David Attenborough, 92, the world-famous naturalist and conservation advocate, issued a dire warning to the global community during his speech at a U.N. conference in Poland that if nothing is done now, the natural world, including humanity, may soon face destruction. He reiterated while addressing world leaders, that ‘our greatest threat in thousands of years’ has been climate change and something needs to be done immediately to put the impending disaster under control.
“The world’s people have spoken. Their message is clear: Time is running out,” the famous naturalist said at a United Nation conference in Poland.
“Right now we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change,” said Attenborough. “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
Attenborough was making the comments at the beginning of a two-week long climate conference holding in Katowice, Poland. The conference hosts about 200 emissaries from different countries around the world on the possible measures we can take to drastically reverse greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris climate agreement. Taking dramatic measures will certainly help reduce the worst effects of climate change on us.“The world’s people have spoken. Their message is clear: Time is running out,” he said on Monday. “They want you, the decision-makers, to act now. They’re behind you, along with civil society represented here today.”
Attenborough is serving in the “People’s Seat” at the conference, where he represented the people and presented the comments from the members of the public who are being affected by the climate change to the world leaders and other dignitaries sitting at the summit. A dire report was released by the U.N in October warning about an impending climate-related disaster by as early as 2040. Unless dramatic actions are taking to curb global emissions, the
looming menace will be extremely disastrous. Some of the effects to be expected are a mass die-off of coral reefs and extreme weather events upsurge.
Although world leaders are working to implement the pledges made under the landmark Paris agreement, the efforts so far are yet to come close to preventing catastrophic levels of warming.
It should be on the record, however, that the U.S. President, Donald Trump has consistently denied the existence of climate change and its ties to humanity. Just last month, the White House released a far-reaching 1,656-page report warning of a miserable future for the country. Trump, in his characteristic reaction, stated that he was too intelligent to believe in such happening. Heis currently making efforts to exclude the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
Regarding this month’s summit as the most important in recent years, the United Nations has encouraged world leaders to put-in extraordinary efforts toward tackling emissions.
“Climate change is running faster than we are, and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late,” said the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, at the beginning of the event. “For many people, regions and even countries, this is already a matter of life or death.”
