Exploring our natural world – with Sir David Attenborough

Published Feb 17, 2021, 2:00 AM

If we damage the natural world, we are damaging ourselves, and we have been doing that without care for decades.”

Sir David Attenborough is the ultimate advocate for planet Earth.

At the launch of his feature documentary for Netflix, A Life On Our Planet, actor and WWF Ambassador Cel Spellman spoke with him to explore what’s at stake, finding joy in nature, and why there is still hope for our natural world.

Join the conversation on social media using #CallOfTheWild, and subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

The Wild is calling. It's time to act.

Friends, how are you? I hope you're all okay. My name is Cel Spellman. I am an actor, a presenter, and a very proud ambassador for WWF. And I would like to welcome you to Call of the Wild. This is a brand new podcast from WWF, all about how each and every one of us can make a difference in the fight to save our planet. Each episode, we're going to be joined by different experts and famous faces as we delve into particular areas of the climate conversation, and find out those ways in which we can all chip in and make a difference. And to kick the series off, there is only one man we could begin with. We are joined by a very special guest.

We are part of the natural world. We certainly have responsibility for it, because now we are so powerful that we can destroy it. And what's worse, is that we do. And if we damage the natural world, we are damaging ourselves. And we have been doing that without care for decades.

Oh yes, my friends, you heard that right. And is it just me, or does his voice sound even better through headphones? Maybe it's just me. But that voice there you heard is the one and only Sir David Attenborough. And he needs all of our help to do our bit for the planet. So, it's time to step up, the wild is calling, it's time to act. It's a hard truth to digest that our generation is faced with an environmental catastrophe. And I think what makes it even harder to digest is a lot of us didn't play too much of a part in getting to this point. If we carry on as normal, the damage is going to be irreversible. That is a fact. But I tell you what else is the fact, that we still have a chance to turn things around and make a difference. We have within our grasp the chance to give our natural world the space and time to recover. All of us, have the power to make real change and the solutions are out there. So, that is what this podcast is going to be about, finding out about those little steps that we can all take to do our bit and make a difference while learning about the biggest solutions that we can be looking for from our policymakers, decision- makers and big corporations. So in each episode, I'm going to be joined by some big names and familiar faces, which actually thinking about it doesn't work well for a podcast. So hopefully there'll be familiar voices. And I'll also be teaming up with top wildlife experts to dig deeper into the threats we're facing and the impact it's already having on the world around us. But most importantly, what can we do to help and turn things around? But for this episode, it's a little bit different. I wanted to find out more about what's at stake and why there is still reason for hope and optimism. And there was only one person I could get that from, Sir David Attenborough. I had the most amazing opportunity to sit down with him in March last year, just before lockdown. And it's safe to say it is a moment I'll never forget. So we are waiting for the man, the hero, the legend. You can hear it in my voice, can't you? I'm nervous. I'm speaking about none other than Sir David Attenborough. So we're all set. The two chairs have been laid out. The microphones are recording, and we're just waiting for him to arrive. It's feeling like an eternity. Genuinely for me, and if you speak to any of my friends, he's my hero. Sir David, it is an absolute privilege to have you on our podcast.

Thank you.

To be able to sit down with you and have a chat. Sir David, what inspired your love for the natural world?

Well, do you know, I've never met a child older than three or four years who is not fascinated by the natural world. Every child. It's the thing in you and in me, and every other child that you are amazed to see a slug suddenly move across into some miracle, miraculous way over a stone with two little things sticking out at the front, and finding its way on a bed of slime. I remember taking a godchild of mine, actually, when they were about three or four, and he turned every stone in the meadow and he said, " Oh, look at that, what a treasure," he said. " It's a slug." And he was right. It's amazing. And of course, as you get older, you get interested in other things. You get into cars and motorbikes and one thing or another. But if you lose that pleasure of finding joy in the natural world and wanting to know how it works you've lost a huge treasure.

It's so true. And for me, I think anyone you speak to always remembers that lesson in school, when you'd go out into the woodland and turning over a tree bark and seeing the wood lice.

Yes.

It's such a profound memory in everybody's mind-

Quite right.

... that never goes.

Never goes. And in pond dipping too. Pond dipping, fantastic creatures.

What are the biggest transformations, or is there a key one that you've witnessed since starting out your career to this moment in time within nature?

Well, that human beings are all pervasive everywhere, that you can't get across away from human beings anymore, that there is the oil slicks and bits of plastic floating in the remotest part of the oceans, that we have destroyed nature. We'd be so clever that we've found methods and ways and techniques of actually destroying nature in order to put in what we choose. And that we've done it without thought, over vast areas of the planet as though the planet belonged only to us. We depend on the natural world for interest of everything that's beautiful and wonderful, but also we are dependent on every breath of air that we take and on every mouth full of food we eat. And if we damage the natural world, we are damaging ourselves. And we have been doing that without care for decades.

