‘The orangutan hitting the digger has broke me’: Viewers of Sir David Attenborough’s new BBC documentary on climate change are heartbroken by images of primate’s futile battle with bulldozers
- In the BBC’s Climate Change: The Facts, the primate battled against a digger
- The machines were clearing its habitat because of demand for palm oil
- Viewers were devastated by footage, calling it ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘disgusting’
Viewers of Sir David Attenborough’s new BBC documentary have been left heartbroken by footage of an orangutan’s futile battle with bulldozers.
In the documentary, called Climate Change: The Facts, that aired on Thursday evening, the primate battled against a digger that was clearing its habitat because of consumer demand for palm oil.
The lone orangutan beats its hands against the machine, before dangling off a chopped down tree, and presumably fleeing its home.
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil that is extracted from the fruit and seeds of the oil palm and as the documentary explains is found in many household goods.
The demand for it causes large scale destruction of forests that are then replaced by palm oil plantations, and viewers at home were devastated by the footage, calling it ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘disgusting.’
The demand for palm oil causes large scale destruction of forests that are then replaced by palm oil plantations, and viewers at home were devastated by the footage, calling it ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘disgusting’
Later in the programme the iconic broadcaster said climate change is the greatest threat to the planet in thousands of years and said the science has never been clearer
Later in the programme the iconic broadcaster said climate change is the greatest threat to the planet in thousands of years and said the science has never been clearer.
The 92-year-old added: ‘Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. At the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future.
‘The science is now clear that urgent action is needed. What happens now and in these next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years.
‘We are facing a man-made disaster on a global scale. It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage of the natural world, and the collapse of our societies.
‘We are running out of time but there is still hope. I believe that if we better understand the threat we face, the more likely it is that we can avoid such a catastrophic future.’
The veteran broadcaster also warned that climate change could wipe out entire species, including small organisms that hold together the world’s ecosystems, and put more life at risk.