DEADLY 60 star Steve Backshall has slammed “ludicrous” trolls that tried to silence the royal family from speaking out on climate change.
The 47-year-old conservationist and biologist insists it’s important people from all walks of life are allowed a say on environmental issues if a difference is going to be made.
Prince Harry was branded a “hypocrite” and a “prat” for preaching about green issues after he and wife Meghan Markle used private jets to fly between luxury holiday locations.
But Steve said he has been subject to the same attacks online and believes it’s a “ludicrous” attitude to have.
He said: “Every time I have any kind of debate or conversation about climate change a thousand trolls online will come up and say ‘you can’t talk about climate change, you fly everywhere.”
“Those same voices have managed to silence people like the royals. The royals made the mistake of talking out about climate change and were instantly shouted down by a couple of hundred thousand voices saying ‘you take private jets, you’re not allowed to talk about climate change’. Well that’s absolute stupidity. We need everyone talking about climate change.
“Are we honestly saying we shouldn’t allow heads of states who fly places to talk about climate change? How utterly ludicrous would that be?”
The BBC host’s obsession with wildlife and the outdoors was nurtured by his parents, but he admits many kids today don’t have the privileged upbringing he had.
However, Steve believes green campaigns and awareness drives will be a source of inspiration for those young people in particular.
He said: “I think things like this have a tremendous role to play when it comes down to it, because you have a huge amount of people you can reach out to and give them practical ways they can make a difference and give them a reason to care.
“I think while I had my folks to do that for me, this is something your campaign can have a role in achieving.”
The dad-of-three has been a hit with youngsters since first appearing on CBBC’s The Really Wild Show in 2003, alongside Nick Baker and Michaela Strachan.
Five years later he landed his own hit show, The Deadly 60, in which he travelled the world in search of the most dangerous and scary wildlife. Its success led to numerous spin-offs including Deadly 360 and Live ‘n’ Deadly.
Educating kids on wildlife and nature remains a priority for Steve, and he is pitching a new show to telly bosses that he hopes will put the spotlight on environmental youth activism.
“That whole wave of young activism and conservation, I would love to get a programme out there that showcases those young people that are changing the world and making a better place. They deserve to be highlighted so that’s very much something I’m pitching at the moment and trying to get off the ground.
“I have an opportunity to speak to that audience as an equal and give them reasons to care and stand up and shout about things that are important to them.
“Right now, this period of time is going to be looked back as the equivalent of many civil rights movements of the past.
“My voice is less potent than the hundreds and thousands of young voices that are making a difference. What I can do is point those young people to the cause.”
As well as climate change, Steve is hopeful of seeing the number of single use plastics decrease as more is done to educate people of the impacts they have on the environment.
Last year a report showed the UK is only second to the US when it comes to producing the most plastic waste per person – 99kg each per year.
Major companies are taking this issue seriously, with the worst offender, Coca-Cola, looking to use paper-based bottles in Europe.
Steve said: “The absolute fact of the matter is we have far too many plastics, which are completely unnecessary, that we are using just the once and discarding, and that’s happening across the world on a monumental scale.
“And all those plastics have to go somewhere and they’re very slow to degrade, and when they do, they don’t completely; they break down into microfibres and microplastics. All of these are ending up in our food chain. It is going to end up causing us some huge problems in the long run. The only way we can address that is at the source. Recycling is a part of the answer but it’s not the answer. The answer is we have to cut down on the amount of single use plastics we use.”
A throwback picture on Steve’s Instagram account shows him cutting a seal entangled in plastic free after spotting it while kayaking with his wife, Olympic rower Helen Glover, in Walvis Bay, Namibia, in 2015.
It’s an all to common occurrence, which more often than not doesn’t have a happy ending.
“For every animal I’ve managed to release from plastic there’s 100 others I haven’t managed to, that have evaded our capture and will in all likelihood die from that entanglement, and that bit is heartbreaking.
“But the moment when you cut a shark free of an entangling piece of plastic webbing or cut a turtle free of a fishing line that will kill it, is one of the most exciting, empowering moments you can ever have working in my job.”
But while the problem is a massive one, Steve takes comfort that the solutions to it are at least tangible.
