British naturalist David Attenborough said he was hopeful that the United States would return to an international climate deal to tackle global warning as denying climate change and its impacts would be “catastrophic”.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in southwest England, Attenborough said it had been a “tragedy” that U.S. President Donald Trump decided last year to quit the 2015 Paris climate agreement and promote the U.S. fossil fuel industry.
Attenborough, whose documentaries such as “Planet Earth” and “Blue Planet” have sparked public concern over population growth and plastic use, said the scientific facts about climate change were “simply incontrovertible”.
“I’m optimistic enough to think that actually the Americans won’t withdraw as much as all that,” said Attenborough, 92, Britain’s much-loved face of nature and conservation.
“As time goes by, the American people themselves will demand that their government goes back on that and agrees to join the rest of the nations of the world in trying to deal with the huge problems that face us all.”
He said the signing of the Paris climate agreement in 2015 by nearly 200 nations, to limit the global average temperature rise, had made those involved feel they were “walking on air”.
“It was a marvelous moment and feeling that humanity was making a step forward and to have one of the most important signatories then to say ‘no, we’re going to withdraw’ was desperate,” he said.
Attenborough’s comments came as top climate scientists meeting in South Korea approved a United Nations report to assess whether global temperatures can be kept in check this century to prevent the most damaging effects of global warming.