The four-year-old caught his mother off-guard with the question, so she turned to Sir David Attenborough for an answer
Otis Allen, a four-year-old with an inquisitive mind and a love of dinosaurs (we all remember those days), stumped his mother with an important question just before bed.
After having read lots about dinosaurs in recent weeks, he asked his mum whether “will we be extinct one day too?”. Understandably, mother Gerry was a bit taken aback by such an important and probing question. Rather than guessing, Gerry suggested ‘why not ask the experts?’ and who better than Sir David Attenborough?
Sir David, 94, has been presenting wildlife and natural history programmes for almost 70 years – an extraordinary feat by any measure. So it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about this kind of stuff.
With his mum’s help, Otis wrote a letter to Sir David posing the question, as well asking him “What do you think is the most important thing I can do to save the planet?”. Again, a very big question for such a young mind.
Gerry had already explained global warming to Otis and his face immediately showed all the concern we should all have by now. However, she told him that the best thing they could focus on was “the small things we could do to help like recycling our rubbish, driving the car less and eating less meat.”
They sent the letter the next day and, eventually, the got their reply. Not only did Attenborough respond but he did so in a hand-written letter. His answer to Otis’ question was short and sweet:
“The answer is that we need not do [go extinct] so as long as we look after our planet properly.”
Of course, the way we do that and make a real impact goes far beyond the measures people can take at home. But that’s a conversation for another day, perhaps, when Otis has a few more years of conservationism under his belt.
Gerry was touched by Attenborough’s response and said “there is something really special” about a seasoned naturalist responding to someone “who’s just at the very beginning of his journey to understand the impact of climate change and our behaviour on the planet.”
She went on to remind people that “it’s so important that kids learn from a very young age about what’s happening and the action we need to take”.
Kids are like sponges, especially around this age, so it’s vital that we all provide them with the right information on pressing issues like this.
