Chris Packham has encouraged today’s youth to ‘fight back’ against ‘buffoons’ like Jeremy Clarkson amid claims that The Grand Tour host purchased a ‘gas-guzzling’ Range Rover ‘just to spite’ him.
Clarkson, 63, opted to buy the environmentally unfriendly SUV after ‘Chris Packham said something annoying on television’, he told The Daily Star last month.
The former Top Gear presenter had initially decided to buy a Land Rover with a ‘smallish diesel engine’ but ‘cancelled’ the purchase in a ‘hot internal walnut of spite’.
He hoped to ‘annoy’ and ‘punish’ the Springwatch star by buying a ‘Range Rover with a V8 that produces more carbon dioxides than India’. He added that he found it ‘comforting to know that by talking about the environment Packham has actually made it a little worse.’
Packham, 62, has now hit back, branding Clarkson a ‘buffoon’ and telling Saga Magazine that his ‘spiteful’ decision ‘betrays such a tragic ignorance it has an almost comedic value’.
The Range Rover rage is the latest incident in the apparent ongoing feud between the pair, which last November saw Packham launch a furious tirade at Clarkson in after the outspoken presenter admitted he wasn’t impressed by Sir David Attenborough’s latest Planet Earth series.
Chris Packham (pictured in July 2022) has encouraged today’s youth to ‘fight back’ against ‘buffoons’ like Jeremy Clarkson amid claims that The Grand Tour host purchased a ‘gas-guzzling’ Range Rover ‘just to spite’ him
Jeremy Clarkson, 63, (pictured last year) said he opted to buy the environmentally unfriendly SUV after ‘Chris Packham said something annoying on television’. He had initially decided to buy a Land Rover with a ‘smallish diesel engine’ but ‘cancelled’ the purchase in a ‘hot internal walnut of spite’
‘I got a Google alert last night saying Jeremy Clarkson had been thinking about buying a Land Rover with a relatively small engine,’ Packham told the magazine.
‘But then he’d seen me on TV saying something which offended him – probably something positive about the environment – so he’d bought a five-litre, gas-guzzling, twin turbo-charged Range Rover just to spite Chris Packham.’
The Winterwatch presenter hit out at Clarkson in his latest attempt to highlight the gravity of the climate crisis, saying it is an ‘existential problem’ and ‘so big that it’s beyond us as individuals to do anything’.
However, he pointed out that ‘every single one of us has the capacity to do something positive’ and encouraged the younger generation to consider their individual ‘impact’ on the environment.
Packham, who is often referred to as Sir David’s successor, argued that today’s generation are ‘influenced by TikTok’ and need a ‘young person’ to get them fired up about the environment.
‘We don’t need another David, we need another person on social media doing the same job and that isn’t going to be me – it’s going to be a young person,’ he said.
Packham, who says he was ‘very angry young man, encouraged the youth to get upset about climate change, but also ‘turn that anger into something positive’.
Packham (pictured with his fellow Winterwatch presenters) has now hit back, branding Clarkson a ‘buffoon’ and said his ‘spiteful’ decision ‘betrays such a tragic ignorance it has an almost comedic value’. L to R: Iolo Williams, Michaela Strachan, Gillian Burke, Chris Packham
The Range Rover rage is the latest incident in the apparent ongoing feud between the pair, which last November saw Packham launch a furious tirade at Clarkson (pictured in his Clarkson’s Farm programme in 2021) in after the outspoken presenter admitted he wasn’t impressed by Sir David Attenborough’s latest Planet Earth series
The pair’s spat comes after Packham in November used his social media presence to attack Clarkson for sharing a mixed response to Planet Earth in his column with national tabloid The Sun.
Taking to X, the celebrated naturalist referred to Clarkson’s notorious former comments about the Duchess of Sussex – published in the same column.
He wrote: ‘Not content with fantasies of throwing s**t over members of the royal family he now slams the world’s greatest broadcaster and the man who has done more than anyone has or ever will to protect life on earth . . . What a massive c**kchafer’.
The explosive rant was in response to Clarkson having voiced his lack of enjoyment for 97-year old Attenborough’s latest series, going so far as saying he ‘hates’ the show and urged for a change in its direction.
The Grand Tour host admitted that while he’s been captivated by the new BBC series, he found the script ‘insane’.
Clarkson wrote in his column with The Sun: ‘Oh the photography is brilliant. Spellbinding even. But the words are driving me insane’.
The outspoken broadcaster then pointed out that despite once admiring Attenborough’s in-depth knowledge of animals, he now feels his mission to educate viewers on the impact of global warming has become a bit repetitive.
He wrote: ‘Now all we ever get is, ‘Here’s a see-through fish with an orange stomach, and it’s future is threatened by climate change and then it’s: ‘Here’s something with pointy teeth and soon it will be wiped out by global warming.’
‘We know already. So please, in future, tell us about the animals, not the b****y weather.’
This isn’t the first time Clarkson has published a controversial column in The Sun.
Sir David Attenborough (pictured) is a British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author who has fronted many nature programmes that explore environmental issues such as global warming
This isn’t the first time Clarkson has published a controversial column in The Sun and earlier this year apologised for penning a nasty piece about Meghan Markle, pictured in Whistler, Canada earlier this month
Earlier last year, Clarkson wrote that he dreamed of Meghan Markle being forced to ‘parade naked’ through British towns, prompting a record-breaking 25,100 complaints to The Independent Press Standards Organisation.
He later apologised admitting he had ‘put my foot in it’ and accepted his language was ‘disgraceful’ and that he was ‘profoundly sorry’. The Sun also apologised.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry branded the article about his wife ‘horrific, hurtful and cruel’ and questions were raised about whether Clarkson would keep his lucrative deal with ITV where he hosts Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
It was claimed at the time that three female stars refused to work alongside Clarkson during filming for the quiz show, throwing filming into chaos.
While the official line from ITV was that ‘scheduling issues’ had delayed production of the highly anticipated special, The Mirror reported behind the scenes chaos prompted the decision.
Clarkson also criticised David Attenborough and Frozen Planet II in 2022, stating that the show was no longer ‘fun’ and accused the BBC of having a climate change agenda.
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