In a radical admission, Jeremy Clarkson has accepted there is a climate crisis after years of staunch anti-environmentalism.
Clarkson's epiphany came after seeing the impacts of global warming firsthand while filming his Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour in south-east Asia.
Clarkson and co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May struggled to complete an 800-kilometre boat race from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Vietnam's Vung Tau due to an extreme reduction in water levels.
The former Top Gear presenters had no choice but to wade through Tonlé Sap lake after their jet boats failed to conquer the once-massive Mekong trans-boundary river, which has been drastically affected by water shortages.
The group were eventually towed through the "puddle".
In a candid interview with The Sunday Times, Clarkson described the boat race as "two days of absolute frustration".
"The irony is not lost on me... a man who hosted a car programme for 30 years, limited to 7mph [11km/h] by global warming," Clarkson said.
The 59-year-old confessed he was "genuinely alarmed" after being confronted with the "graphic demonstration" of climate change.
Yet the controversial host couldn't help but take a swipe at Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old he famously described as a "spoilt brat" following her emotional speech at the United Nations' climate action summit in September.
"We don't blame mankind for it," Clarkson told the paper. "We'll let Greta do that."
The Grand Tour, kickstarted by Clarkson following his bitter exit from the BBC, returns to Amazon Prime on December 13.
