'Climate Change: The Facts' Viewers Heartbroken Over Orangutan Scene
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Featured Image Credit: BBC
People have been left heartbroken over a scene in Sir David Attenborough's new BBC documentary, Climate Change: The Facts.
The episode, which aired on Thursday evening, saw an orangutan battle with a bulldozer destroying its habitat for palm oil.
By himself, the orangutan attempts to beat off the machine before dangling down from a chopped down tree and fleeing its home.
Habitats are being destroyed as a result of the consumer demand for palm oil a type of vegetable oil that's extracted from the fruits and seeds of palm oil.
As the documentary explains, palm oil can be found in lots of household products, with the huge demand prompting habitats to be cut down and replaced with palm oil plantations.
Heartbroken viewers were left feeling "disgusted" by the footage as Attenborough explained that climate change is the biggest threat to the planet in thousands of years.
actually crying at the orangutan scene:sob: #deforestation #palmoil #ClimateChangeTheFacts
- shelbz (@shelb3_) April 18, 2019
I'm so sad and feel physically sick, esp the clip of the poor Orangutan hanging off the trees as they were being chopped off #ClimateChangeTheFacts :cry: :cry:
- Serve out wide (@ServeOutWide) April 18, 2019
I watched #ClimateChangeTheFacts last night and that Orang-Utan clutching on to that falling tree was so heartbreaking as were seeing all those flying foxes dead due to increase temperatures...
- asliceofPye (@asliceofPyeUK) April 19, 2019
Seeing the Orangutan trying to stop the bulldozer broke my heart#ClimateChangeTheFacts
- Craig Fleming (@CraigFlem1ng) April 18, 2019
"Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. At the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future," he explained.
"The science is now clear that urgent action is needed. What happens now and in these next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years.
"We are facing a man-made disaster on a global scale. It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage of the natural world, and the collapse of our societies.
"We are running out of time but there is still hope. I believe that if we better understand the threat we face, the more likely it is that we can avoid such a catastrophic future."
Topics: TV News, david attenborough, TV Entertainment