A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

A Life on Our Planet is not an autobiography. Instead, Attenborough intends to refer to witnessing the dewilding of Earth over the past century. Dewilding, a neologism, denotes the growing extinction rate, loss of wilderness, over harvesting of the oceans and all the myriad ways we humans have pushed nature to the outskirts of the planet. None of this will be new to viewers of his documentaries. But the medium of print allows him to develop these themes in more depth. While there are those who say that he is an alarmist, no serious scientist contests that this description of natural history is largely correct. And so, the controversy comes down to what measures must be taken to halt this more and more pressing situation. Attenborough’s solution is for a sea change in public attitudes. Such an approach shouldn’t be mocked: witness the change in attitudes to human slavery in the nineteenth century. But it would take a sea change to accept, for example, his proposal for zero economic growth as the new normal. Otherwise, the suggestions are mostly the large scale implementation of successful scientific experiments already in place. He tends to sugarcoat these by saying that they will benefit both humankind and the rest of nature. But the book is more intended to change attitudes and bring about awareness than set forth a blueprint for action. As a fan of the documentaries I was predisposed to like this work. Everyone, however, will acknowledge that Attenborough, by working on BBC nature shows since the 1950s, has a privileged position with which to view the dewilding and subsequent loss of biodiversity on Earth. Thus, while it is certainly recommended to fans, newcomers who want to go beyond the trivial and tired question of “What to do about the environment” will also find that it opens a prescient perspective on the panoply of life that share the planet Earth.

I am extremely happy that I bought this book. David Attenborough has spent a lifetime admiring and studying nature, and his pure love for wild places shines through in this book. The first half or so of the book is his testimony as to what he has witnessed firsthand, hence the title of the book stating it is his witness statement. I was wholly fascinated with this part of the book. His firsthand accounts leave no doubt that there are essentially atrocities being committed against the Earth by humans and something does need to be done. The later half of the book is devoted to ways to mitigate and erase the problems created by humans. This is where the book fell apart for me. I am a realist and I do not see how these proposals could ever become reality. Getting all of the many factions of humans (nations, religions, race, tribe, whatever) across the world to agree on these just seems like fantasy to me. Not that I don\’t think that some of these proposals could do some good, just that there is only one way I see them coming to fruition. That would be after the future catastrophic event, and not before. You need a 9/11 type of event first, before people will come together. Sorry, my pessimism is now showing. I still easily recommend this book. To me, it is a must read.

The world is in trouble. We know that and this book affirms it. But that is not ultimately what this book is about. There is a roadmap here to a future that is not only sustainable but more satisfying. Lift your spirits. Read this book.

Through experiences during Attenborough’s life in sequential order we see how he viewed earth at first unaware of the fact global warming was impacting plants and animals. Looking back, he explains how we were missing information that was evident. Then, climate changes rapidly increased to where we all can see the problems. Solutions are beautifully described. We already know what to do. Some countries are already demonstrating how to increase fish in the ocean, or farm in limited space. New Zealand has a new understanding of how to calculate growth and progress. Will mankind learn and avoid a mass extinction?

I find David Attenborough\’s style of writing thoughtful, insightful, and clearly he, now in his 90\’s, is issuing a warning to all his readers and followers that climate change is indeed transpiring all around us in all parts of the world!!!!!! I\’m so glad I read this book but when I think of the tens of millions of people who will ignore and could care less about his clearly stated facts…I shudder for our planet Earth and all the magnificent creatures who will perish because of our unwillingness to change our behavior!

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