Sir David Attenborough has urged viewers to adopt a meat-free, plant-based diet to fight climate change in new film.

The world’s most renowned natural historian and veteran presenter has warned that humans should ditch meat for a mostly plant-based diet if we want to save animals and the planet.

The 94-year-old’s new documentary A Life On Our Planet aims to highlight how “the world is headed for disaster and we need to learn to work with nature rather than against it”

Taking us along  a journey that looks back on the defining moments of his life and the environmental destruction that has taken place during that time, Attenbourough says in the trailer of the film: “The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on earth is sending it into a decline.”

“Human beings have overrun the world,” he states.

‘Planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters’

According to him, “The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding – the loss of biodiversity.The natural world is fading.”

To reign in one of the biggest drivers that is exploiting the planet’s resources and aggravating the climate crisis, Attenborough’s advice to the people is to swap meat or switch to a vegetarian diet and plant more trees.

“We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters,” the Mirror reported him saying.

 “If we had a mostly plant-based diet we could increase the yield of the land. We have an urgent need for free land… Nature is our biggest ally.”

A Life On Our Planet

Created by award-winning natural history filmmakers Silverback Films and global conservation organisation WWF, the film is an urgent, revealing and honest powerful first-hand account of humanity’s impact on nature and a message of hope for future generations.

The film directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes and Keith Scholey and Executive Produced by Colin Butfield is in Attenborugh’s own words a “witness statement and my vision of the future.”

“The story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake. How if we act now we can yet put it right.”

The film will premiere in U.K cinemas on September 28 for one night only and will be available on Netflix in autumn.

• Read: Hard-hitting vegan film wins at the British Documentary Film Festival

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