People talk about doom-laden scenarios happening in the future: they are happening in Africa now. You can see it perfectly clearly. Periodic famines are due to too many people living on land that can't sustain them.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the urgent environmental and humanitarian crises occurring in Africa as a result of overpopulation and unsustainable land use.
David Attenborough emphasizes the dire situation faced by many in Africa, where the impacts of climate change and overpopulation are leading to significant challenges such as famine. He urges a recognition of these existing crises rather than a distant, hypothetical future, pointing out that the problems we fear may arise are already present and affecting lives today.
In practice
In a speech addressing climate change, one could use this quote to highlight the urgency of the situation in Africa.
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.
Rush out in the rain to be soaked with the sky.
I see a world in the future in which we understand that all life is related to us and we treat that life with great humility and respect.
I listen to the summer symphony outside my window. Truthfully, it's not a symphony at all. There's no tune, no melody, only the same notes over and over. Chirps and tweets and trills and burples. It's as if the insect orchestra is forever tuning its instruments, forever waiting for the maestro to tap his baton and bring them to order. I, for one, hope the maestro never comes. I love the music mess of it.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
For decades we have been living lives of abundance, with little regard for our natural resources or global health. But we are now facing hard choices in our energy policy. Future generations - my children and grandchildren, along with yours - will have to live with the decisions we make today. And so it is time for us to make some tough and - hopefully - smart choices regarding our energy use and production before it is too late.
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.
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