Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.

I am an ardent recycler. I would like to think that it works. I don't know whether it does or not.

I don't approve of sunbathing, and it's bad for you.

I suffer much less than many of my colleagues. I am perfectly able to go to Australia and film within three hours of arrival.

I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.

I'm not a propagandist, I'm not a polemicist; my primary interest is just looking at and trying to understand how animals work.

I'm not in politics.

Natural history is not about producing fables.

Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you.

The climate, the economic situation, rising birth rates; none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic.

There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.

We are a plague on the Earth.

You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them.

You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.