Chris Packham wants national 'living momument' to honour Sir David Attenborough
Chris Packham wants a "living monument" installed in the UK's "major cities" to honour fellow naturalist, Sir David Attenborough.
Chris Packham is calling for a "living monument" to honour Sir David Attenborough.
The 64-year-old wildlife campaigner said a "series of oak trees" in each of the UK's "major cities" that will live for "200 years" should be installed instead of "bronze statues" because he thinks David, 99, would "prefer" a "legacy of love and life" as a tribute to his achievements.
Chris told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We can build bronze statues and that would be apt, but I think he would prefer a legacy of love and life.
"There should be a living monument. I would pick a series of oak trees that are going to live for 200 years.
"I would have one in each of our major cities. They would be called 'The Attenborough Oaks'."
Chris - who interviewed the legendary biologist on BBC One's nature documentary show 'Winterwatch' in 2023 - regards David as a friend and his "greatest mentor".
And Chris revealed David is known as "Dave" to his close friends.
The 'Springwatch' star explained: "I do call him Dave. He's not a posh bloke. He's a very down-to-earth guy.
"Everyone calls him Sir David, and we should acknowledge that, but he's Dave.
"He just jumps out of a car and starts talking to everyone. He's a humble, nice man.
"He's not someone who's going, 'Call me Sir David' - he's not like [Lord] Alan Sugar.'"
Chris has spoken openly about his autism - a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people interact and experience the world - and he admitted to having "mixed feelings" about US Health Secretary RFK Jr trying to find the cause of what the politician describes as an “autism epidemic".
Chris - who is fronting a two-part BBC Two docuseries called 'Inside Our Autistic Minds' - said on ITV1's breakfast news show 'Good Morning Britain' on May 13: "Firstly, there’s no epidemic. What we have done is we’ve created a wider awareness of this condition (autism) and therefore more people are able, hopefully, to access help. And that has to be seen as a very, very positive thing because people are learning about these conditions on social media, which we all use every day, that’s not a bad thing. That’s opening our eyes to the fact that these conditions are real and they need addressing and support.
"The second thing, as a scientist, I would love to know what has made me an autistic person. My curiosity is in that direction.
"Many autistic people are frightened by that because of the third thing that you mentioned and that is driving towards a cure.
"We don’t want a cure. We are not broken. We are merely different, and those differences are sometimes presenting us with enormous disabling problems or difficulties, those challenges that I spoke of.
"Without people who think differently, some of the world’s problems simply would not have been and will not be solved. We are here to play a very valuable part in society. So we don’t want to be cured.
"I’m curious to know why, and I always will be, but I don’t want someone giving me a tablet or stopping the future development of autistic people.
“We are a proud, intact community of people who have an enormous amount to offer society.”
