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A Perfect Planet: Viewers Left Heartbroken After David Attenborough's Urgent Plea To Save The Planet

A Perfect Planet: Viewers Left Heartbroken After David Attenborough's Urgent Plea To Save The Planet

Sir David Attenborough has once again asked people to act and save the planet before it's too late.

Joanna Freedman

Joanna Freedman

Sir David Attenborough has told us time and time again that the clock is ticking for us to save the planet.

And, last night, we heard him plead with the public, as he spoke during the series finale of A Perfect Planet - his latest TV show on BBC One.

The 94-year-old said the best way people could help was by reducing their carbon footprints and making small changes.

"Right now we have the capacity and knowledge to stop the damage we're doing," Sir David urged. "But what we don't have is time."

You can watch his full message below:

He continues: "My inspiration and hope for the future lies with the next generation, but we all have a responsibility to reduce our carbon footprints, harness the forces of nature for our energy and protect the natural world.

"The survival of humanity and our fellow creatures on earth depends upon it."

Biologist Dr Niall McCann then poignantly asks viewers at home: "Do you want to be the last generation that signed the death certificate of humanity?

"Do you want to be the generation that sees the last elephant killed? Do you want to be the generation that sees the last fish fished out of the sea?

"Or do you want to be the generation and individuals that turn this around?"

Sir David Attenborough made an important plea to the world (
BBC)

And it's clear that both their messages had a visceral affect on viewers at home.

"Every time I watch a David Attenborough documentary I feel informed, amazed and so f*cking guilty," one person wrote after watching the powerful final ep.

While another concurred: "I like to soak up most of the tv programmes that Sir David Attenborough puts his name to but last night #PerfectPlanet was heartbreaking....We really need to sort out our priorities as a species".

A third tweeted: "If half the people that swoon over David Attenborough actually heard the message in #PerfectPlanet then maybe he wouldn't have to keep putting out alarming documentaries at 94. Do the man a favour, take a serious look at your personal carbon footprint, maybe he can retire by 100!"

"We really do not deserve animals," said another. "David Attenborough's A Perfect Planet making me feel sad and guilty".

People said they felt 'guilty' after Sir David's message (
BBC)

A Perfect Planet is a five-part series commissioned by the BBC, which has been airing week after week since the start of the year.

If you're yet to watch, the show seeks to "explain how our living planet operates" by turning the lens on "how the forces of nature drive, shape and support Earth's great diversity of wildlife".

In the process, cameras visit some of the world's harshest and most extreme habitats, while also heading to many facilities where animals are kept, from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia to London and Edinburgh Zoos, to see how humans have worked to research and conserve them.

Split into five episodes - Volcanos, The Sun, Weather, Oceans and Humans - the series took four years to film, and visited 31 countries, including some locations which have barely been seen before, such as the salt encrusted Lake Natron in Tanzania and the very bottom of Fernandina's active volcano in the Galapagos.

'A Perfect Planet' explores the natural forces of our environment (
BBC)

Using drones to film some of its incredible footage, A Perfect Planet allows viewers to marvel at just how adaptive animals really are, showing flamingos surviving on the corrosive plains of Lake Natron, lions in Kenya whose roaming patterns have been altered by the weather and Aldabra giant tortoises, who face losing their habitats as a result of flooding from the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, episode five - Humans - takes a turn, exposing the damage we're doing to the natural world as a new natural force, and highlighting the immense amount of work we need to do to fix climate change.

You can read our exclusive interview with Sir David, which took place ahead of the series airing, here.

You can watch A Perfect Planet on BBC iPlayer now.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: climate change, TV News, david attenborough, TV Entertainment, Sir David Attenborough