Wildlife presenter, Iolo Williams, has told WalesOnline that he believes "we are in real trouble" as temperatures grow hotter and more animals become endangered. In new BBC series, Iolo: A Wild Life, he looks at some of the best moments in his career.
In the interview, the North Walian presenter, 59, highlighted his concerns for wildlife in relation to global warming. Just this week, temperatures rose to their highest ever in the UK. You can read more about that here.
The presenter said: "My career has really given me an understanding as to how endangered a lot of our wildlife is and we are in real trouble. Things have to change and they have to change very, very quickly. The extreme weather at the start of this week reinforced that. Whether it's floods, storms, heatwaves, things that were previously once in a generation is becoming fairly common place."
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He reiterated: "It's time now for the people higher up the food chain, the decision makers, the policy makers, to wake up to it and that goes all the way from local councilors to the UK Government. They've got to wake up because it probably won't be me facing a backlash, it'll be my children." Iolo, who is married with two children, confirmed his belief that this would be a "sad state of affairs to be in" and "we have to act now".
Despite his growing concern for wildlife, Iolo also expressed how he found it "odd" to look back at his career. "The fact that 25 years have gone by - it's just mind-blowing because if you asked me how long I'd been in telly, I'd say only 12 or 13 years."
When asked to give advice to younger people looking to follow him into the same field, he said: "I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I never wanted to go into telly. I worked for the RSPB for nearly 15 years. I loved my job and I never wanted to leave but circumstances dictated that I had to." It was here, Iolo describes, how the "door opened" to a career in television.
He added: "My advice to youngsters wanting to go into that field is always, do a proper job first." He advised this, so that "if telly does come knocking, [they've] got that knowledge and experience that makes you more valuable".
In Iolo: A Wild Life, the presenter delves into the archives to see the fantastic wildlife that he’s filmed in Wales during the past 25 years. The four-part series begins airing on BBC One Wales at 7.30pm on Friday, July 22.
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