110+ David Attenborough Quotes On Climate Change, Conservation And Animals

David Attenborough is a British journalist, broadcaster and natural historian. He is best known for writing and presenting the BBC natural history documentary series Life on Earth and the follow-up series, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC and is now an independent producer and broadcaster. Following is our collection on famous quotes by David Attenborough on climate change, conservation, life.

Top 10 David Attenborough Quotes

1. The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.
2. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment
3. The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?
4. How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew what was happening to the world and did nothing.
5. Anyone who believes in indefinite growth on a physically finite planet is either mad or an economist
6. Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it.
7. I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.
8. I'm no longer sceptical. I no longer have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world.
9. Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?
10. You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.

David Attenborough Image Quotes

I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Short Quotes

• I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
• If I can bicycle, I bicycle.
• I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.
• The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
• Trade is a proper and decent relationship, with dignity and respect on both sides.
• Can a growing human population still leave space for wildlife?
• Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.
• One in eight plant species face extinction.
• It is curiosity, quite right-a divine curiosity. A characteristic of the gods is curiosity.
• Crying wolf is a real danger.

David Attenborough Quotes About Climate Change

There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it. — David Attenborough

It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now. — David Attenborough

I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial. — David Attenborough

We really need to kick the carbon habit and stop making our energy from burning things. Climate change is also really important. You can wreck one rainforest then move, drain one area of resources and move onto another, but climate change is global. — David Attenborough

Climate change will affect the whole of humanity, while terrorist attacks will only affect a small section of humanity. Of course, you wouldn't say that if you were related to someone who had been beheaded or blown up or murdered. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About Life

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. — David Attenborough

Life is not all high emotion. Some of the most interesting things are when its not highly emotional: little details of relationships and body language. — David Attenborough

The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about. — David Attenborough

Its about cherishing the woodland at the bottom of your garden or the stream that runs through it. It affects every aspect of life. — David Attenborough

All life is related. And it enables us to construct with confidence the complex tree that represents the history of life — David Attenborough

Clearly we could devastate the world... as far as we know, the Earth is the only place in the universe where there is life. Its continued survival now rests in our hands — David Attenborough

What humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on the planet. — David Attenborough

If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About Animals

The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants. — David Attenborough

People are not going to care about animal conservation unless they think that animals are worthwhile. — David Attenborough

Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom. We feed them and tame them and think we know them. And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious. — David Attenborough

I'm not an animal lover if that means you think things are nice if you can pat them, but I am intoxicated by animals. — David Attenborough

I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals. — David Attenborough

Warm-bloodedness is one of the key factors that have enabled mammals to conquer the Earth, and to develop the most complex bodies in the animal kingdom. In this series, we will travel the world to discover just how varied and how astonishing mammals are. — David Attenborough

I think the most alarming animals I have encountered are really poisonous snakes. — David Attenborough

I'm not a propagandist, I'm not a polemicist; my primary interest is just looking at and trying to understand how animals work. — David Attenborough

The process of making natural history films is to try to prevent the animal knowing you are there, so you get glimpses of a non-human world, and that is a transporting thing. — David Attenborough

The more you go on, the less you need people standing between you and the animal and the camera waving their arms about. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About Nature

Cameramen are among the most extraordinarily able and competent people I know. They have to have an insight into natural history that gives them a sixth sense of what the creature is going to do, so they can be ready to follow. — David Attenborough

The human population can no longer be allowed to grow in the same old uncontrollable way. If we do not take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us and it is the poor people of the world who will suffer most — David Attenborough

In the old days... it was a basic, cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes, I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes. — David Attenborough

Natural history is not about producing fables. — David Attenborough

As far as I'm concerned, if there is a supreme being then He chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world... which doesn't seem to me to be necessarily blasphemous at all. — David Attenborough

Being in touch with the natural world is crucial. — David Attenborough

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure. — David Attenborough

Nothing in the natural world makes sense - except when seen in the light of evolution — David Attenborough

I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature. — David Attenborough

Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About World

I'm swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune. — David Attenborough

Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control. — David Attenborough

I find it far more awesome, wonderful, that creation; our appearance in the world; should be the culmination, or at least one of the latest products of 3,000 Million years of organic evolution, than a kind of country trick, taking a rib out of a man's side in a trance. — David Attenborough

In the West, that's what's happening. The birth rate has been dropping steadily and still is. But there is still a vast amount of the world where that's not the case. And that is where the big population growth is taking place. — David Attenborough

An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment. — David Attenborough

There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. — David Attenborough

If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world's ecosystems would collapse — David Attenborough

