“Humans” are to blame for environmental collapse says the most travelled human being ever. Not “capitalism”, or “the super-rich”. “humans”. Attenborough is allowed to be heard because he never challenges the people & systems which cause the crisis: metro.co.uk/2019/10/19/dav…
Ok, we’re talking about Attenborough. In 2013, he argued that Ethiopians should be allowed to starve to death because there are, apparently, too many of them. google.co.uk/amp/s/www.inde…
He’s the most prominent patron of a charity which, in 2014, campaigned against Syrian refugees being allowed into the UK, and, ahead of the 2015 election, called for the child benefit cap (with its need for the notorious rape clause): opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
For decades, he consciously downplayed the scale of environmental collapse shown in his shows because he saw them as escapism (as documented by @GeorgeMonbiot):
google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg…
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He was a climate change sceptics until 2004, long after the scientific consensus was overwhelming: carbonbrief.org/the-2004-lectu…
Yes, he makes beautiful TV. Yes, he has become an articulate advocate of the need for serious action on climate change. Yes, he’s an old man who’s also done much good. But he’s the failed past of environmentalism, not our future.
To summarise: Environmentalism which doesn’t challenge the people and forces which are killing the planet for profit and prestige is ultimately siding with the powerful. And Attenborough epitomises that failed, faffing ideology: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
