Community
Print
Jeremy Clarkson has launched a scathing attack on one of Britain’s most beloved celebrities, Sir David Attenborough.
The motoring and beef enthusiast has accused Attenborough of no longer writing the scripts for his nature documentaries. Instead, Clarkson claims that the biologist is simply reading words penned by people trying to push the climate crisis message.
“Today, Sir Attenborough is too old to appear in the films and I’m afraid he doesn’t even write the script anymore,” Clarkson penned in his tabloid column for The Sun. “He just reads out words that have been written by a team of vegan communists who have only one thing on their minds. Climate change.”
He went on to refer to Attenborough’s latest documentary, Frozen Planet II, as “a joke.” Clarkson then slammed the consistent reiteration that changes to the world’s coldest regions are a result of the human-created climate emergency.
Positioning himself as a keen climate observer, Clarkson claimed that the documentary fails to show the “upsides” of global warming. These, he said, include melting ice to allow whales to surface more frequently. He also suggested that warmer UK weather has allowed the long-tailed tit to thrive.
While some studies support Clarkson’s claim about the long-tailed tit, this is an isolated case. A wide body of research suggests that nearly half of all bird species are in decline. Plus, one in eight species is facing extinction because of human-caused environmental issues.
With regard to whales, the general consensus among scientists is that the climate crisis is one of the species’ biggest threats.
Clarkson went on to conclude that the documentary was “half-arsed twaddle.”
Sir David Attenborough as a climate activist
Alongside creating documentaries showcasing the natural world, Attenborough has become a frequent speaker on the topic of the climate crisis. As a result, he was named People’s Advocate ahead of last year’s United Nations climate conference COP26. There, he discussed the need for unified climate action.
Taking to multiple platforms, including Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in 2019 and Instagram in 2020, Attenborough has consistently sought relevant ways to engage with people about the climate. In his debut Instagram post, now viewed 18.2 million times, he uploaded a simple video of himself discussing his reasons for joining.
“I’m exploring this new way of communication, to me, because as we all know, the world is in trouble,” he said. “Continents are on fire, glaciers are melting, coral reefs are dying, fish are disappearing from our oceans. And the list goes on and on. But we know what to do about it, and that’s why I’m tackling this new way, for me, of communication. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be recording messages to explain what the problems are and how we can deal with them. Join me.”
Similarly, his Frozen Planet II documentary is visually beautiful but also a wake-up call. It demonstrates how the climate crisis is irreversibly altering the coldest parts of the world, including Antarctica. Record high temperatures were recorded there in 2020.
Clarkson’s anti-activist stance
Clarkson has a history of attacking activists that don’t align with his own interests. As a beef farmer, he has taken umbrage at vegans and their lifestyle for many years, calling them “lunatics”. He has also inferred that being vegan isn’t normal, while simultaneously claiming that sending his animals to slaughter causes him “heartache.”
He has also taken up against teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg, a vocal supporter of Attenborough. Clarkson has previously referred to her as being “mad and dangerous,” while encouraging her to “shut up.”
These comments came after Clarkson admitted that global warming is “really alarming,” and before he opened a beef-only restaurant at his farm in Oxfordshire.