I think that's part of my frustration is that people are forgetting that link that is so integral to life on Earth. And I was wondering, can you point to anything that was a major player and is having that disconnect from nature? How have we lost touch? Because right at the start of your career, we kind of were living to a degree a bit more sustainable with our planet, whereas now that's non- existent. What's caused that, do you think?

Well, first of all, the thing that's caused it is sheer density of human beings. There are three times as many human beings on this planet as when I first made the television program. And not only that, but those three times size population have been given into their hands, mechanisms of poisoning and destroying beyond the powers of any other human beings ever existed. We can now just press a little stud on an aerosol box and kill insects as soon as look at you. We've got mechanical devices that will rip up any meadow or any woodlands you want to see in an afternoon. And we're doing it and we continue doing it. We've got methods of tracing every fish in the sea and killing it one way or another, and we're doing that too.

Do you recall a moment in your time, Sir David, that really shocked you, kind of one of them moments where it gets you to your core and it's utterly heartbreaking?

I suppose the most obvious one that I remember particularly vividly, of course, is the first time when I went to a coral reef, which I thought I was going to go in Eastern Australia on the Barrier Reef. I dived in, and instead of seeing the most marvelous, beautiful, extraordinary, wonderful wonderland, it was a cemetery. It was just white, dead coral. And we were responsible.

And on the flip side, is there a moment that kind of just brought you pure joy and elation, maybe even one that wasn't captured on camera that we might not know about?

Lots of those. Lots of them. And the great moments come when you have a vision of the natural world in which humanity doesn't play a part, in which there's a whole complex of organisms all interacting one another, all busy about their own affairs, all at peace within over the world. I remember just such a moment in Northern Australia in a billabong, those big shallow lakes. We'd put up a hide the previous night, and then we got in there and sitting in there before dawn, while it was still dark, so that the birds didn't see us. And then you'd look through this little peep hole in the side of the hide. And there were, I don't know, 10,000 egrets and cockatoos and crocodiles and the ducks and the geese, and the whole thing, busy, squawking away, busy feeding, and birds you've never seen of before and just swimming. We filmed for quite a bit. And then something happened. You don't know what, because suddenly the entire flock took flight and flew off. And there was the billabong empty of life altogether, and just ripples still of where they'd all been flying away. But that was a vision of the world without humanity. Well, it's a pity I have to say that really, because we are part of the natural world and we too can find circumstances in which we can come to terms with the natural world. And we ought to recognize that we have a part of it. We certainly have responsibility for it because now we are so powerful that we can destroy it. And what's worse is that we do.

And I guess off that as well, we're the only ones that can save it.

Oh, that's so true.

And that kind of brings me to this point. As someone who has really led us up to this point, I would really love to hear kind of any top tips you'd have to impart to our listeners and to young people on what they can do to turn things around and make that change.

Well, one of the simplest things that you should do, if you get the chance, when you get the chance is just actually just stop, sit down, don't move, keep quiet, and wait 10 minutes. You'll be very surprised if something pretty interesting didn't happen when you'd done this. Doing that in a woodland, if you haven't done it, it's extraordinary. Don't get too impatient either. And then, well, I'm speaking for myself, then you realize how eaten you are, how you can't actually recognize what that bird call is, which you ought to be able to. I certainly ought to be able to do, and I can't. Mind you, I can't hear either. At my age... But nonetheless, I think it's to see. And there are wonderful things to see and extraordinary things happen. And I mean, of course, the real time, when it really is exciting to do that, if you do it into a place where you don't know at all, I mean, you get into a jungle in the middle of Costa Rica or something, and then you suddenly see extraordinary things, which you really don't know anything about.

What signs have you seen and examples that tell us, it's not the end of the world, that there is hope?

Well, that is how things recover. And the natural world is fantastic in the way its abilities to regenerate are extraordinary. 40, 50 years ago, there was a real chance that whales might be exterminated, because we had such powerful ways of killing them, of finding the poor things and then shooting explosive harpoons into them and killing them. And we were doing it hand over fist. And nations were competing to see how many they killed until suddenly some or a number of people who were saying, " If we don't stop this, there will be no more whales in the sea." And then everybody were lost in everything. And they got the whaling nations of the world, the maritime nations of the world together and got them together and got them to bang their heads. No, they didn't bang their heads together, but they got them to agree that they would stop whaling. And now there are more whales than there have been in the sea for a century.

