Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
What I am interested in with birds, just as I am with spiders or monkeys, is what they do and why they do it.
I have no doubt that the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population
I suppose happiness is something one enjoys, but I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition.
There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.
I'm not an animal lover if that means you think things are nice if you can pat them, but I am intoxicated by animals.
An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.
All life is related. And it enables us to construct with confidence the complex tree that represents the history of life
The more you go on, the less you need people standing between you and the animal and the camera waving their arms about.
An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment...
Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is either a madman or an economist.
Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a co-ordinated view about the planet, it's going to get worse and worse.
I would love to see a giant squid. Very few people have seen them. And only about half a dozen people have seen one alive.
I'm no longer sceptical. I no longer have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world.
I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival.
The reverse side of the coin in having this extraordinary ability to go anywhere, is that no one anywhere is remote any more.
The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?
People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.
The climate, the economic situation, rising birth rates; none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic.
I'm not a propagandist, I'm not a polemicist; my primary interest is just looking at and trying to understand how animals work.
You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about.
Fundamentally not to waste energy. If we were all to reduce our demands for energy, it would make an enormous amount of difference.
Its about cherishing the woodland at the bottom of your garden or the stream that runs through it. It affects every aspect of life.
The nature of human beings is that they'd far rather face the disaster that is happening tonight than the one that is happening tomorrow.
London has fine museums, the British Library is one of the greatest library institutions in the world... It's got everything you want, really.
All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder - and ultimately impossible to solve - with ever more people.
There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.
Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?
Humanity is facing a very big, slow, long, drawn-out threat, and that is to do with the way the weather is changing and the size of the population.
I've been bitten by a python. Not a very big one. I was being silly, saying: 'Oh, it's not poisonous' Then, wallop! But you have fear around animals.
Life is not all high emotion. Some of the most interesting things are when its not highly emotional: little details of relationships and body language.
Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.
That people will object very much to seeing a predator killing its prey, and yet, in the news, will accept showing shots of people shooting one another.
I've been bitten by a python. Not a very big one. I was being silly, saying: 'Oh, it's not poisonous...' Then, wallop! But you have fear around animals.
I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.
Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment
Getting to places like Bangkok or Singapore was a hell of a sweat. But when you got there it was the back of beyond. It was just a series of small tin sheds.
Terrorism is an immediate problem that people are very concerned about, and I am as concerned about that as anyone else. But it isn't an either or situation.
I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature.
I've been to Nepal, but I'd like to go to Tibet. It must be a wonderful place to go. I don't think there's anything there, but it would be a nice place to visit.
I don't run a car, have never run a car. I could say that this is because I have this extremely tender environmentalist conscience, but the fact is I hate driving.
The correct scientific response to something that is not understood must always be to look harder for the explanation, not give up and assume a supernatural cause.
Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it.
If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation.
To suggest that God specifically created a worm to torture small African children is blasphemy as far as I can see. The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn't believe that.
All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.
Clearly we could devastate the world... as far as we know, the Earth is the only place in the universe where there is life. Its continued survival now rests in our hands
You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.
Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom. We feed them and tame them and think we know them. And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious.
The process of making natural history films is to try to prevent the animal knowing you are there, so you get glimpses of a non-human world, and that is a transporting thing.
Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control.