‘We have made a tragic, desperate mess’ of our world, says naturalist, but there are signs of positive changes

Humans have made a “tragic, desperate mess” of the planet, Sir David Attenborough has warned. Speaking as BBC One prepares to air his new natural history series, Seven Worlds, One Planet, next Sunday, the naturalist said: “We are now universal, our influence is everywhere. We have it in our hands, and we have made a tragic, desperate mess of it so far.”

However, he added one note of optimism. “Nations are coming together and recognising we all live on the same planet ... and we are dependent on it for every mouthful of food we eat and every breath of air we take.” Attenborough also paid tribute to environmental activist Greta Thunberg and praised her “passion, insight and concern about the future”. He described the Swedish 16-year-old as a “political person” rather than a broadcaster. “And making programmes like this, I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I’m sure a hell of a lot of young people are saying, ‘For God’s sake, why doesn’t he move over? Give another person a chance’, but, anyway, there I am.”

Seven Worlds, One Planet breaks with the tradition of previous BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) programmes by putting an environmental message at the heart of each episode, instead of being tagged on at the end.

Scenes will include a lone, grey-headed albatross chick in Antarctica being blown off its nest as a result of increasingly intense storms.

It also features “grave-robbing hamsters in Austria” and polar bears in a never-before-seen hunting strategy to catch beluga whales.

Attenborough said he was seen as a “crank” when he and the NHU began broadcasting messages about nature. “But as it’s gone on, and we’ve repeated it on and on and on – not wasting things, not polluting things – then suddenly, for no reason that I can understand suddenly you hit the right note.”