'It's irresponsible to have big families': Sir David Attenborough warns humans have stopped evolving

Sir David Attenborough said future generations face less healthy lives



The presenter is not optimistic about the future and thinks that in 100 years people will look back at a world that was less crowded and happier





Sir David Attenborough said it is irresponsible to have a large family in today's overcrowded world

Sir David Attenborough has suggested it is irresponsible to have a large family in today’s overcrowded world.

The veteran natural history broadcaster warned that future generations face less happy and healthy lives as resources become increasingly stretched and natural wonders disappear.

He even appeared to voice support for China’s brutal one-child policy, saying the country had recognised it would have too many mouths to feed if it did not impose restrictions of family size.

Sir David, 87, was speaking ahead of his new two-part documentary David Attenborough’s Rise Of Animals: Triumph Of The Vertebrates, which will start on September 20 on BBC2.

Addressing the controversial theme of the one-child policy, he said: ‘It’s the degree to which it has been enforced which is terrible, and there’s no question it’s produced all kinds of personal tragedies. There’s no question about that.

‘On the other hand, the Chinese themselves recognise that had they not done so there would be several million more mouths in the world today than there are now.’

Sir David, who has two children, added: ‘If you were able to persuade people that it is irresponsible to have large families in this day and age, and if material wealth and material conditions are such that people value their materialistic life and don’t suffer as a consequence, then that’s all to the good.



‘But I’m not particularly optimistic about the future. I think we’re lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.



Sir David believes that in another 100 years people will look back at a world that was less crowded, full of natural wonders, and healthier

'I’m luckier than my grandfather, who didn’t move more than five miles from the village in which he was born. I have all kinds of pleasures and luxuries that I appreciate and I’m very, very fortunate. I think that applies to the majority of people – in this country, at any rate.

‘But I think that in another 100 years people will look back at a world that was less crowded, full of natural wonders, and healthier.’

But he said he didn’t think humans faced extinction in an increasingly overcrowded world.

He told the Radio Times: ‘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. We may reduce in numbers – that would actually be a help, though the chances of it happening within the next century is very small. I should think it’s impossible, in fact.’

The broadcaster said people should be encouraged to have smaller families but said the chances of reducing the population in the next century 'is very small'

And he said that humans have become so advanced that they have stopped evolving.

He explained: ‘If natural selection, as proposed by Darwin, is the main mechanism of evolution... then we’ve stopped natural selection.

‘We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 95-99 per cent of our babies.’

Sir David, who was fitted with a pacemaker in June after suffering a heart condition that forced him to pull out of a tour, said he has no plans to retire.

‘I don’t ever want to stop work. Sure, something’s going to wear out some time and I won’t be able to do it, but while I can – and people want me to, and people look at the result – I’m delighted to work,’ he said.