Dr Robin Niblett CMG
So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Chatham House, and most importantly, welcome to the Chatham House Prize 2019 Award Ceremony. We’re absolutely delighted that so many of our members are here, along with guest supporters, Chatham House Council, Panel of Senior Advisors, and I know, as always, members of the vibrant diplomatic community here, and our very large civil society community, based here in London.
I’d like to say a special word of welcome to the members who are joining us here in the room today, and hopefully, those who are joining us livestreamed, as well. Because it’s you who vote for the prize winners of the Chatham House Prize every year, so we’re really pleased that you’ll be able to join us today. And I also want to do a special shout out for some of our special guests. Many of you may feel you’re special, but we definitely have a special, with the – our guests from the All Saints School in Dagenham. They were the first school that we reached out to, in 2017, when we decided we wanted to extend the kinds of debates that we hold at Chatham House, to younger and more diverse audiences. They’ll be here somewhere, ‘cause they ask the really difficult questions, is the one thing we learnt when they and their Assistant Head, Nick Pauro, embraced this idea in November 2017, and the first meeting they came to was titled, Breaking the Bubble and Opening Up Political Debate, and they certainly did that that day.
Now we’ve got a very busy 90 minutes or so. So I just want to give you a sense of the flow, and before I do that, obviously, I would like to recognise Sir David Attenborough and Dr Julian Hector, in the front row, with the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, as they are here today as recipients of the 209 – 2019 Chatham House Prize. In recognition, as you know, of the remarkable work they and their colleagues have done, highly influential work, on the impact of plastics on the world’s oceans. They’ve raised the level of global public awareness of this challenge, and with it, the broader environmental impacts that humanity are having on our planet as a whole. Now, we’re going to have a chance to hear from them in a minute, in conversation with Karen Sack, and the present CEO of Ocean Unite, and Mark Brownlow, who’s the series Producer of Blue Planet II, a critical part of the team that made this all come together.
A little after 6:00pm we’re going to pause the proceedings to rearrange the stage for the presentation of the prize. After the presentation, and some remarks by Julian and Sir David, if I could say right now, we would like you to please all remain in your seats. Do not storm the stage and do not leave the room, because we have to create some space for them to head out. But we will have a short second video for you to play.
Last thing, this is all on the record, very Chatham House, but it’s all on the record today. Please feel free to share your comments, your photos, via Twitter, if you want, by #ChathamHousePrize or CHPrize, but please make sure your phones are on silent. And Chatham House staff are dotted, I was going to say around the sides, but this is not all Chatham House staff round the sides, this is definitely a lot of our guests as well. But if you need them at all, they’re all here.
So, let me now introduce, before she comes up and before a little film, that I do want to say a word of introduction to Karen Sack, who, as I said, is present CEO of Ocean Unite. She’ll be moderating our panel. Ocean Unite was founded in 2015, to unify and mobilise influential voices at key moments that matter to drive ocean conservation. She’s based in Washington D.C., just flew over, but she has 20 years’ experience on international environmental organisations and questions. She was formerly the Senior Director for International Oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts, which as many of you here will know, has played a really central role in raising awareness about the challenges to the world’s oceans, and she initiated, in fact, the Global Ocean Commission, during her time there. And before that she was Head of Greenpeace’s International Political & Business Unit and also, their International Oceans campaign. But in any case, before she comes on stage, please stay where you are. We do have a quick film that’s going to set things up and then Karen, you will come up and take things from here. So, welcome all, but please keep quiet and let’s enjoy the film.
[Video]
Sir David Attenborough
A pod of short-finned pilot whales. They live together in what are perhaps the most closely knit of families in the whole ocean. Today, in the Atlantic waters off Europe, as elsewhere, they have to share the ocean with plastic. A mother is holding her newborn young. It’s dead. She is reluctant to let it go and has been carrying it around for many days. In top predators like these, industrial chemicals can build up to lethal levels, and plastic could be part of the problem.
As plastic breaks down, it combines with these other pollutants that are consumed by vast numbers of marine creatures. It’s possible her calf may have been poisoned by her own contaminated milk. Pilot whales have big brains. They can certainly experience emotions. Judging from the behaviour of the adults, the loss of the infant has affected the entire family. Unless the flow of plastics and industrial pollution into the world’s oceans is reduced, marine life will be poisoned by them for many centuries to come [applause].
[Video end]
Karen Sack
Thank you, Julian, and welcome everyone. It’s – that piece just takes your breath away. It is so emblematic of everything that is going on in the ocean, and I think that just embodies exactly why Blue Planet II is winning this award, because it certainly brought home the critical issues of ocean life, and the amazing life that’s out there, but also, what’s impacting everyone. So, we are going to have a conversation this evening. We’re going to start with a few questions, amongst the panel, and then we’re going to open up to the floor, so prepare. We’re looking forward to a lot of engagement. I’d also like to welcome everyone who is watching online tonight, and hope that you will enjoy this evening as much as we are.
I’m going to briefly introduce our panellists, who are just – there’s so much to say about them, that it – that’s, I think, probably my most difficult task, and then we’re going to jump straight into some questions. So, first, we have Julian Hector here. He is the Head of the BBC Natural History Unit. He’s been leading it for 25 years, with 300 staff, creating some of the best in class television on nature, around the world, for BBC channels. And under his leadership, this list is just amazing, I had to cut it down, too, but I’ve written some notes. So, Julian has led the development of Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II, Dynasties, Spring Watch, Blue Planet Live, and Seven Worlds, One Planet, which I understand is airing here, although we have yet to see it in the US, and then my personal favourite, Animals With Cameras, which is just amazing. So it’s wonderful to have you with us.
We’re also incredibly privileged to have Mark Brownlow, who was the Executive Producer and Series Producer of Blue Planet II, which has to be the best job in the world. He is – maybe not, he can tell us later. He’s a multiple EME and BAFTA award winning BBC Producer, and is currently the Executive Producer of Frozen Planet II and Earth’s Tropical Islands, which is focusing on Madagascar, Borneo and Hawaii. In Blue Planet II, he helped bring breaking and cutting edge technology, so that we could all enjoy an entirely new understanding of life below the waves. Blue Planet II, for folks who don’t know the statistics, was the most watched television programme in 2017. It was seen by a quarter of a million viewers in China alone, which is great, and is credited with changing public opinion on ocean and plastic, which we are going to discuss a little bit tonight. And Mark also has produced the 3D giant screen Oceans: Our Blue Planet, which is now – it’s been released worldwide and anyone who enjoyed Blue Planet II, if you really want to feel that you are part of the Blue Planet series, go and watch that. It is unbelievable. You literally get to swim with dolphins. It is fabulous.