The climate suits me, and London has the greatest serious music that you can hear any day of the week in the world - you think it's going to be Vienna or Paris or somewhere, but if you go to Vienna or Paris and say, 'Let's hear some good music', there isn't any. — David Attenborough

The World is full of wonders, but they become more Wonderful, not less Wonderful when Science looks at them. — David Attenborough

London has fine museums, the British Library is one of the greatest library institutions in the world... It's got everything you want, really. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About People

It's extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. The things that people always go on about is, 'tell us about us', 'tell us about the first human being'. We are so self-obsessed with our own history. There is so much more out there than what connects to us. — David Attenborough

I would love to see a giant squid. Very few people have seen them. And only about half a dozen people have seen one alive. — David Attenborough

I've never actually met one in the wild, but I have seen a king cobra. They go towards people, they rear up six feet tall and they're very aggressive and they are very fast. And one bite means certain death. So if I encountered a king cobra in the wild I would be very alarmed. — David Attenborough

I'd like to see the giant squid. Nobody has ever seen one. I could tell you people who have spent thousands and thousands of pounds trying to see giant squid. I mean, we know they exist because we have seen dead ones. But I have never seen a living one. Nor has anybody else. — David Attenborough

All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder - and ultimately impossible to solve - with ever more people. — David Attenborough

The notion of ever more old people needing ever more young people, who will in turn grow old and need even more young people, and so on ad infinitum, is an obvious ecological Ponzi scheme. — David Attenborough

That people will object very much to seeing a predator killing its prey, and yet, in the news, will accept showing shots of people shooting one another. — David Attenborough

You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them. — David Attenborough

You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about. — David Attenborough

You'll find people where their conditions aren't changing in any way, its rather rare for them to be happy. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Quotes About Animal

I've been bitten by a python. Not a very big one. I was being silly, saying: 'Oh, it's not poisonous...' Then, wallop! But you have fear around animals. — David Attenborough

I'm not over-fond of animals. I am merely astounded by them. — David Attenborough

Steve Irwin did wonderful conservation work but I was uncomfortable about some of his stunts. Even if animals aren't aware that you are not treating them with respect, the viewers are. — David Attenborough

David Attenborough Famous Quotes And Sayings

The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the earth. — David Attenborough

Reptiles and amphibians are sometimes thought of as primitive, dull and dimwitted. In fact, of course, they can be lethally fast, spectacularly beautiful, surprisingly affectionate and very sophisticated. — David Attenborough

‎Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever increasing population. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we controlled the population to allow the survival of the environment. — David Attenborough

In the Baboon community, it is not how strong you are that is important, but who you know that counts — David Attenborough

They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator. — David Attenborough

Getting to places like Bangkok or Singapore was a hell of a sweat. But when you got there it was the back of beyond. It was just a series of small tin sheds. — David Attenborough

I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark, so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost. — David Attenborough

Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is either a madman or an economist. — David Attenborough

It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five ... Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066. — David Attenborough

Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics. — David Attenborough

I can mention many moments that were unforgettable and revelatory. But the most single revelatory three minutes was the first time I put on scuba gear and dived on a coral reef. It's just the unbelievable fact that you can move in three dimensions. — David Attenborough

It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing - rather than just one or two stars. — David Attenborough

I mean, it is an extraordinary thing that a large proportion of your country and my country, of the citizens, never see a wild creature from dawn 'til dusk, unless it's a pigeon, which isn't really wild, which might come and settle near them. — David Attenborough

Children start off reading in books about lions and giraffes and so on, but they also-if theyre lucky enough and have reasonable privileges of any human being-are able to go into a garden and turn over stone and see a worm and see a slug and see an ant. — David Attenborough

Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a co-ordinated view about the planet, it's going to get worse and worse. — David Attenborough

Apart from anything else, I am designed by evolution, like we all are: if we see a little thing like that, big eyes, tiny nose, we go 'aaah'. That's what evolution does. We are programmed to do that. So to find babies the most amazing, isn't surprising, I don't think. — David Attenborough

I don't run a car, have never run a car. I could say that this is because I have this extremely tender environmentalist conscience, but the fact is I hate driving. — David Attenborough

I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival. — David Attenborough

I would love to go and see the Himalayan Mountain Kingdoms. There are very few left now. I would loved to have gone to Tibet and Nepal. And there are still parts of central Asia that are utterly unexplored. — David Attenborough

I have no doubt that the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population — David Attenborough

The savage, rocky shores of Christmas Island, 200 miles south of Java, in the Indian Ocean. It's November, the moon is in its third quarter, and the sun is just setting. In a few hours from now, on this very shore, a thousand million lives will be launched. — David Attenborough

I suppose happiness is something one enjoys, but I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition. — David Attenborough

