Sir David Attenborough is launching what he says is one of the most important films of his career as he enters his hundredth year.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
He believes his new, cinema-length film Ocean could play a decisive role in saving biodiversity and protecting the planet from climate change.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
Sir David, who will be 99 on Thursday, says: “After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.”highlight-noteshighlight-tags
The ocean is the planet’s support system and humanity’s greatest ally against climate catastrophe, the film argues. It shows how the world’s oceans are at a crossroads.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
The film documents how the state of the world’s oceans and our understanding of how they function have changed in the course of Sir David’s lifetime.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
Ocean contains some of the most graphic footage of the damage that bottom trawling – a common fishing practice around the world – can do to the seabed. It is a vivid example of how industrial fishing can drain the life from the world’s oceans, Sir David claims.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
The new footage shows how the chain that the trawlers drag behind them scours the seafloor, forcing the creatures it disturbs into the net behind. They are often seeking a single species: more than three-quarters of what they catch may be discarded.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
Sir David says the state of the ocean has almost made him lose hope for the future of life on the planet. What has kept him from despair is what he calls the “most remarkable discovery of all” – that the ocean can “recover faster than we had ever imagined”.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
Sir David’s key message in the Ocean film is that all is not lost. Countries have promised to protect a third of the world’s oceans. He hopes his new film will spur leaders to take firm action on this promise at a UN conference next month.highlight-noteshighlight-tags
A healthier ocean ecosystem would also be able to trap more carbon dioxide, helping protect the world from climate change, according to scientists.
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