And finally, someone who needs absolutely no introduction whatsoever, is joining us, is Sir David Attenborough. Master storyteller, natural historian, who has been bringing the most incredible creatures into our living rooms for seven decades, and hopefully, will continue. The first programme that Sir David developed was watched with – were watched by about 10,000 people, and Our Planet, by comparison, was watched by 33 million people, within the first month of its release. So, that’s incredible. And last year YouGov.poll voted you the most popular person in Britain [applause]. I think the audience has just underscored that, so welcome, all of you, and we’re going to kick off immediately with some questions, and Julian, I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to start with you. You, sitting at the heart of the Natural History Unit, tell us what it’s like running the unit and its people and character, and also, a little bit about what Blue Planet II has meant to the unit?
Dr Julian Hector
Well, the Natural History Unit is a team of men and women, you know, who are so driven to get you close to the natural world. I mean, one of the things that conjoins everybody in my unit, is their desire to give the audience the closeup, ‘cause they too are absolutely passionate about that, as well. And I think something that they all believe and I believe, and it’s very cohesive for us all, is the natural world belongs to everybody. Absolutely everybody, and therefore, it’s pan-cultural. It keeps us alive. It informs our humanity. It inspires us in art and writing and everything, and that wider value of the natural world, you know, drives the men and women in the Natural History Unit to document the most amazing things.
Something that caricatures us is not just the closeup, it’s almost like a, sort of, metaphor really, getting close to the story, but we like to film new things, new animal behaviour. So, the Natural History Unit is aligned very closely to Scientists and people who can get us close to the natural world, all over the world, and so we’re quite a, sort of, learned group. But at the end of the day, you know, we’re dirt under the fingernails, grubby programme makers, and they don’t normally look like this, actually. And just referencing all the students at the back there, is that, I mean, I’ll say it now, that, you know, that being a wildlife filmmaker, making content, I mean, in any role in making this content not just for television, but for all the other platforms, you know, it’s open to everyone. So, as the young people at the back of the room there, I want you all to know that if you’re interested in the natural world, if you aspire to telling stories about nature, then it’s a career open to absolutely everybody, in different roles. So that’s open to all of you, so you’re very welcome.
Karen Sack
Thank you. Well, the Blue Planet II, one of the most impacted audience segments was 16 to 24-year-olds.
Dr Julian Hector
Yeah.
Karen Sack
So…
Dr Julian Hector
Well, Blue Planet II has had enormous impact, and we were just saying, before joining you all, what a long tale it’s had, and this’ll come up in the conversation, I’m sure. Had a huge impact when it went out. There was lots of digital activity around it as well, and it really struck a chord, and striking a chord, what strikes a chord? What strikes a chord is the way in which the stories are told. Not just the photography, the photography’s amazing, and Mark’ll be talking a lot about that. But the extraordinary, sort of, immersive, emotional storytelling, whereby going through it, you kind of understand the intentions, if you like, the plans of the animals. And I think Blue Planet II, and it’s really difficult, I mean, the number of times that we have tried actually, to sell underwartery shows to Controllers, and they, sort of, say things like, “Well, won’t it just be full of fish?” And it sort of is. Yes, but these are amazing, wonderful, sophisticated animals, and everything else that lives under the sea, and Blue Planet II really liberated that. Of course with the amazing world of the global storyteller, the master himself, is Sir David, of course.
Karen Sack
Thank you. It was so interesting, I think, in Blue Planet II, as you watch species collaboration, you see fish using tools, it certainly opened up those worlds, and so Mark, you know, this was a programme that was the fourth most popular television programme in the UK.
Mark Brownlow
Hmmm.
Karen Sack
Did you ever imagine that it would have so much impact?
Mark Brownlow
Not at all. We were, bite our nails when it went out on air. We had no idea how the audience would respond. I mean, our ambition was always to take the audience on a magical journey, to new worlds, meet never seen before creatures, and witness ground-breaking behaviours. But for many people, the oceans are alien worlds, out of sight out of mind, as Julian referenced, filled with coldblooded slippery fish. So our challenge was to make people fall in love with the oceans, and what we wanted to do was just reveal how intelligent sophisticated marine creatures truly are. I mean, for instance, who would have thought that fish changed sex. Octopus decorate themselves against shark attack by adorning themselves in a body armour of shells, and a tusk fish uses a tool to crack open its clam, as David will confirm, tool use is something that you’d associate with primates, in terms of intelligent behaviours. And the other thing we wanted to do was tell emotionally charged, character-driven stories that the audiences would really emote with, identify with. And like a mother walrus tending to her struggling pup on a – in a world of diminishing ice, and what we felt is, if we could make people fall in love with the characters of the ocean, then when we told the devastating truths around the environmental threats that they faced, they would care.
Karen Sack
It’s so interesting that, because if you – you know, when you speak with someone like Sylvia Earle, who’s probably spent more time beneath the waves than anyone else, she talks about the personalities of the fish and the species that she meets. That it’s not just a school of fish, but that each one has a personality with the different traits, and that was certainly picked up. And I think one of the other interesting pieces is how much calibration there was with the scientific community. We see them in the final episode, and it would be interesting to know some of the impact. We talk about the impact of the series on all of us and our changing habits, what was the collaboration like with science and some of the impact and outcomes since then?
Mark Brownlow
I mean, we certainly could not have made the series without the help from a global network of Scientists. I mean, Blue Planet II ended up being far more than just a piece of entertainment. It furthered our scientific understanding of marine life, and we worked hand-in-hand with Scientists all along the way, and they offered us their expertise, and we offered them unprecedented access into the far reaches of our ocean. And together, we discovered that devil rays, in the open ocean, actively hunt [inaudible – 20:27] fish. We discovered that along coral reefs clown fish bring home objects to their home anemones, to lay their eggs on. And even in the deep, bacteria that’s farmed by yeti crabs is stolen by a deep sea shrimp. I mean, so it was a wonderful collaboration.
Dr Julian Hector
Passion.
