Naturalist Sir David Attenborough has attacked politicians who deny the "overwhelming" evidence of climate change.

The broadcaster said humanity was facing a "major, serious problem" but never in human history had there been collective effort to tackle the issue.

In an interview with Sky News, Sir David, 88, said: "Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that the people in authority and power deny that when the evidence is overwhelming. They deny it because it's easier to deny it.

"It's a very major, serious problem facing humanity, but at the same time it would be silly to minimise the size of the problem.

"Never in the history of humanity in the last 10 million years have all human beings got together to face one danger that threatens us."

In September 2013 a report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it's extremely likely, or 95% to 100% certain, human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century.

In an earlier 2007 report it said it was 90% certain humans were at fault.

Former head of the Met Office Sir John Houghton, 83, who co-chaired the Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC between 1988 and 2002, also believes politicians are far too complacent.

At a conference in Lima last month the UN reached agreement on how to tackle climate change.

Delegates approved a framework for national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.

But environmentalists said the deal was an ineffectual compromise.

Rich and poor countries were divided over the burden of cutting carbon.

Sir John, from Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, said: "If we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow the atmosphere would still warm for 100 or 200 years.

"We can't stop it warming quite a lot more than it's now over the next 100 years and if we wait to see if it's really happening that's a recipe for disaster."

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

Mr Corbyn, 68, who maintains weather patterns are shaped by the sun, said: "As an observed fact there is no evidence changes in carbon dioxide lead to changes in world temperatures. The reality is the other way around.

"A million years of data shows that."

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