Sir David Attenborough calls for cutback on plastic for the oceans
The presenter describes seeing baby animals at risk of starving because of plastic in the seas while filming his new show.
Sunday 15 October 2017 09:21, UK
Sir David Attenborough has called on people to reduce their use of plastic to stop damage being done to wildlife in and around the oceans.
The presenter said the series he has made about nature in the seas has revealed plastic is posing an increasingly grave threat to the world's ecosystems.
His comments were made at a Q&A his forthcoming BBC show The Blue Planet II, which is due to be aired later this month.
::
He revealed that during his travels to research and film the show he had seen worrying examples of how animals risked starving because plastic was replacing their food.
The 91-year-old said two things concerned him the most: "the rising temperature" and "plastic in the ocean".
"What we're going to do about 1.5 degrees rise in the temperature of the ocean over the next 10 years, I don't know, but we could actually do something about plastic right now. And I just wish we would.
"There are so many sequences that every single one of us have been involved in, even in the most peripheral way, where we have seen tragedies happen because of the plastic in the ocean.
"We've seen albatross come back with their belly full of food for their young and nothing in it.
"The albatross parent has been away for three weeks gathering stuff for her young and what comes out? What does she give her chick? You think it's going to be squid, but it's plastic. And the chick is going to starve and die.
"There are more examples of that. But we could do things about plastic internationally tomorrow."
Sir David said he hoped images of the kind they filmed will make people think about how they use and discard plastics.
He said: "We have a responsibility. Everyone of us. We may think we live a long way from the oceans but we don't.
"What we actually do here… has a direct effect on the oceans and what the oceans do, then reflects back on us."
has been urging people to cut out single-use plastic from their lives in a bid to help save the world's seas.