Karen Sack
I know, it’s a good job, this ocean gig. Sir David, I got to binge watch the entire series this week, which was a hardship. You’ve got to love a job that gives you the opportunity to do that, and read a lot about the impact that Blue Planet II has had on so many people, changing their behaviour. What was the impact on you of the series? How did it, kind of, impact on you and affect you, looking forward?
Sir David Attenborough
Well, it’s a new world, you see. I’m not an expert underwater swimmer, but I started underwater swimming in the 1950s, and I remember like it was yesterday, the first time I put on a mask and went below the sea. The first thing that fills you, I mean, you obviously had to be trained and skilled to do it, but the thrill of actually moving in three dimensions at will, instead of being fixed to the ground, as we are most of the time, is in itself, astonishment. But if that dive is on something like the Barrier Reef, or something, you suddenly see 100 creatures of infinite beauty, of all the colours of the rainbow, doing things you can’t imagine what they’re doing and understanding, and totally unafraid of you, and you can move among them, and it is moving into another universe. And that, even if you haven’t – underwater – and you haven’t swam underwater, that series captured that feeling.
I watched it – my role is the words, and so again and again I had the privilege of seeing the first put together of a programme, and I watched with just the same astonishment as anyone else here would watch. And the brilliance of the underwater swimmers, because although it’s a different world, it’s not easy, I mean, it really is not easy to work in it, and the cameramen who do that work, and he’s one of them, I mean, he’s an Underwater Director, who tells the cameramen what to do underwater. Think of that.
Dr Julian Hector
Hard fish.
Sir David Attenborough
They are a different…
Mark Brownlow
Small and slimy
Sir David Attenborough
No, a different type, very different type.
Karen Sack
It’s astonishing, really, and Mark, I guess, the step-change in the series was really the beginning focus on the impact that humans are having on the ocean, whether it’s pollution, the loss of coral reefs, over-fishing, and the impact, as we look around the world here in the UK, new legislation in the EU, new legislation on plastics, and in many other places, did you think that that would be the impactful edge of Blue Planet II? Was it something that you were expecting? Was it unexpected, and how have you seen that evolve?
Mark Brownlow
Well, over the course of making this series, we witnessed two of the greatest coral bleaching events on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and we did, we swam through oceans of plastic, and we felt increasingly compelled to tell a contemporary portrait of today’s oceans. And across the series, we tackled all the major environmental threats that the oceans face, from over-fishing to ocean acidification. But absolutely, it was the issue of ocean plastics that really hit home the hardest, and we kind of, we wonder why. I mean, could be perhaps the very, kind of, tragic imagery of a drowning turtle entangled in a fishing net. It could have been, you know, the tragic story of a mother albatross innocently feeding her chick plastic. But I think, more than anything, it’s because the issue around ocean plastics, I think people feel empowered to do something about it. I mean, we can all change our behavioural habits around how much plastic we use and make a tangible difference with that. So, I think that’s probably why.
Karen Sack
It’s – well, certainly as somebody who visits the UK quite frequently, it’s been fascinating to see the change that’s happened here. Hopefully, in the US, we’ll see some of the changes happening too, in the near future. But as you say, there are so many key issues impacting the ocean, hopefully, the plastic issue is the gateway, but we see this step change happening now, in terms of the biggest pollutant in the ocean is CO2 and that’s something we need to address very seriously.
So this is the depressing part of the conversation, giving you a health warning, and I think as we’re looking at these nature programmes, and Julian, the natural programming, are you seeing a change, as you move forward, in terms of the work that the Natural History Unit is going to be doing? Kind of, give us a sense of what’s in the pipeline, and how some of the crises impacting the environment now are influencing the development of some of that programming.
Dr Julian Hector
Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, Blue Planet II, which you’ve been talking about, you know, is a really good example of a highly invested in landmark, as we call them, mega landmark, which reaches millions, where the, sort of, the modern world and how it impacts on animal and plant life histories, is, you know, we’re telling those stories. If any of you are seeing Seven Worlds, One Planet, which is broadcasting on BBC 1 at the moment, you’ve probably noticed that we are strengthening even more the way in which the pressures on our world are impacting the natural world. And although we, you know, we talk a lot about climate change, I mean, you might have seen in the Antarctic episode, the impacts that strengthening winds in the South Atlantic are having on – and the story we told, albatross reproduction. But we’re also talking about deforestation, for example. I mean, it was quite striking, and looking at audience reaction, how quite hardened people were really surprised at the time lapse images we were showing, of the rate of deforestation, in parts of Asia. And likewise, you know, we’re talking about introduced species. So there are, in terms of, sort of, health warning, there are a number of, sort of, environmental factors that are, sort of, impacting the natural world, as so many of them are a result obviously, that we’re now a populated earth and we have to find a way to share the planet, you know, with the natural world that supports us. And thinking of pipelines, you know, we will always be talking now about conservation and the natural world.
What I feel very strongly about though, and Mark, and I know and Sir David does too, is that we have to tell these stories. Well, we know that emotional engagement in these stories reaches audiences, is memorable to audiences. And so, however tough these conservation stories are, if we can tell them through the life histories of animals and plants and we can connect people, so you can see the – how these environmental factors are affecting life on earth, then they’re memorable and then we can see positive change. So, conservation, I mean, you – and lining Mark up, for this interview, talking about Frozen Planet II, I mean, Frozen Planet II is about the frozen world, so obviously, not just the polar regions, but this is one of the fastest changing parts of the Earth, and we’re documenting that. So, they’ll be more of this. But the natural world is resplendent and joyous, and as I said at the beginning, it informs our humanity as well, so we must never forget just what else the natural world does for us. It’s heritage value, as well as keeping us alive.
Karen Sack
And there’s some amazing BBC research, which shows that actually watching nature documentaries makes us happy, and it is a joyful experience, and actually, because we’re connecting with nature, we can cope better with modern life. Ideally, we then get out into nature and we’ll enjoy it not just on a screen, but I think that also speaks to, and Sir David maybe you can help answer this question a little bit, is the final episode of Blue Planet II was very people centred. It was about some of the heroes who are working around the world to protect the ocean, but it was also about the impacts that our activities are having. Was that planned? Was it something that you’d thought through before?
