Sir David says he has detected a “worldwide shift” in attitudes to conservation

For six decades he has chronicled the lives of the Earth’s most remarkable creatures and exposed humanity’s encroachment on the natural world.

Now Sir David Attenborough, 91, has suggested that he is more optimistic than ever about the future of the planet.

The naturalist said that he had detected a “worldwide shift” in attitudes to conservation, with politicians and voters in previously sceptical nations appreciating the need to act.

“I am encouraged more than I have been for some time,” he told the Edinburgh International Television Festival yesterday.

“I spend a lot of time wringing my hands and saying how dreadful it is that this forest has been obliterated and that sea has been polluted and whatever. But there are signs of hope.”

Attenborough compared