With 2020 being a year that the majority of us will want to forget, it's fitting that the beloved David Attenborough will be returning to our screens later this month to issue a dire warning to humanity.
The beloved broadcaster will be presenting a new one-hour documentary Extinction: The Facts, which is a follow-up to last year's acclaimed film Climate Change: The Facts.
Premiering on Sunday, September 13, Extinction: The Facts will examine the ways in which the climate crisis is impacting food and water shortages globally, and could even influence the spread of pandemics.
Featuring some of the world’s leading scientists, Extinction: The Facts goes beyond the emotional to investigate what biodiversity loss and extinction mean - not just for the planet but for us as a species.
Speaking about the documentary, Attenborough says:
“Over the course of my life I’ve encountered some of the world’s most remarkable species of animals. Only now do I realise just how lucky I’ve been. Many of these wonders seem set to disappear forever.
"We are facing a crisis and one that has consequences for us all. It threatens our ability to feed ourselves, to control our climate, it even puts us at greater risk of pandemic diseases such as COVID-19.
"It’s never been more important for us to understand the effects of biodiversity loss, of how it is that we ourselves are responsible for it. Only if we do that, will we have any hope of averting disaster.”
Last year, with the support of the United Nations, more than 500 scientists set out to investigate the current state of the natural world. They found that biodiversity is being lost at rates not seen before in human history. This means one million species are now threatened with extinction.
The official synopsis states that the programme "explores how this crisis is about more than the loss of individual species. The evidence is that the loss of biodiversity now threatens our own wellbeing. Everything in nature is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, and we are part of that."
Like so many of Attenborough's previous documentaries, we're expecting Extinction: The Facts to be essential viewing when it airs on Sunday, 13 September at 8pm on BBC1.
If you're a fan of Attenborough's work, you'll be delighted to know that he also has another new documentary that's being released in cinemas and on Netflix too.
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet will premiere in cinemas on September 28 before launching on Netflix at a later date this Autumn.
SEE ALSO: Watch: David Attenborough’s New Netflix Documentary Looks Absolutely Breathtaking And Personal
