Big week for Sir David Attenborough: first a contestant on the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off made a cake shaped like his head, and after joining Instagram on Thursday, the famed naturalist gathered a whopping 3.2 million followers within 24 hours on the social media platform.
As of this writing, that follower count has already grown to 4.6 million, and Attenborough’s first post — a one-minute video warning of the dangers of climate change — has over 1.5 million likes and 16.9 million views.
“As we all know, the world is in trouble,” he says in the video. “Continents are on fire, glaciers are melting, coral reefs are dying, fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on. But we know what to do about it.” He also promises more videos about climate change are forthcoming.
“David Attenborough has spent a lifetime travelling, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder,” the post’s caption reads. “He’s also witnessed the damage caused. Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will. That’s why we want to share this message on Instagram. Because there is hope and together, we can inspire change. Social media isn’t David’s usual habitat so while he’s recorded messages solely for Instagram, like the one in this post, we’re helping to run this account. In case you’re wondering, ‘we’ are Jonnie and Colin and we worked with David on A Life On Our Planet. So, as well as sharing the messages he’s recorded especially for this account we’ll also post some exclusive clips and behind the scenes content. Stay tuned.”
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