Foreign species arriving in Britain because of climate change should be welcomed and allowed to thrive rather than being treated as invasive pests, according to Sir David Attenborough.
Addressing a nature conference in London, the wildlife presenter said that it was time to start embracing certain impacts of climate change, including the northerly migration of animals seeking cooler climes.
Sir David said humanity would suffer “great impoverishment, physically, intellectually and spiritually” unless it placed a higher value on the natural world.
“The figures are alarming: 50 per cent of the hedgehog population has disappeared in the last 25 years, 90 per cent of wildlife meadows have disappeared in a century; 60 per cent of all wildlife is diminishing and in danger and 10 per cent is doomed to disappear within the next few decades.”
Regarding climate change, he said we should focus on helping species to adapt and move rather than “bemoaning” the impact on habitats.
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“We know that climate change is happening. It is of course to be regretted from some points of view, but it is also to be embraced. Climate change is causing great changes in the distribution of the animals, plants, insects, mammals, birds of our countryside and we have to not only respect that, but take advantage of it and cater for it.
“We should accept there are things coming in from Europe now, butterflies we have hardly seen for years, hummingbird hawk-moths which once were the cause of extraordinary surprise by people on the south coast are now almost common.
“Instead of thinking that every new arrival is an exotic foreigner that ought to be repelled we ought to recognise them as our new populations.”
Bee-eaters, birds that normally nest in the Mediterranean, bred more chicks than ever in Britain this summer. Black-winged stilts bred for the first time since 1987, with chicks produced at RSPB reserves in Kent and West Sussex.
In July, the yellow-legged tortoiseshell, a butterfly last seen in Britain more than 60 years ago, was spotted in parts of East Anglia.
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Sir David also said that wildlife corridors should be created to help native British species to move north to escape from rising temperatures in the south.
Protecting nature could add to the cost of living and would be opposed by some, said Sir David.
“All this is going to cause trouble. It could even make things on occasion more expensive. Is that worthwhile? It’s the most important decision all of us have to face.”