The nation’s sweetheart, Sir David Attenborough, has finally joined social media platform Instagram, gaining a multitude of followers within minutes. In his very first Instagram video, posted to his grid, Attenborough explained, “I’ve been appearing on radio and television for the past 60 years, but this is my first time on Instagram. “I’m exploring this new way of communication to me because, as we all know, the world is in trouble. “Continents are on fire. Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are dying. Fish are disappearing from our oceans. The list goes on and on.” The broadcaster goes on to explain how, over the next few weeks, he will be sharing messages on his Instagram account which will explain what the climate-related problems the world faces are and how we can deal with them. Record-breaking Instagram account The broadcaster joined Instagram on Thursday 24 September, and within an hour of his first post he had more than 200,000 followers. Attenborough then broke Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram record, replacing her as the fastest user to reach one million followers on the site, which he did in just over four hours. At the time of writing, the official David Attenborough Instagram account now has 2.7million followers. Who is running David Attenborough’s Instagram account? Underneath Attenborough’s first Instagram post was a caption which explained why he had joined and who will be behind future posts. Written by colleagues Jonnie and Colin on behalf of David, the caption explains that over his lifetime, Attenborough has witnessed the damage caused to the planet, the saving of which “is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will.” The caption continues, “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.” How can I follow David Attenborough’s account? If you’re a fan of the naturalist and would like to follow his Instagram account, simply search for ‘David Attenborough’ on the social media site, which should bring up his account name, ‘davidattenborough,’ which is all lowercase and all one word. Simply click on his profile and press the ‘follow’ button and you will be kept up to date with all of his upcoming content.