Sir David Attenborough’s speech at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow: ‘Our motivation should not be fear, but hope.’

Between 31 October and 12 November the United Nations held its climate change conference in Glasgow, where one of the speakers was naturalist Sir David Attenborough. In his speech he told: it is easy to forget that ultimately the emergency climate comes down to is a single number, the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. For much of humanity’s ancient history, this number bounced wildly between 180 and 300, and so too did global temperatures. Just over 10,000 years ago, that number suddenly stabilised and with it, Earth’s climate.

Sir David Attenborough added that everything we have achieved in the last 10,000 years was enabled by the stability during this time. The global temperature has not wavered over this period by more than plus or minus 1°C, until now. Our burning of fossil fuels, our destruction of nature, our approach to industry, construction and learning are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at an unprecedented pace and scale.

The naturalist believes that we now understand this problem. We know how to stop the number rising and put it in reverse. We must fix our sights on keeping 1.5°C within reach. A new industrial revolution, powered by millions of sustainable innovations is essential, and is indeed already beginning. Nature is a key ally. Whenever we restore the wild, it will recapture carbon and help us bring back balance to our planet. We must use this opportunity to create a more equal world and our motivation should not be fear, but hope. //

The above article has also been published in Issue 2021/12-01 of Trade magazin.