Sir David Attenborough
Oh yes. I mean, it was planned by the team, Mark and the team, leading the team. It was part of it and in fact, you know, we’ve actually been saying this on almost every series I’ve done for the past 20 years. The strange thing about the polluting of the ocean, is that we’ve been talking about plastic, actually, for a long time. But in the mass media business, it’s very mysterious as to when you make an impact and when you don’t, and there are an awful lot of advertising agencies who would like to know and be able to predict that, sort of, effect. But we can’t. All we can do is to go on about it, and we have been going on about pollution, particularly plastic solution, in the seas for a long time. I mean, Blue Planet I I’m sure I mentioned it, too, and one has done. So you can only go on, but suddenly, whatever it was, whatever else was going in the society around it, the way that that – the effect that one programme had, amazed us all.
Karen Sack
It’s truly incredible, and I’m going to turn it over to the audience for some questions. Some of the research again, that’s being done points to the fact that when we go to the beach and we put our, you know, feet in the sand and we wiggle our toes around and hit a piece of plastic, that brings it home to us. We can see it. We can feel it. Versus, most of us don’t get to go in the water and see a coral reef, and when we do, it looks amazing and there are fish on the reef, and so we don’t see – we don’t understand that, and I think that’s one of the incredible opportunities that Blue Planet II really brought home to all of us, was to see those changes. And that final episode is so telling, in really, kind of, speaking in a very gentle way, and your storytelling, you know, whether it was the tiny little turtle, swimming in the waves, and we wondered whether it would survive or the mother, with its baby, the pilot whale. But that storytelling could bring those things home to all of us.
Sir David Attenborough
The storytelling – actually, the master storytellers are the Film Editors. The people who put the thing together, that the – we all feel that the commentaries, which I write, and so on, is actually the last bit, and that the – it is there just to explain those little bits, which the – you couldn’t deduce from the pictures. But by-and-large, the pictures tell a story and it’s the Cameraman and the Video Editors, I should say, rather than Film Editors, who put it together with such skill, that actually, if there was no commentary to it, and I’m not suggesting you should adopt this approach, but with no commentary at all it would be very powerful still. And that, of course, explains why it’s had such a huge affect on the world at large.
China, fascinated by this, they are, and they can’t have understood a word I said, most of them. So – but the pictures, the pictures told a story.
Dr Julian Hector
And that’s where the value is created. You know, it’s the Natural History Unit. It’s the men and the women in the Natural History Unit that stand days and weeks, even months, in these very complex places, sitting in boats, getting seasick, getting cold up mountains, not seeing anything for weeks on end, seeing it and then the camera doesn’t run, I mean, all sorts of things, and as you say, Sir David, that, you know, these incredible men and women that actually allow it to be captured, is where so much craft is.
Mark Brownlow
And if I can get a shout out, there’s quite a few of them in the audience, from the Production Team, who deserve huge credit.
Karen Sack
Yes.
Sir David Attenborough
Oh, I didn’t know that. I can understand what I said [applause].
Karen Sack
Well, I think we’re all so much richer for the brilliant combination of your beautiful words and the amazing images that you and the team at the Natural History Unit have managed to pull together.
We are going to open for questions, and so, I am hoping there are microphones. Yes, so if you could put up your hands. There’s actually a young woman right in the middle here and caught my eye first, and then, the kids at the back, we’re expecting some questions.
Tessa Yates
Hi, I’m Tessa Yates and I go to Graveney School, and I actually led the student strike from Graveney School, so I was wondering what your thoughts were on student strikes?
Sir David Attenborough
On the what?
Karen Sack
On the student strikes.
Dr Julian Hector
On the student strikes.
Sir David Attenborough
Yes. Well, what I think is that the world belongs to the students. It’s their world, it’s not my world. They are the inheritors of this. They have every right to feel outraged, if they wish, and they should make that feeling clear, and I don’t think – I think there’s a limit, and it doesn’t actually help to disrupt society. It has to be done every now and again to make the point, and I just hope that the point has now been made.
Karen Sack
Thank you. I’m going to go right to the back and then we’ll go to the left and then to the right over here.
Nicky
Hello. Hello, I’m Nicky from All Saints School in Dagenham, and I…
Karen Sack
Can you hold the microphone just a little closer?
Nicky
Okay.
Karen Sack
Thank you.
Nicky
And I heard that – I read somewhere that we’ve only discovered 20% of the ocean and the 80% we haven’t, so I was wondering if, should we just, like, discover the parts that aren’t discovered, or will there be more complications if we do so?
Dr Julian Hector
Ooh, what an interesting question.
Karen Sack
That’s a great question.
Mark Brownlow
Crikey.
Dr Julian Hector
And that’s a humdinger, that one. That’s a – I think – I know the background to your question is that if we don’t know it’s there and we can’t get there, maybe that, by definition, is protecting it. In the context of all the things that we’ve talking about, you know, the sort of insidious creep of pollution and environmental damage, a lot of this can find its way to places that we don’t know. And so I think actually, you should – we should never ever be afraid of knowledge. So, as I see all of you at the back there, you know, at school and everything else, absolutely aspire to learn and aspire to discover. And so, discovering new places and documenting what’s there and, more importantly, understanding how it all works and our relationship with it, I would say was critical. So yes, we should carry on exploring.
Mark Brownlow
I’ll put a more positive spin on it and that is, only 0.001% of the ocean deep has been eyeballed. There is so much more to discover. There is so many new stories to tell, I think we need another series [applause].
Karen Sack
Well, the saying in our world is that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep sea, and we need to understand what is down there. That is not a licence to go and exploit it, because if anything, as humans, what we should know is that our track record is not great at all, and so knowing and understanding also means caring and protecting. One of the fascinating things that is, and I’m sure, actually, with Frozen Planet, this is coming out now as well is, the incredible role that the ocean plays as a carbon sink.
The deep sea, which, in The Deep, the episode on The Deep, there was a big focus on these abyssal plains, these sandy flats, which everyone thought were uninhabited, and then these incredible creatures and bacteria that live down there, which could play a really significant role in the carbon cycle. There are now companies looking to start deep sea bed mining, which makes from, I think, anyone’s perspective, if we’ve looked at what we’ve done on land, an insane thing to do in the ocean, given we just have no idea. So, these are some of the issues we need to look at, moving forward.
Dr Julian Hector
No, I can add to the quest, you know, to discover more biodiversity and things. If you were an alien and you landed on Earth, you would probably be just as interested in a bacterium that you saw, as an elephant that you saw. And we tend to, sort of, prejudge a little bit, don’t we, about what’s interesting, so to add to your – the answer to your excellent question, is that we should never underestimate, you know, the value of knowledge and what you can discover, particularly now, with things that you literally can’t see with the naked eye.
