Broadcast icon Attenborough gives backing to environmental protesters

Veteran British wildlife filmmaker and television presenter David Attenborough has told China Daily he welcomes the international environmental initiative inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and he takes heart from the fact that the younger generation are holding their elders to account over the climate change crisis.

In an exclusive interview to coincide with the launch of his latest series Seven Worlds One Planet, which is co-produced with CCTV9 and Tencent Penguin Pictures and will be available to viewers in China through Tencent Video, the 93-year-old said the planet faces serious environmental dangers, but the worldwide growth in awareness of the issues was a cause for optimism.

"I think it's a very good thing that it's happened," he said.

"Greta Thunberg is right. At the age of 16 you can't pretend you have the knowledge and science of a lifetime but you can see things very clearly, and young people do see things very clearly. It's their future so they have a better right to a powerful opinion.

"The fact she has invited kids from her age group to say 'it matters to us because it is us, and you (older people) are the ones who ruined it, so you should take notice' — I welcome that.

"We are facing a disaster. This isn't just rhetoric, there are real danger signs on the horizon, we have to act and the kids are right, we have to do something, but there are signs of hope. This isn't just something in the newspaper, these things really will affect people. I don't agree with breaking the law, but short of that, I welcome all actions."

Seven Worlds One Planet devotes one episode to each continent, emphasizing their distinct identities and environments, while also showing how they all play their part in the global story, and even by the standards set by Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit's previous output, is something of an epic work.

More than 1500 people worked on the four-year long project, which saw 92 shoots take place in 41 countries, with more than 2200 hours of material shot.

The Asia episode looks likely to be one of the most popular, featuring rare footage of China's golden snub nosed snow monkey, an animal Attenborough had long wanted to see, and which is sure to become one of the iconic images of the series.

While Attenborough has been a fixture in the lives of television viewers in the United Kingdom for decades, travelling all over the globe in pursuit of nature's most fascinating sights and commenting on them with his distinctive voice and delivery, the streaming era has seen his audience reach previously unimagined size.