People power.

People power. Yeah. But also, the fantastic path of regeneration that nature has. And we're learning more about the great whales and the way they communicate and so on. And they're on sites now that never hadn't been seen in whales accumulating in numbers that haven't been seen before in a century.

Now, just to wrap up today, and I hope you don't mind this because it's a very rare opportunity, I think that you get to meet your heroes and let alone thank them in person. So I just wrote a little something because I thought if I just leave it and I don't write it down, I'll fumble and mumble it. And I won't say it how I want to say it. So if you don't mind, would you mind if I just basically say, thank you from me, because genuinely, Sir David, you have been the person in my life that has had the most profound effect and influence on it for the good. And I would go as far to say, who I am and what I stand and the differences that I'm trying to make has largely been down to your programming and your storytelling. And I think it's a sentiment that I will wholeheartedly believe that I think most people in the country and around the world would share that you have given nature and wildlife, a voice like no other person has, and you really have driven the conversation and the shifting consciousness almost single- handedly. And it has just been one of my greatest privileges, genuinely to have been around when you were here and to have been here in your lifetime, is something that will stay with me, Sir David. And genuinely, I promise you that I will do all I can, and I'm sure the young people listening will agree and say, to continue the incredible selfless work that you have put in for our planet and for our future. And we will strive to make it a better place because the world genuinely is a better place for you being in it.

You couldn't have said a nicer thing to me. Thank you very much, indeed. It's very kind of you.

My pleasure, Sir David. Thank you. Finally, what would be from your pearl of wisdom to younger people who want to make a difference?

Do what interests you. Do what you think you're good at. And the odd thing is that nearly always what you're good at is what you're interested in. And so, follow that star.

I'm speechless. I don't think I'll be able to summarize it eloquently enough. You can't put it into words. I mean, they say don't meet your heroes. Here's one that you should definitely meet. And I know I'm so lucky and fortunate to have had that opportunity. But guys, it's just as good as you want it to be in person. I can't tell you. You literally are hanging off his every single word. This is what we made this podcast for. It's why I'm involved, is go and look, this isn't coming from a place of somebody who knows everything. This isn't coming from a place of all doom and gloom. This is literally meeting people, meeting experts to educate ourselves on the planet and its wildlife, our impacts, our effects, but also finding out what we can do. And I want it to be a source of hope and inspiration. And I hope that it is. And I hope yeah, that we can go on this journey together. And it's got the seal of approval from Sir David. So if you don't subscribe, you've basically just said no to Sir David in his face. So it's up to you. It's your decision. But if you want to say to Sir David, I'm not going to subscribe, it's on you, man. That's on you. So my friends, there you have it. That's what went down when I met Sir David Attenborough. I still can't quite believe it. And I don't know if this was just me, but it felt like a huge moment of him passing the baton to us and safe to say, I do not want to let him down. And that's where Call of the Wild comes in. We're going to be sharing tips and ideas on how your actions could not only save the world, but make it a better place and talking about why it's so important, while also equipping us with the knowledge of all the things we need to know. In each of the next five episodes, we're going to be tackling a key area of our lives from travel and fashion to plastic use and food. And I'll be meeting experts along the way who are going to explain a little bit more in depth about the mess we're in while also teaching us about the things we can all do to do our bit for our planet and our future. Not only that, in each episode, I'll be joined by a special guest, finding out how they are dealing with their own impacts on the planet and what they are trying to do to find that balance, that balance we are all striving for. I would also absolutely love to hear from you about how your answering the Call of the Wild. Do you see what I did there? It's Call of the Wild, name of it. I'll just move on. But seriously, anything you've done to limit your impact on the planet. Maybe some top tips you've picked up along the way, or even a positive thing you've done to make the world a better place. Please do let me know. It's very simple. You just send a voice note to callofthewild@ wwf. org. uk. And you may just hear your voice on this very podcast. Remember, we're in this together. So it would be wonderful if we could hear from you and get some ideas and hopefully inspire each of the two. So in our next episode, we're taking a deep dive into oceans and how humanity's love of plastic is causing major problems. I'll be joined by model and designer, Georgia May Jagger to discuss how she's trying to reduce plastic use in her own life and in her business.

This time and everything we've experienced has made me really realize that the way that I was living my life before is not sustainable for the planet or for myself.

Now, if you can't wait till then do not worry. I've got you covered because we've got a bonus episode coming out soon with Sir David, with all the stuff we couldn't fit in from today. Call of the Wild is a Fresh Air Production for WWF. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode and join the conversation on social media using the hashtag Call of the Wild. The wild is calling. It's time to act.