Karen Sack
I guess if you were an alien, you would also look down at our planet and notice that most of it is blue, and probably think that that’s the first place that you should explore and understand.
We have a question over here, gentleman with his hand up.
David Pollock
Thanks. I’m David Pollock, Member and supporter of Chatham House. The clip from Blue Planet II that we were shown had two important messages. One was about plastic, the other was about industrial pollutants, and obviously, you’ve had the most extraordinary positive impact, in relation to how government, society and companies are now thinking about plastic. To what extent do you think they’re taking up and taking action on the other message about industrial pollutants into the oceans?
Karen Sack
Well, I like they all looked at me. But no.
Dr Julian Hector
I can have a go.
Mark Brownlow
Yeah, sure.
Dr Julian Hector
I mean, this is – you know, every era, and it’s something I’ll talk about, every era has a story. It has its story to tell, and I think we’re very much in the era of the big story and, you know, the big story is the complexity of this environmental crisis. And I think audiences and taking an audience perspective of it, I am seeing enormous recognition, day in, day out, on social media platforms particularly, not linked necessarily to things that we’re doing, but of recognition of big change. And so, I absolutely think – I think that big change is being recognised by the audience, by the population, and I think good things will follow.
Karen Sack
Did you want to add anything more?
Mark Brownlow
Industrial contamination, I mean, it’s impacting our very own killer whales off the Isles of Shetland. But there’s research saying that they’re now infertile, so it’s not just in far flung oceans, it’s also around our very own shorelines. So yes, I mean, it’s a big issue.
Karen Sack
Want to add anything?
Sir David Attenborough
No.
Karen Sack
No. I think it’s a really important issue and there are, actually, international treaties in place. There’s a treaty on marine pollution, which is supposed to deal with the impacts of industrial pollutants on the ocean. Part of the challenge is, and this has been one of the challenges in the ocean space writ large, is it’s out of sight and out of mind. So, if you are somewhere out in the middle of ocean and you put out some bilge water, no-one is paying attention, even though you’re not supposed to. And oftentimes when we look at some of the big rivers that are flowing down to the sea and the impacts of not just industrial pollutants, but also pollutants from agriculture, and industrial agriculture, and that is something that most countries are not looking at, and it’s really important, as we’re seeing some of the dead zones evolve in these coastal areas, and the impacts. Particularly in those areas that are so important as nursery grounds, as carbon storage hubs, as well, mangroves, seagrass beds, really important natural habitats that are also key to – they’re key, kind of, buffers from major storm events, and help build resilience to change. So, perhaps that’s a challenge out to Chatham House and its members, that we really need to start looking at some of these issues in a holistic way.
The way the ocean is governed is in many silos. So if you catch tuna, you go to one organisation. If you are involved with shipping, it’s a different organisation. If it’s deep seabed mining, it’s something else entirely, and if you actually want to protect biodiversity, there’s no agreement in place on that globally, which is in the works for this next year. So, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done on breaking down those silos and bringing in some strong ocean governance.
There is a question here in the front. Some beautiful, I think, cowrie shells.
Hilde Rapp
No.
Karen Sack
No?
Hilde Rapp
They’re actually beads, but they could easily be.
Karen Sack
Oh, okay. Could be coals.
Hilde Rapp
But no, it’s a good guess. Hilde Rapp, Member Chatham House and Centre for International Peacebuilding. Just to say, first off, that I am a total addict of your programmes. I’ve watched most of them and so much so, that I’ve actually spent over 1,000 – 100,000 miles at sea myself, looking underwater and above water at what you’ve been talking about. And one thing that I was wondering about is whether you have thought of involving the older storytellers that have been telling your kind of story for many, many centuries? I’m thinking of the clingage in Alaska and British Columbia, where this notion of interconnected world of the flows and of a positive and negative feedback loops is absolutely part of everyday life. It’s in their art, it’s in their culture, it’s in how they deal with the natural environment. How they are part of the sea and the sea is in them and the animals are their kingdom. So you’ve, in a way, recreated a storytelling for the western world, that has its roots, as you well know, in traditional cultures, everywhere. In the Pacific, particularly, and I just wondered whether you’ve included some of these, you know, storytellers from those, kind of, cultures in some of your new films?
Karen Sack
It’s a wonderful question.
Sir David Attenborough
It’s a wonderful question and I’m trying to find a wonderful answer.
Hilde Rapp
Just say yes to it.
Sir David Attenborough
No, I think that there are different dialogues.
Hilde Rapp
Of course.
Sir David Attenborough
And the world – the dialogue that we put together on these films, I mean, we could take a mythological attitude, as you say, about mother ocean or about that the whales are part and be rather mystical about it. But I think the dialogue which we have to take, which is an international dialogue, is the language of behavioural science and physical science, too. There are so many facts that we have to convey, and that the key, and what makes life easy, is if there is a narrative in which there is a hunter or a hunted, whether there is a problem to be solved, and you can do those. You tell those in pictures, as far as you can, and then you add explanation in the words, and I think that you should take the one language, which is universal, which is scientific logic. I don’t know whether you agree.
Dr Julian Hector
Well, I do agree. I do agree, of course. These – I mean, what we all need, isn’t it, in terms of immersing ourselves and appreciating the value of the natural world, is different perspectives, and so I completely agree with Sir David. But how, you know, we have to embrace these perspectives.
If I may say, we did it on radio, and to a British audience. It was a series on Radio 4 called Natural Histories, which is still running, and the premise of that was that you took a species and you looked at how that species was valued, not just through its science, but through its cultural significance and how it’s recognised in different cultures. And it worked incredibly well as speech, and it could work very well in pictures.
Hilde Rapp
Am I allowed one line of a comeback, please, because actually what I was hoping for…
Karen Sack
Hang on a second for the mic.
Hilde Rapp
Okay. Thank you very much. No, I mean, what’s exciting is that those people themselves have a very detailed scientific knowledge of their environment and those flows that I was talking about, and I was wondering about capturing that. I wasn’t so much interested in the mythology, of course, that is the old fashioned way of trying to hold onto that knowledge. But it’s the practical knowledge of their actual environment…
Dr Julian Hector
Well, absolutely, and that’s what I was talking about.