If my grandchildren were to look at me and say, 'You were aware species were disappearing and you did nothing, you said nothing', that I think is culpable. I don't know how much more they expect me to be doing, I'd better ask them. — David Attenborough

The most extraordinary thing about trying to piece together the missing links in the evolutionary story is that when you do find a missing link and put it in the story, you suddenly need all these other missing links to connect to the new discovery. The gaps and questions actually increase - it's extraordinary. — David Attenborough

Television of course actually started in Britain in 1936, and it was a monopoly, and there was only one broadcaster and it operated on a license which is not the same as a government grant. — David Attenborough

I've been to Nepal, but I'd like to go to Tibet. It must be a wonderful place to go. I don't think there's anything there, but it would be a nice place to visit. — David Attenborough

Fundamentally not to waste energy. If we were all to reduce our demands for energy, it would make an enormous amount of difference. — David Attenborough

When I was a boy in the 1930s, the carbon dioxide level was still below 300 parts per million. This year, it reached 382, the highest figure for hundreds of thousands of years. — David Attenborough

I don't like rats, but there's not much else I don't like. The problem with rats is they have no fear of human beings, they're loaded with foul diseases, they would run the place given half the chance, and I've had them leap out of a lavatory while I've been sitting on it. — David Attenborough

Dealing with global warming doesn't mean we have all got to suddenly stop breathing. Dealing with global warming means that we have to stop waste, and if you travel for no reason whatsoever, that is a waste. — David Attenborough

Very few species have survived unchanged. There's one called lingula, which is a little shellfish, a little brachiopod about the size of my fingernail, that has survived for 500 million years, but it's survived by being unobtrusive and doing nothing, and you can't accuse human beings of that. — David Attenborough

Now, I find that very difficult to reconcile with notions about a merciful God. — David Attenborough

Since when has Finland been a rotten place to live in? — David Attenborough

I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question. — David Attenborough

The climate, the economic situation, rising birth rates; none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic. — David Attenborough

At a time when it's possible for thirty people to stand on the top of Everest in one day, Antarctica still remains a remote, lonely and desolate continent. A place where it's possible to see the splendours and immensities of the natural world at its most dramatic and, what's more, witness them almost exactly as they were, long, long before human beings ever arrived on the surface of this planet. Long may it remain so. — David Attenborough

What I am interested in with birds, just as I am with spiders or monkeys, is what they do and why they do it. — David Attenborough

The correct scientific response to something that is not understood must always be to look harder for the explanation, not give up and assume a supernatural cause. — David Attenborough

This last chapter .. may have given the impression that somehow man is the ultimate triumph of evolution, that all these millions of years of development have had no purpose other than to put him on earth. There is no scientific evidence whatever to support such a view and no reason to suppose that our stay here will be any more permanent than that of the dinosaur. — David Attenborough

I'm a humanist. I'm neither one side nor the other. — David Attenborough

It was regarded as a responsibility of the BBC to provide programs which have a broad spectrum of interest, and if there was a hole in that spectrum, then the BBC would fill it. — David Attenborough

You've got to be fairly solemn [about the environment]. I mean the mere notion that there are three times as many people on Earth as there were when I started making television. How can the Earth accommodate them? When people, including politicians, set their faces against looking at the consequences-it's just unbelievable that anyone could ignore it. — David Attenborough

The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals are doing what they can, but real success can only come if there's a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics. I've been lucky in my lifetime to see some of the greatest spectacles that the natural world has to offer. Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy, inhabitable by all species — David Attenborough

We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that's what's happening. Too many people there. They can't support themselves - and it's not an inhuman thing to say. It's the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it's going to get worse and worse. — David Attenborough

We are not overpopulated in an absolute sense; we've got the technology for 10 billion, probably 15 billion people, to live on this planet and live good lives. What we haven't done is developed our technology. — David Attenborough

There are perfectly good independent small nations. — David Attenborough

I'm not in politics. — David Attenborough

I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition. — David Attenborough

If I were beginning my career today, I don't think I would take the same direction. Television is at a crossroads at the moment. And although I am not up to date technologically, I suspect that somewhere out there people are conveying things about natural history by means other than television, and I think if I were beginning today, I'd be there. — David Attenborough

Life Lessons by David Attenborough

1. David Attenborough's work has taught us to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, to respect and protect the environment, and to be aware of the impact of human activity on the planet.
2. He has shown us that we can all take small steps to make a difference, such as reducing our consumption of single-use plastics, and that we should strive to be better stewards of the planet.
3. By highlighting the importance of biodiversity and conservation, Attenborough has helped to bring attention to the urgent need to protect our planet and its inhabitants.