The revered broadcaster has urged the world's richest nations to respond.
Legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has a simple message regarding climate emergency – act now.
Speaking ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Attenborough said that the richest nations in the world have a "moral responsibility" to help poorer countries.
"If we don't act now, it'll be too late," he told
BBC News Science Editor David Shukman.
The 95-year-old broadcaster and naturalist was in conversation during filming of his forthcoming documentary The Green Planet, set to air on BBC One in 2022.
"Climate scientists have been saying for 20 years, and that we have been reporting upon, you and I both, is the case - we were not causing false alarms," he said.
"And every day that goes by in which we don't do something about it is a day wasted. And things are being made worse."
Referring to a UN climate science panel that recently concluded that it is "unequivocal" that human activity is leading to a significant rise in global temperatures, Attenborough said that it's time people stopped denying the data.
"There are still people in North America, there are still people in Australia who say 'no, no, no, no, of course it's very unfortunate that there was that forest fire that absolutely demolished, incinerated that village, but it's a one-off'.
"Particularly if it's going to cost money in the short term, the temptation is to deny the problem and pretend it's not there.
"But every month that passes, it becomes more and more incontrovertible, the changes to the planet that we are responsible for that are having these devastating effects."
The COP26 summit, which takes place next month, is viewed as integral to potentially bringing climate change under control.
Almost 200 countries will participate in the event, having been asked to present plans to cut emissions.
