Mass extinction event, pandemic could spread havoc on earth before 2100, says David Attenborough

NIRMAL YESODA

As the entire world is trying hard to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, top British naturalist David Attenborough has warned that the threat that looms over the planet is not over. According to Attenborough, humans should do something to save Earth, and if not humanity will witness a mass extinction event and another pandemic outbreak before 2100.

 

David Attenborough has several times talked about the dangers associated with global warming, and now, he has admitted that climate change is only one of the several crises humanity will witness in the future.

 

Attenborough also compared modern earth with Pripyat in Ukraine which is no longer inhabitable due to the Chernobyl nuclear tragedy. According to the British naturalist, all tragedies will be triggered slowly and silently before anyone could realise it.

 

“It didn’t begin with a single explosion. It started silently before anyone realised it. We are all people of Pripyat now. We live our comfortable lives in the shadow of a disaster of our own making. The natural world is fading. The evidence is all around. It has happened during my lifetime. I have seen it with my own eyes,” wrote David Attenborough in his Daily Mail column.

 

Attenborough also blamed humans for destabilising the earth’s natural life-support machine. He revealed that humans have already breached four of the nine thresholds in nature, and further acts could bring imminent destruction to the planet.

 

“A team of esteemed scientists led by Johan Rockstrom and Will Steffen has identified nine critical thresholds hard-wired into Earth’s environment: climate change, fertilizer use, land conversion, biodiversity loss, air pollution, ozone-layer depletion, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, and freshwater withdrawals. We have already breached the first four of those nine thresholds,” Attenborough said.

 

Attenborough also talked about the vitality of protecting Amazon rain forests which are considered the lungs of planet earth.