David Attenborough's A Life on our Planet: Holding us to account

I watched this documentary on the day it came out, incidentally the same day that I knew I needed to write my first blog post. 'David Attenborough: A life on our Planet' is available to stream on Netflix, and in short, it's both harrowing and inspiring, an uncomfortable watch that holds human actions to account. The documentary focuses on the effects of human actions on nature, climate change and the ongoing destruction of our natural world, but more than that, the consequent effects of these things on ourselves. And that's what makes this documentary so important, it seems that the way we should now inspire the public to take action is to warn them of what will happen to them if they don't. Attenborough, as always, proves his worth as the figurehead of climate and environmental education in the media. It's a film that everyone needs to watch.

The documentary is permeated by historical videos of Attenborough's past explorations of the world, and direct commentary from the man himself. In fact, he describes the film as his "witness statement", exploring how things have changed since his birth in 1926. This is a clever ploy to engage the public in the plight of the natural world, since David Attenborough is rated as the most popular TV personality in Britain and the fifth most famous according to YouGov surveys. Calling the public to action has been achieved with other Attenborough documentaries; take the 'Blue Planet Effect', started in 2017 with the airing of Blue Planet 2. The inspiring and beautiful shots that so stunningly revealed this mysterious world encouraged a plastic revolution, amongst which, a war on plastic straws, single-use carrier bags and an invigorated commitment to recycling. Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Blue Planet 2 are 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the UK's most popular TV series of all-time. I could dedicate many blog posts as to why the UK public has such admiration for Attenborough (myself among them), but for the sake of this post it is safe to say that when Attenborough speaks, we listen. And so we should.

The Orangutan is a hugely popular, charismatic and recognisable species, traits that makes them a flagship for education and inspiring viewers to engage with the natural world.

It's an uncomfortable truth that most Attenborough documentaries have touched on before, but never so boldly and unapologetically. Whilst the familiar scenes remain of a lone orangutan scaling a singular tree that stands amongst its felled companions, or the hopeless polar bear swimming through a vast expanse of iceless water, we are reminded that the consequences of human action, like deforestation and increased global warming, affects humans ability to survive. As Attenborough so plainly says it, taking action to reverse the destruction of the natural world is not just about saving species like the orangutan or polar bear, "it's about saving ourselves". It is an inescapable yet not publicly acknowledged truth that the health and biodiversity of the natural world is inextricably linked to our own health and ability to survive on this earth. The film has done well to identify the species and events which can most effectively engage the general public, from the charismatic and 'cute' orangutan to the wildly bizarre and extraordinary birds of paradise, the film sweeps over the insects and plants that are often covered in other documentaries. As a conservationist, it is tough to take, knowing the importance of such creatures, but for the general public to want to change and take action, the film needs to engage and appeal, not so much achieved when large tarantulas rush or ants march across the TV screen.

"It's about saving ourselves" - david attenborough

I have to mention as well, the inclusion of the 'walrus scene' from Blue Planet 2, a scene which had me in tears the first time it aired, and again after watching 'Life on our Planet'. Without a doubt the saddest sequence of any wildlife documentary I have seen; the pointless deaths of hundreds of walruses as they tumbled blindly off of cliffs due to overcrowding. Check out this article for the upsetting reasons behind their actions, which coincidentally contains a tweet I posted back when it aired. As I said then, documentaries can no longer protect viewers from the harsh reality of the state of the natural world. Whilst we long to see graceful elephants meandering across untouched savannah, and cheetah cubs playing in the dirt, we are faced instead with scenes of slaughtered whales, swathes of rainforest lying destroyed and burning, and Attenborough scolding us that "our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the natural world". It's not enough for us to be inspired and awed at the beauty of the species and landscapes of our planet (although the film contains a healthy dose), we must be held to account for the destruction of such through scenes that we would rather ignore.

"our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the natural world" - david attenborough

As sea ice melts as a result of climate change and increased global warming, walruses are forced to crowd together and as seen in the documentary, can fall from cliffs due to their poor vision and lack of space.

As a mum, the predicted future of the planet through the 2030s and beyond was particularly hard for me to watch. I want my daughter to grow up in a beautiful, wild and exciting world, to be healthy and safe, and whilst as a conservationist I know the dire situation of climate change, to have it shown so plainly is difficult to take. But it is what we need. Attenborough tells us some uncomfortable figures regarding the composition of the natural world, in particular, that over 90% of the mass of mammals on earth are humans and domestic or 'food' animals. My favourite, yet distressing, quote from the film puts it well, that "this is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind, there is little left for the rest of the living world". In the last 50 years, with fishing boats reaching new depths of the ocean, 90% of large fish have been lost. Over 30% of truly 'wild' land has been converted to monocultures of farmland, vast expanses of rainforest have been burned to the ground, coral reefs have bleached and died, and these things are making the earth more and more uninhabitable for us. Trees, corals and the phytoplankton in healthy oceans store carbon dioxide, yet through a plethora of destructive human behaviours exacerbating climate change, we are quite literally making it harder for ourselves to breathe.. The rapid growth of the human population is putting immense pressure on the land, and in turn, more wild habitat is lost to agriculture to meet increased demand. It's a bleak future.

"this is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind, there is little left for the rest of the living world" - david attenborough

Huge areas of the Amazon rainforest are being lost to deforestation, leaving a desolate, fragmented wasteland uninhabitable to the species that live there.

There is hope however. Attenborough talks about rewilding, a concept I am very interested in. I would recommend the book 'Wilding- The return to nature of a British farm' by Isabella Tree, which is a fantastic example of how formerly unproductive agricultural land can be reversed and 'rewilded' to improve wild diversity. Attenborough explores a world where wildebeest move across a vast savannah dotted with wind turbines generating renewable energy, where great volumes of time, money and space are devoted to solar energy rather than unsustainable oil extraction, and even drones are used to harvest from healthy and productive forests. It seems a little sci-fi at first, but with the technology we have at our disposal, what better way to utilise it than to save the planet we call home.

Solar power and wind energy are two renewable energy sources and by definition they are sustainable. Globally, the goal is to generate the majority of power from renewable sources by 2030.

The film truly is a must-watch. Between the familiar and awe-inspiring videography of stunning, seemingly untouched landscapes; the popular scenes of cheetahs, elephants, orangutans and colourful fish, we are thrust into the uncomfortable position of watching what our actions have done to the world, and why we are not only destroying it for these species, but for ourselves too. It is a fantastic film for climate education, for inspiring change and generating public engagement, and most importantly, for holding us to account. It is our actions that have caused the damage, only we can make the change to make the world a better place to live for all species, including us.

For more information, visit the website by WWF which is dedicated to the film. Resources, news and further information are all available on the website. All quotes are David Attenborough, part of the documentary 'A life on our Planet', now available to stream on Netflix.