series,’ he told guests gathered, as he took to the stage.
‘It is also a much awaited opportunity to pay tribute to and thank Sir David Attenborough for all he’s done over so many years to bring the wonder, the fascination and increasingly the desperate plight of the natural world to our attention.
‘Above all he has done so much to lift the veil of ignorance from our eyes of the…intricate beauty of our home. The film Our Planet …will help provide an essential way to reach and teach hundreds of millions of people around the word.’
He added of his sons, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex: ‘When they were much younger I never thought they were paying attention to anything I said at all. But when I turned 70 last year I discovered to my absolute astonishment they had.
‘My sons are both keen to remind me we know what the problem is, we no longer need permission to act, but the priority is now to focus urgently on finding and implanting solutions.’
Harry, Duke Of Sussex, used his newly-formed Instagram account to share his own story that tied in with David’s message this evening.
‘As president of @AfricanParks, The Duke of Sussex continues to advocate for the communities and wildlife that coexist in some of the most vulnerable environments around the world,’ the message read.
Be it human wildlife conflict or natural disasters, these communities …are on the frontline of conservation and we must do more to help them as we also work to safeguard the animals and landscapes that are in critical danger.’
Along with the post, he shared images from a visit to Elephants Without Borders.
David has teamed up with Netflix with one crucial message, a final warning: the planet is on the brink of despair and we must act now. In fact, we have just 20 years to turn climate change around before it’s too late. What that entails, we don’t want to know.
He recently spoke about how nature documentaries should highlight the effects of climate change.
He confessed he feels ‘a responsibility’ to raise awareness about protecting our planet, rather than just show people the ‘lovely’ in the world.
‘There’s a big responsibility that natural history filmmakers have,’ he told BBC Science Focus Magazine. ‘I’d love to spend the whole time saying, “Look at these wonderful things, aren’t they lovely?”
‘But you have a responsibility for pointing out that unless we change our ways, they’re not going to be here forever.’
He added that it is going to take time to get the message across adding: ‘The world doesn’t work like that.’
‘It would be naive to think suddenly that you can say something and these enormously powerful men and organisations are going to change overnight,’ Attenborough continued.
‘But there are groundswells, there are these great sea changes that are difficult to plot, but they do happen. It’s up to us to bring that about.’
For Sir David, the biggest problem is meat. For one, our consumption of mammals is so far past what’s sustainable, but a scarier thought – we’re subsequently poisoning our oceans and spelling ‘catastrophe for Homo sapiens’.
‘The fact is huge portions of human beings depend on the seas for food and we know we can’t afford to keep on making steaks,’ insisted Sir David recently.
‘We will be dependent on the sea and at the moment we are poisoning them and boiling them.
‘I’m not vegetarian in the sense that I’d throw up if I touch a piece of meat, but I eat very little meat. Poultry a bit, but mostly fish. And I think most people are doing so. The world is moving towards a dependancy on fish and heaven help us when we’re doing what we’re doing to the ocean at the same time. We’re crippling it’s fertility; it’s a very serious problem.’
Our Planet launches 5 April on Netflix.
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