Last month we were lucky enough to have an audience with Sir David Attenborough. Here, is a rather long quote taken from his speech, well worth sharing here. Because the message is important - that connection with the natural world is precious and important. One of the commonest questions which Im asked, by journalists and so on is - I cant help feeling its a falsely naive question but they say And tell me David how did you first become interested in the wild world - in animals? And I confess I think its a false question to me because I say in reply always I am sure that you when you were a child were interested, Oh yes I was. There is no child in my view who is not interested in the wild life. A four year old turning over a stone, looking at a slug and seeing and the tentacles and touching them or putting a hand in front of them and seeing that those tentacles are actually sensors - and how does it move? and what does it eat? That curiosity in the natural world and life with which we share the world, is right with in the heart of all of us. Now its true that as we get older there are more and more temptations to take our minds away from the natural world. This age today more than ever, all these wonderful electronic gadgets ...theres room for these electronic gadgets, but if you actually loose that touch that curiosity that delight in the natural world, you have lost one of the most precious of all humanities possessions. Now the United Nations tell us that over 50 percent of the population of this world is now urbanised. That means over half the people living in the world today see less of the wild world than they did - than their ancestors did 100 years ago, and some are totally cut off from the natural world. They dont see a wild thing from morning to night unless its a pigeon or a rat - what a loss. But with that loss - that threat of that loss - becomes increasing awareness of the preciousness of the natural world. And we all know that the natural world is in greater danger than it has ever been, certainly since the time of the dinosaurs. So the contact we have, the vision, the insight of the natural world is as precious to us now as urban human beings, more precious than its ever been. - Sir David Attenborough youtube/watch?v=8kv9xBg8chw#t=370
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 22:38:29 +0000
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