Sir David Attenborough is not one to sit still. As living-room spectators we've travelled the world with him, eagerly looking over his shoulder, entranced with all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures, plants and places. What a life he's lead! Still, it's easy to romanticise such quasi-National Geographic type lives from the comfort of our armchairs! As we ogle at rare Indonesian tree frogs, and suchlike, our distraction tends to ignore the great beads of sweat dripping from his brow and the constant efforts to swipe away those biting insects that would drive many to madness.

One thing we can say though - while we're endeavouring to eek out some kind of comfortable life, he's seeing the world like few others ever can. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on current climate-change trends, given his well-rounded perspective:

"In the natural world things have always changed. Any biologist or any geologist will tell you that things are continually changing, that's true. But we are making changes so quickly that it would be very difficult for many species to accommodate to that change. And not only that, whereas in the past species were able to migrate to follow the changing conditions, so much of the surface of the land now is taken up by us and our buildings and our tarmacs and our roads that it's very difficult for species to move in that sort of way. And so if they can't move, they will disappear...."

"All I do know is that climate change is happening, no doubt, and that's been no doubt for a long time. And I also know that humanity, human beings worldwide, are contributing to climate change. I also know that if it goes on the way it is, we are in for some very bad times. We ought now to have a worldwide change in moral attitudes that you don't waste energy, because energy is produced at a cost, and to waste it is sinful. I mean it … but mad as well."

It was especially interesting to hear Sir Attenborough emphasise "energy is produced at a cost...." In the natural world, animals rarely expend energy without purpose. This naturalist has observed nature from every angle, and knows that the realities of existence for every species dictate careful conservation for survival. Even an animal's playtime, mostly when young, is for developing essential physical and social skills.

For the human race, over the millennia, it's been no different - well, at least not until the age of the machine. Machines have enabled us to move off the land and huddle together in comfortable cities, and slowly start to lose touch with the natural order of things. For the first time in our history, we have more than half the world's population living in urban centres, and many of us grew up without ever setting foot on anything even resembling a farm, let alone knowing how to live off the land. Today, when we switch on a light or go for our 'Sunday drive', it's much harder for us to join the dots - to make the essential mental connection that all energy expenditure links back, somewhere, to a subtraction from nature.

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