When The Big Issue last met up with Sir David Attenborough in March the climate crisis was top of the news agenda.
The urgent progress needed to avert environmental catastrophe has since been overshadowed by the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic despite Extinction Rebellion’s recent protests making waves for targeting news organisations and parliament.
In this week’s Big Issue, Attenborough reflects on how we have all had to live differently in the past few months as we have learned to adapt to the ‘new normal’. For him, like for all of us, the pandemic has been a game-changer but he is still finding hope in the desperate times we live in.
“Covid-19 has caused, and will continue to cause, immense suffering,” Attenborough says now. “If there is hope that can come out of it then that may arise from the whole world having experienced a shared threat and found a sense that we are all in it together.
“The time for pure national interests has passed. If we are to tackle climate change, enable sustainable development and restore biodiversity, then internationalism has to be our approach. In doing so, we must bring about a greater equality between what nations take from the world and what they give back. The wealthier nations have taken a lot and the time has now come to give.”
Read more for Attenborough in this week’s Big Issue magazine. Available now from vendors all over the country. If you cannot reach your local vendor, get your copy from The Big Issue Shop or you can subscribe to receive The Big Issue direct to your door or device every week through bigissue.com/subscribe or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.