Hilde Rapp
…that I thought might be what was worth, kind of, interacting with.
Dr Julian Hector
Yes, of course.
Hilde Rapp
So I wasn’t trying to, kind of, divert you from your course.
Dr Julian Hector
No, not at all.
Mark Brownlow
In a series that I’m privileged enough to be working on, Frozen Planet II, our final environmental episode will include the voice of local people, and their unique perspective. So, absolutely.
Karen Sack
Well, perhaps we need to think of a new, you know, a new show, which includes some of the traditional Hawaiian or Pacific Navigators and their canoes and Sir David, you can go on a trip across the Pacific and some of us can get to join and, you know, we can put the storytellers together.
There’s a question right at the back of the room. Let’s go to the back. I think we’ve got time for it, and then, what we’ll do is, we’ll take that question and maybe two others, and then come back to the panel for, this will be the final round.
Adam Drew
Thank you, and Adam Drew from The Times Diary. A question for Sir David. Congratulations on being namef the UK’s favourite human, and you’ve certainly shown the world the beauties of its breadth, but I was curious to know, what is your favourite living thing in the UK?
Karen Sack
Okay, we’ll give you a few seconds to think about that. You said a thing, so could – you know.
Sir David Attenborough
You have to take the strongest bond that we have socially is our family, so that has to be my answer.
Audience
Ah [applause].
Karen Sack
Okay, so now I’m going to group the final few questions together. We’re going to go in the front here, to this lady from the press, and then we’ll go to the person with the white shirt on, in the fourth row from the front. No, no, just over here, and then the gentleman sitting on the corner, and then, I’m afraid, we’re going to be done.
Bénédicte Paviot
A question specific – well, congratulations to all of you, it’s just a privilege and a joy to see you here today, to see your work recognised. Talking about the gateway that you have opened up to the world, the international language, I work for France 24, so an international global channel. I’m President of the Foreign Press.
I think you were very gracious and of course the pictures are essential and how they’re edited is essential. But I would say that you’re inclusive language, not in a politically sense, but – and your tone, it’s never ever lecturing to people. And I think that’s – so, as a political animal myself, obviously reporting on world leaders, you are reaching people now that you have never reached before, and that you probably never thought you would reach, at what is a very local level, regional, international, and very powerful level. Are you honestly, and I know you’re deeply honest, I feel that, I think everybody feels that, in your approach, it’s something that is beyond words that people know, and see that in you. Do you feel that behind closed doors, and it’s just as important if not more than publicly, powerful political leaders in this world are really engaging with you, and are prepared to take some steps, real political will to change things that will be important for the survival of this planet?
Karen Sack
Thank you. If you can hold on your answer, just for a second, let’s have the other two questions, and see how they all fit together, and then we’ll come straight to you, Sir David.
Linda
Hi, and my name’s Linda and I am a mother of two, and I have a slightly less a climate question. We went to a holiday in Italy with my family two years ago and we went on to your beach story earlier. We went to the beach and the beautiful coast of Italy to collect shells, with my then five-year-old and our newborn. And the first thing that my daughter said, who was then five, was, instead of looking at shells, she said, “Look, there’s plastic. We have to gather all the plastic,” because this is a message that the schools are handing over to the children. And we spent, probably, about two and a half hours picking up plastic in the coast of Italy, with me slightly feeling very proud, but also slightly horrified that we were actually collecting plastic in a plastic bag that I had with me, ‘cause that’s all I had. But it was a very proud moment for me, and as a parent and as, sort of, a custodian of the world that we’re handing over to our children. And I just wonder, for each of you, what has been the proudest moment in your life, in terms of the proudest moment of achievement, professionally or personally?
Karen Sack
Thank you, and our final question.
Sir David Attenborough
And hang on.
Dr Julian Hector
Proudest moment in your life.
Richard Parlour
Hi, Richard Parlour. I saw some figures, about a couple of months ago, which suggested that the trade in – the illegal trade in wildlife was approaching something like the world’s fourth largest crime. So, getting onto a par with global drug trafficking. So, I’m interested to hear what the panel have got to say about the best ways we can combat the illegal trade in wildlife and preserve more of the species, and whether that ranges from things like flooding the Asian markets with synthetic rhino horn, through to catching poachers, and so on. Thank you.
Karen Sack
Thank you. Well, that didn’t work very well, from my perspective, because we got three incredibly different questions that I was going to try and magically group together, but that is just not going to work. So I think why don’t we start a little bit with the illegal wildlife trade, and we’ve only got a few minutes, so, I’m not sure, Julian, if you’d like to speak to that, or Sir David?
Dr Julian Hector
Okay, so it’s a very good and an enormous question and, you know, over the – I mean, the Natural History Unit has been in existence for over 60 years, and during that whole time, which Sir David actually has been involved, actually, not always with the NHU, but trade in endangered species, you know, has been present. I mean, in some ways, it was the foundation of big charities like Worldwide Fund for Nature, for example, going back to Sir Peter Scott days, and things like that. It’s enormous, and we’re seeing the pressure of that.
We have built some of those stories into Seven Worlds, One Planet. I mean, ultimately, the market just has to not be there for it, and interestingly, a while back, I was involved in the production of a BBC 1 programme, a Panorama Special, looking at the ivory trade, and we were tracking the money and the ivory, from Africa, where it was poached, to its market in – as we reported in Panorama, in China. And very interestingly, one of the turnarounds there was that the market for ivory, the prices that people could pay for ivory, could be infinite. It could just go up and up and up until there was no ivory.
But one of the things that caused a U-turn and things to get a bit better, was recognising, from the Chinese perspective, recog – in this – in the programme that we did, the sort of heritage value of elephants in Africa, in this case. And so there is a po – it isn’t necessarily just sticks, it is important to change, as we see it, from the programmes that we make, minds as well.
Karen Sack
And just coming back to the world of fish and oceans, if you go out for dinner tonight with five people and everyone orders some fish, at least one of you will be eating an illegally caught fish. It’s rampant, illegal fishing, and it’s not only the impact on humans, on the fish and ecosystems, but also, the people who are often endangered or enslaved on those fishing vessels. So, definitely check before you eat and before you buy some of the seafood, to make sure that it has been legally caught, and that you can source it back to where it comes from.
The next question we’re going to go to is on your proudest moments, and maybe what we can do is, start with you, Mark, and then work our way over to Sir David, who can talk about that, and then we can go into the politics and the question that we were asked about, are Politicians doing enough? Are we doing enough? Mark.
