Time & Perspective Quote by David Attenborough

Democracy rarely rewards long-term thinking, so Attenborough lays out an almost disarmingly pragmatic playbook: if you want policy that costs people something now, you have to make them want the future more than the discount. “Really unpopular decisions” is doing heavy lifting here. He’s not talking about feel-good recycling campaigns; he’s pointing at the kind of measures that spike bills, restrict consumption, curtail development, and provoke tabloid fury. The word “through” treats government like a narrow gate you have to force open, not a forum where the best argument wins.

The subtext is a gentle indictment of both politics and media. Politicians won’t lead unless the electorate will follow; voters won’t follow unless they’ve been trained to value what they can’t immediately monetize; and that training, Attenborough argues, is cultural. Natural history programmes aren’t just nature porn or Sunday-night balm. They’re civic infrastructure, shaping what counts as “reasonable” sacrifice. He’s reframing public broadcasting as a kind of soft power for planetary stewardship: awe as persuasion, intimacy with the living world as a prerequisite for regulation.

Context matters: Attenborough’s career spans the rise of television as mass education and the slow pivot of nature docs from exploration to warning siren. He’s also sidestepping partisan language. Instead of preaching policy, he’s advocating for the precondition of policy: a shared emotional investment in ecosystems. It’s savvy, slightly unsettling, and honest about how change actually happens.