digital
Attenborough Explores
Alan: What's next for you?
Sir David Attenborough: I am currently working on a series about amphibians and reptiles which is due to be transmitted at the beginning of next year.
Becki: Can ecosystems adapt to climate change?
Sir David Attenborough: They normally do so by moving. So, warming will allow the tundra to move northwards but similarly that warming may cause the Sahara to spread northwards into what were once fertile Mediterranean lands.
Venvierra: Is it possible that the recent flooding in the UK and elsewhere is part of climate change?
Sir David Attenborough: It is better to talk about climate change rather than global warming for indeed it may well be that parts of the world will get cooler. But what is certain is that as the climate warms overall extreme weather conditions will become more common. Heavy storms will be more frequent so flooding will become more frequent too. The effect of heavy rainfall is also made more severe in this country because we have covered so much of the land with our buildings, roads, airfields, parking spaces, so rain water no longer soaks into the land but rushes away and so causes a sudden rise in river levels.
Maximus: Who do you most admire?
Sir David Attenborough: Charles Darwin.
KCooke: What's your favourite book?
Sir David Attenborough: There are few books that I read more than once but The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin is one.
Carrie: When I watched the lyer bird make the noise of the chainsaw destroying its home I felt sad and ashamed of our species. When you heard it how did it make you feel?
Sir David Attenborough: The overwhelming feeling of listening to the Lyre bird was its sheer skill at imitating the sounds of the forest. I could not help being deeply sad that one of them should be the sound of humanity destroying the trees so that the Lyre bird unconsciously sang of its own doom.
Ian L: Can you recommend any charities that raise the awareness of and counter the effects of climate change?
Sir David Attenborough: The Worldwide Fund for Nature.
Yasin: Do you think that preserving seeds of plants and dna of animals is a step in the correct direction in order to save species of this planet from extinction?
Sir David Attenborough: Yes I certainly do. I was involved with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew when it built its pioneering seedbank. Happily that institution has grown in its activities and has secured the seeds of all our native populations of plants. It is now working to do the same thing for those plants that are most in danger of extinction in the rapidly drying semi-deserts of the world.
Maximus: Is there anywhere in the world you would like to visit that you haven't yet visited?
Sir David Attenborough: Yes, I have not spent any time in central Asia. One of the reasons for that is that the land is very poor so animals are very widely dispersed and you have to travel a long way to find the species you want to film. But nonetheless I wish I had spent time there.
Milli: What is the wackyest creature you have ever encountered on your travels and why?.
Sir David Attenborough: There is a small degenerate parasite that lives only in the tears of a hippopotamus. That seems to me to be pretty wacky!
Jay: What is your position on the exsistence of the loch ness monster?
Sir David Attenborough: The suggestion is that this is some kind of prehistoric reptile. If that were to be so then it would have to rise to the surface to breath every half hour or so. Not only that, but there would be a whole population of these creatures doing the same thing. The surface of Loch Ness has been more closely watched than any comparable area of water in the world and no one has seen that. It is just possible that the monster might be a giant eel but I have to say it seems very unlikely.
Phileasf: Of all the extinct species we know about, which is the one you most regret that we've lost?
Sir David Attenborough: I would love to have seen Quetzalcoatlus! It was an immense Pterodactyl. It had a wing span of something like 100 feet - as far as I can remember. At any rate you would know if it flew over your head!
Kathryn: Do you wish you could go back and look at the world from the days of the dinosaurs?
Sir David Attenborough: Yes.
Cecilia: If there was one thing that you would like to know has been changed on account of your work, what would it be?
Sir David Attenborough: That people recognise that other species in the world have a right to exist as well as human beings.
Gadget news headlines
- Microsoft Windows 8 to launch in 2012
- RIM BlackBerry Pearl 9100 spotted in the wild
- ASUS Eee PC 1201N outed
- London Apple Store more profitable than Harrods
- Linn declares death of the CD
- PS3 to get 3D gaming in 2010
- Playstation Network to morph into multimedia-hawking Sony Online Service
- Twitter to offer paid-for commercial accounts
- Philips' 9704 LED TV range announced
- Google not developing Chrome for touchscreen use?
More features
Local camping shops