Mark Brownlow
Well, I mean, I’m glad to have been part of the Blue Planet Team. It was a massive effort, with the 25 people, based out of Bristol, along with a fleet of international camera teams, and then a massive post-production team to put it altogether. And I have to say, having – just working with David has been such an honour. Thank you [applause].
Karen Sack
Julian.
Dr Julian Hector
Of course, how could anything be second to working with you. I – we’ve talked a lot about television, and my tone this afternoon has been about the joy that the natural world can bring. And something that I brought to Radio 4 was Tweet of the Day.
Audience
Oh.
Dr Julian Hector
Yes [applause], and we weren’t allowed to nick two minutes from The Today Programme. I know, so – but a couple of minutes was nicked from Farming Today to allow it, and it’s still running, and it’s – and don’t you think it’s wonderful that you’ve got a little nuance of natural history, just before the day’s huge news agenda begins and Tweet of the Day.
Karen Sack
Sir David.
Sir David Attenborough
What was the question?
Karen Sack
The question was, what is one of your proudest moments?
Sir David Attenborough
Oh yes. Well, the moment I can’t – I’m not allowed to forget, and I’m not in danger of forgetting because it’s imprinted on my mind, is nothing to do with ambition. It was entirely accidental, somebody else took the decision, and that somebody was a gorilla. I was out making a film about gorillas, which had been habituated by Dian Fossey, a marvellous American Biologist, who had habituated this – these animals, so they weren’t afraid of human beings, and I was going to make a scientific point about something or other, and I was talking about it like – lying, thinking that gorillas were far behind me, and I suddenly felt an enormous great thump on my head and it was a female gorilla that had just come out of the bush there, who was interested in my teeth. Then she turned my head around and she put this huge great big black hand and put my mouth open, and my eyes, I suppose that said everything, and I – it’s difficult to smile, under those circumstances, and then she relaxed and I relaxed, and while I was wondering what would happen next, there was a weight on my feet and her two babies, who were about three or four-year-old, were sitting on my shoes, undoing the shoelaces. And the camera team was way back there, waiting for me to say something scientific. That’s the moment I won’t forget.
Karen Sack
But what did you say?
Sir David Attenborough
Ah.
Karen Sack
That’s wonderful, and I guess the – turning to the final question, which is – I guess, actually thinking about some of those gorillas and what they’re going through at the moment, and thinking about the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, and what’s going on in the oceans, are our Politicians doing enough? Are we doing enough? And what should we be doing?
Sir David Attenborough
We could never do enough. Just to deal with the gorillas for the minute, however, there are now twice as many more mountain gorillas than there were when I shot that film. You can do things about it. We can never do enough because we have overrun the world. There’s a three times more human beings on the Earth than when I started making natural history programmes, and they all require space to live, just like the rest of us, and they all require food, they all require a lot things and make demands on the planet. So, the problems are just piling up. We can never do enough. We have still got a lot of people to convince in this world. There are two – at least two, if not three, large nations in the world that still don’t accept that we are ruining the world. They will not accept that, and there are – they have the rights to their own country. We’re not dictators. We can’t force it upon them. But the fact is that what those things – what those are happening are catastrophic and are putting back our efforts, but we cannot despair. There, I am sure we will bring them round eventually, but it’s going to take time, and meanwhile, we must do our best.
Karen Sack
Well, thank you so much. I think there’s – I can’t think of a better way to close this evening, as we just prepare for the presentations. So, thank you to all of you for some excellent questions. I’m sure there are lots more out there, and thank you so much, Sir David and Julian and Mark. All of our lives are so much richer for what you have brought to all of us and people around the world. Thank you very much, and we are going to step down. There will be a little bit of a shift on the stage, and then we’ll have the presentation of the award. Thank you [applause].
Chatham House Staff
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry for the delay. We’ve got a special visitor. So you know those sentences that no-one will ever say about you, ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for Her Majesty The Queen.
Audience
Wow. Oh. [Applause].
Robin Niblett CMG
Excellencies, Lords, ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. I’m delighted now to begin the formal part of awarding the 2019 Chatham House Prize, and Your Majesty, we’re honoured that you will join us today for this, the 15th Award of the Chatham House Prize. We’re all the more grateful that you would join us on the evening of your 72nd wedding anniversary.
Audience
Oh [applause].
Robin Niblett CMG
So, on behalf of our members and guests, please accept our congratulations and warmest wishes to you and the Duke of Edinburgh. As our guests and members here know, the Chatham House Prize is presented to the person, persons, or organisation, deemed by members of Chatham House and The Royal Institute of International Affairs to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year.
The selection process is independent, democratic, and draws on the input from Chatham House’s experts, making the prize a unique award, in the field of international affairs. The Institute’s three Presidents: Sir John Major, Baroness Manningham-Buller, and Lord Darling select the shortlist of nominees from a longer list, submitted by the Chatham House Research Teams, based on their areas of expertise. The recipient is then determined by Chatham House’s membership on a one member, one vote basis. We have many members joining us online, as well as in this room.
The prize is presented to the winner on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, the Patron of The Royal Institute of International Affairs, and if we’re so fortunate, presented by Her Majesty herself, as we are this evening. This year the nominees were: Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, nominated for his efforts to transform civic leadership and promote plural politics, free speech, and peace in Ethiopia. Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland, nominated for her commitment to gender equality and women’s financial inclusion, and Sir David Attenborough and the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, for their sustained impact through the TV series Blue Planet II, in galvanising public engagement on the critical problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
I’m delighted that our members voted to award the Chatham House Prize 2019 to Sir David Attenborough and the BBC Studio’s Natural History Unit. It’s now my great pleasure to invite our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen, to present the prize to Sir David and Dr Julian Hector. Your Majesty [applause]
HM The Queen
As Patron of The Royal Institute of International Affairs, I’m delighted that members have awarded this year’s Chatham House Prize to Sir David Attenborough and the Blue Planet II Team. Sir David, this award recognises your many talents, and one can’t help but feel that for those of us of a certain generation, we can take great pleasure in proving age is no barrier to being a positive influence [applause].
Your ability to communicate the beauty and vulnerability of our natural environment remains unequalled, as you and your team have engaged and enthused many people, young and old, to appreciate and preserve our world’s oceans. For that, we should all be thankful. I congratulate you and all involved in this endeavour. Here is your prize, and very well done [applause].
