Older generations have done terrible damage to the planet Sir David Attenborough has said as he threw his support behind students striking from school over climate change inaction.
The broadcaster and naturalist told former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres the students’ outrage was “certainly justified” and dismissed critics of the global movement.
“[Young people] understand the simple discoveries of science about our dependence upon the natural world,” he said in an interview on podcast Outrage and Optimism, first reported by the Guardian.
“My generation is no great example for understanding – we have done terrible things."
While Attenborough said the protests were encouraging and a sign the world was making positive progress towards acting on climate change, he “couldn’t bear” thinking about the world his great-grandchildren will live in.
“I’m just coming up to 93, and so I don’t have many more years around here. I find it difficult to think beyond that because the signs aren’t good,” he said.
His remarks come as Greta Thunberg, 16, drew criticism this week for accusing the government of “very creative carbon accounting”.
The teenager, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize last monnth: told politicians: “You lied to us, You gave us false hope.”
Attenborough told Ms Figueres, who delivered the landmark Paris climate change agreement in 2015: “Their outrage is certainly justified, there is no doubt about that,”
“They can see perhaps more clearly than the rest of us who have been around for some time,’” he said. “We older ones should take notice of what they say.”
The school strikes are predicted to continue on Friday with protests expected in 485 towns and cities in 72 countries, according to Fridays for Future - which logs all strikes that happen on a Friday.
