David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

Directed by: Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey | 115 minutes | documentary

Few people have seen more of nature on Earth than David Attenborough. This unique documentary film is proof of that. In his rich life, the nestor of modern nature film has visited all continents on earth, explored the roughest places on our planet and was able to show a colorful collection of plants and animals, in all their diversity and wonderfulness, to viewers all over the world.

In ‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet’, the amiable Briton not only reflects on the defining moments in his life as a biologist, but also on the loss of living nature that he has had to witness over the decades. And Attenborough should know, as he has devoted much of his life (he was already 94 when this documentary was released) to studying nature.

The story of Attenborough is therefore not a good news show. When the presenter was born (1926), about two-thirds of the earth still consisted of pristine or at least barely degraded wilderness. That share has shrunk to just over thirty percent in 2020. The human population has grown from two to just under eight billion souls in the same period. Because the human consumption pattern has also become more and more decadent and excessive in the course of history, and the human population is no longer regulated by natural mechanisms (predation, disease, food shortage) that limit the population of other species within the limits of the natural environment. sustaining capacity, we, like caterpillars incarnate, are never enough quickly devouring the natural resources that the earth provides.

Attenborough is saddened by the results of our expansion drive: felled or burned rainforests, disappearing species and African savannas harboring far fewer large grazers than at the time when Attenborough first visited the black continent. Or as the maestro himself puts it in short and powerful words: “Man has taken over the world with his needs and adaptability. And frankly, we have destroyed the world.”

Is it all doom and gloom in this documentary? Not that. The images from the old box, from series such as ‘Zoo Quest’ (still in black and white), ‘The Living Planet’, ‘Life on Earth’ and ‘The Blue Planet’ are alternately beautiful, funny, endearing and exciting and remind us of all the beauty that is still there. Attenborough is therefore not the man to lapse into cynicism and throw in the towel despondently. He also tells viewers and policymakers how we can stop the global devastation of nature. The erudite Briton does this in the way we are used to: with poetic and firm sentences, supported by beautiful images of nature from his voluminous archive. The Netherlands also gets a compliment from Sir David, especially because in our densely populated frog country we produce a lot of high-quality plant food in a small area, without using massive amounts of water and pesticides.

‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet’ is a confrontational film that fortunately also leaves room for a glimmer of hope. Yes, we as humanity have made a mess of it. And yes, we have disrupted the mechanisms that enable and regulate life on Earth. But we are also the only species that can bring about a turnaround, thanks to our thinking skills and our technology. But then it is important to take the old master’s advice to heart: “We need more than intelligence, and that is wisdom.”