Sir David Attenborough joined Greg James on Radio 1 Breakfast where he spoke to young listener Harry about the first time he was charged by an elephant, how he keeps up with receiving 70 letters a day, and his tips for what people like Harry can do to help prevent climate change.
On Instagram and sending letters:
Sir David: “I’m so old I can’t get used to all these new media but I was persuaded to do so in order to do a message about conservation. So for a limited period of time I contributed to Instagram but I’m off now. I’m not on it anymore and I don’t intend to go back. I’ve got enough problems with post. I get 70 letters a day! I do my very best [to respond to them all]. Sometimes people, mercifully,don’t actually put their address on because people are so unaccustomed to sending letters.”
Greg James: “The problem is now that you’ve said that on Radio 1, that people will now send you letters expecting you to send a letter back.”
Sir David: “If you wouldn’t mind including a self-addressed stamped envelope I’d be delighted to reply!”
On being charged by an elephant:
“The first time I was charged by an elephant I was really quite frightened. It’s a very big animal, you know, it comes running at you as fast as a motor car with ears flapping and its trunk up, and trumpeting. But of course, people who are experts at these things know perfectly well that elephants make dummy charges, and that was a dummy charge. It was just saying, ‘don’t get any nearer.’ And I didn’t get any nearer!”
On the different jobs he’s had throughout his career:
“I had to go into the navy at the end of the war… I did a short time in a publishing house which I thought was very boring… and when I saw an advertisement in the paper to join the BBC, I applied. I didn’t get that job and then the BBC said, ‘Well we’ve got this new thing which is only just starting, it’s called television in which people can actually see you when you talk.’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘really?!’ ‘Yeah’, they said, ‘would you like to be interviewed?’ I said, ‘sure!’ So I went up, and they interviewed me and I got the job and I’ve been more or less there ever since. Oddly enough, there weren’t all that many people who were interested in it because it didn’t seem sensible. How can you see pictures through the air?!”
His advice for those wanting to help prevent climate change:
“Well its difficult isn’t it, because it’s a global problem that needs global solutions. But there are lots of things we can do, and I think one of the best mottos you can have is don’t waste things. Don’t waste food. Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste gas, don’t waste paper. All those things make demands on the planet and if we all lived more economically the world would be a much better place.”