Sir David Attenborough says a climate change "moment of crisis" has arrived.
Sir David Attenborough
The 93-year-old broadcaster has warned the public they need to change their attitudes towards climate change, and he has urged China to curb their carbon output in the hope the rest of the world will "fall into line".
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, David said: "We have been putting things off year after year. We have been raising targets and saying, 'Oh well, if we do it within the next 20 years...' The moment of crisis has come. We can no longer prevaricate.
"We can't go on saying, 'But there is hope and we'll leave it till next year.' We have to change. And we have to change not by appeal to different kinds of optimism but to deliberate, compelling life or death decisions.
"Where on the bigger scale are these decisions needed to come next? Answer - China. If the Chinese come and say, 'Not because we are worried about the world, but for our own reasons, we are going to take major steps to curb our carbon output because our climate is changing, we are going to do it,' everyone else would fall into line, one thinks. That would be the big change that one could hope would happen."
The 'Seven Worlds, One Planet' narrator has also sent a plea to stop people squabbling over the crisis.
David added: "There has been a huge change in public opinion. People can see the problem, particularly young people can see the problem, and that must force governments to take action."
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