Fionnáin reviewed Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough
Reflections from a life well lived
3 stars
David Attenborough is a wonderful human, one who has been lucky enough to spend a life well and to be generous with how he has shared his experience. In the first half of A Life on Our Planet, which I enjoyed deeply, Attenborough makes a witness statement. In this, he presents how human-caused climate change has affected the world he has been observing carefully for documentary films since the 1950s. This is an amazing memoir, telling stories of Attenborough's relationships with other people and animals, and how he began to witness in real time what others were presenting in scientific data.
The second half is hopeful, presenting local and larger ways that the climate challenges are being met around the world. With examples that are well known to most of us who are interested in this topic (Kroeger, Knapp Farm, etc), he discusses at a high level how a …
David Attenborough is a wonderful human, one who has been lucky enough to spend a life well and to be generous with how he has shared his experience. In the first half of A Life on Our Planet, which I enjoyed deeply, Attenborough makes a witness statement. In this, he presents how human-caused climate change has affected the world he has been observing carefully for documentary films since the 1950s. This is an amazing memoir, telling stories of Attenborough's relationships with other people and animals, and how he began to witness in real time what others were presenting in scientific data.
The second half is hopeful, presenting local and larger ways that the climate challenges are being met around the world. With examples that are well known to most of us who are interested in this topic (Kroeger, Knapp Farm, etc), he discusses at a high level how a biodiversity catastrophe can be averted. Using the Chernobyl disaster as a bookend at beginning and end is a little clumsy. But this book was not about nuance, it was about obvious and hopeful renewal.