(ANSA) - ROME, APRIL 23 - He is English and was born in 1926, like Queen Elizabeth, and for his merits as an internationally renowned scientist and naturalist in June 2016 he had the honor of giving a lecture on environmental issues in the Cathedral of St Paul's in London during the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Now sirDavid Attenborough has received the 'Champion of the Earth' Award for his dedication to research and advocacy for the conservation and restoration of nature, awarded by the United Nations Environment Program.
The motivation for the Attenborough award reads: "He has dedicated his life to telling the love story between human beings and nature, and to transmit it to the whole world. If today we have the possibility to avoid the collapse of climate and biodiversity and to clean up ecosystems polluted, it is thanks to the millions of people who fell in love with the planet as he showed it to us on television ".
"Sir David's work will continue to encourage people of all ages to take care of nature."
David Attenborough, younger brother of the actor and director, two-time Academy Award winner Richard Attenborough, is a pioneer of nature documentary.
For more than 50 years he has made natural history documentaries broadcast by numerous television networks and is best known for having written and presented with the Natural History Unit of the BBC the nine editions of the Life series (documentaries that constitute one of the most comprehensive investigations into life on Earth).
It has always fought for the defense, conservation and restoration of biodiversity, the transition to renewable energies, the mitigation of climate change in order to achieve many sustainable development goals (SDGs).
"The world must unite - Attenborough said after receiving the award - These problems cannot be solved by a single nation, no matter how big or small. We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them. All we lack is unified action" .
"Fifty years ago - he added - whales were on the verge of extinction all over the world. Then citizens united and today there are more whales in the sea than any living human has ever seen. By acting together, we can solve these problems." 'David Attenborough's message is that it is still possible to save the planet because "nature has more resources than we can imagine". (ANSA).