Sir David Attenborough
Thank you. Thank you.
Dr Julian Hector
Thank you Your Majesty. Thank you.
Dr Robin Niblett CMG
Please have a seat [applause]. Your Majesty.
Dr Julian Hector
Your Majesty, members and guests of Chatham House and students, of course, it’s an absolute honour to receive this price, on behalf of my entire team at BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. The Natural History Unit operates around the world in very small teams, documenting the natural world, and we can only exist with the support of my colleagues in the BBC and BBC Studios, and the many scientific collaborators, together with the local people on the ground, who give us access to very remote parts of the world. So thank you to all of you.
Being Head of the Natural History Unit is, hand’s down, the best job in the world. I mean, look at me now. We’re a specialist unit, quite big, around 350 people, that have been observing and recording the natural world for over 60 years. We tell stories of the natural world and our relationship with it, through crafted storytelling for everyone. And plastic has been on my mind for decades.
Before becoming a Wildlife Filmmaker, I spent several years as a Field Biologist. I worked for the British Antarctic Survey in the early 80s, studying albatrosses on South Georgia in the South Atlantic. There, I helped a fellow Biologist to study the food Albatrosses fed their chicks. We used to make them vomit in a bucket, by gently squeezing them, rather like playing a set of bagpipes. We didn’t do it that often, don’t worry, the chicks and parents were fine, but all that time ago we found pieces of plastic, single use and other things, like a flipflop, even a doll, in the regurgitated food. We saw fur seals growing into a ring of plastic and which was digging deep into their flesh. Then, we were not to know how big the problem was to become, and now the multiple curse of bits of multiple broken down plastic, both macro and micro, are commonplace in the diets of marine animals. And Scientists are reporting that microplastic is literally raining down on us, too, implicating terrestrial ecosystems.
In the words of one of my Producers, “In Blue Planet II, we didn’t set out to make a series about climate change or plastics, but we documented what we saw. This is our world, whether we like it or not.” Over a billion people have watched Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, and following the TV show, our award winning digital campaign, #OurBluePlanet reached similar audiences, and the Blue Planet II affect ballooned.
The stories we shared in Blue Planet II, coupled with Sir David’s words, always uniquely delivered in a warm and powerful way, generated an extraordinary response from audiences all over the world and brought the message to living rooms, but also to company boardrooms. Blue Planet II was the most watched series of the year for the BBC, and reached 62% of the UK population. More younger people than ever came to the series, opting to watch Blue Planet II, rather than that entertainment show on the other channel.
Broadcasters and platforms in over 200 countries have licensed the rights to show Blue Planet II to their audiences. It was viewed more than 80 million times in the first week of release in China, on the Tencent platform and by over 250 million to date. The series won BAFTAs and the Impact Award at the National Television Awards and an EME in the US. The series is full of emotional storytelling, captivated, entertainment, and surprise viewers have showed how devastating this very modern polluting phenomenon is on marine creatures and our shared world. And it leads to real change.
A poll, in 2018, indicated that nearly nine in ten people, 88% who engaged with Our Blue Planet have changed their approach to using plastics. And in March this year, a 170 countries pledged to significantly reduce the use of plastics by 2030, at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi. Big change in the environment, I think, is being recognised by everyone, and standing before you today, at the end of 209 – 2019, receiving this award, feels particularly poignant and significant. We are in the era of the big story. The big story is about big change, and every age has its stories to tell, and we’re living through the greatest and most urgent of all, the era of climate change and environmental damage, where Scientists worn of a long tale, even as we act.
But no-one is immune to the upheaval caused by a shift in climate. It is vital we recognise what is happening, explain with clarity and vision, and then tell stories of hope and transformation. Winning this prize and getting recognition for the work that we do at the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, many of whom are in the audience now, feels particularly significant this year, when the environment is the biggest story of them all.
So thank you, Your Majesty, and thank you, Chatham House members for standing by the side, with Sir David Attenborough and the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, in championing the natural world. Thank you [applause].
Sir David Attenborough
Your Majesty. Chatham House is a remarkable Institution. It was founded between the wars and it concerned itself exclusively with international problems. Well, international problems have never been more international, more crucial, and more pressing than they are today. In-ter-national. The atmosphere doesn’t have favourites among nations. The ocean washes the shores of the rich nations, as well as the poor nations. Trees felled in Amazonia affect the rainfall in Europe. Carbon dioxide, belching from the chimneys of china, can ultimately affect temperatures worldwide. Melting glaciers in Alaska drown islands and villages in Polynesia.
Each of these actions were responsible to national problems. People saw them as a consequence of their own national difficulties, irrespective of what happened to anybody else. Never has there been a greater need for international co-operation, and international solutions. They won’t be easy to win. Politicians have to look to the people who elect them, who will assume that they will be number one on the list. That cannot remain to be so.
We are citizens of the world and we must recognise that, and international co-operation, which is the subject of this great organisation, is of paramount importance. If this international organisation considers that what we have done at the Natural History Unit has, in some way, helped spread an awareness of the problems that face the world, that in some way will convince the population of the world that we all belong to one world, and just the one world belongs to all of us, then this award pleases me more than I can say, and I’m most grateful to receive it. Thank you very much [applause].
Robin Niblett CMG
Ladies and gentlemen, as I said at the beginning, may I please ask you all to remain in your seats for a little while, because you’ll now appreciate the importance of us being able to leave efficiently. But we do have a film, which will be shared with you, to backup what you saw at the beginning, but thank you very much for joining us. We will now leave. Please remain in your seats. Your Majesty [applause].
[Video]
Sir David Attenborough
For years we thought that the oceans were so vast that nothing we could do could have an effect upon them. But now we know that was wrong. It’s now clear that our actions are having a significant impact on the world’s oceans. Plastic has become an integral part of our daily lives, but every year some eight million tonnes of it ends up in the ocean, and there it could be lethal.
[Audiences across the country, glued to Blue Planet II, have been starkly reminded of the problems of plastics pollution.]
[The problem was vividly highlighted in the BBC’s recent Blue Planet II series, which was public service broadcasting at its finest. The plan for England, which we’re publishing today, sets out the action government is to take.]
We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely, we have a responsibility to care for our Blue Planet. The future of humanity, and indeed all life on Earth now, depends on us [applause].
