Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mer… - David Attenborough

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Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever-increasing population. In spite of disasters when civilisations have over-reached themselves, that process has continued, indeed accelerated, even today. Now mankind is looking for food, not just on this planet but on others. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment.

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About David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS (born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster and writer specialising in natural history who has mainly worked for the BBC since the early 1950s.

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Birth Name: David Frederick Attenborough
Native Name: Sir David Frederick Attenborough
Alternative Names: Sir David Attenborough
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Additional quotes by David Attenborough

I'll bet when our prehistoric ancestors first dug for tubers and planted seeds in Europe, one of these little robins appeared within a couple of days. Other animals must have done the same job for them before human beings did. Once, not so long ago, wild pig were common all over Europe, and they're great diggers and rootlers. So maybe the robin's boldness and friendliness with other kinds of animals started in prehistory, even before human beings arrived in Europe.

It's equally astonishing that the birds are able to measure its relative strength with such accuracy that they can trace it back to its source simply by sensing in which direction it becomes marginally stronger. But a turkey vulture is exceptionally well-equipped among birds, with wide-open nostrils and extremely well-developed sense organs within them.

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