A Climate for Change: Heroes of Sustainability #2

When I started looking at some stuff while putting together #2 in this series, I assumed I was on safe ground in labelling David Attenborough as a Hero of Sustainability, and certainly a less controversial choice than Jose Mujica in the first piece!

However, as you will see towards the end, even Sir David Attenborough is not a universal win for all.

His recent jubilant appearance at Glastonbury, to remind everyone of the pledge to beat plastic pollution reminded (most of) us, why we love him so much! But there is so much more to this King of wildlife entertainment than that.

In the beginning:
Attenborough was born in Isleworth, Middlesex, in 1926, but grew up on the campus of University College Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was the Principal. As a child he was an avid collector of fossils, stones and all things natural. He was educated at Wygesston Grammar School in Leicester, before earning a scholarship to study at Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a degree in Natural Sciences in 1945.

But it was in the 1950's, following his spell of National Service in the Royal Navy, that Attenborough's relationship with the BBC began. A short series called Animal Patterns, ultimately led to him fronting Zoo Quest in 1954, a show that brought many rare and exotic animals into people's living rooms for the first time. The show was, according to BFI ScreenOnline, "arguably the father of the entire genre' of wildlife programmes."

He went on to be the Controller of BBC2 for many years, commissioning programmes including Monty Python! But by the mid-70's he had moved from that and back towards wildlife related programming.

In People of Paradise, he showed people the different cultures around the world, some being explored for the very first time, and helped people to understand the diversity of humanity. Then the groundbreaking Life on Earth came along in 1979. This was a programme that went global, in its content, and its audience, bringing animals and their habitats to an estimated 500m people around the world.

Environmental Champion:
While he had tended to take a more subtle approach to tackling environmental issues in his programmes, rather, hoping that the way the programme showcased the environment would inspire people to want to preserve it. By the 2000's he had started to move away from that, and becoming more overt in his championing of the planet.

State of the Planet, in 2000, used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists and conservationists, to assess the impact of man on the natural world. The closing message was very clear;

The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals do what they can, but real success can only come if there's a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics...... Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations, a planet that healthy and inhabitable by all species.

This year, he had his most overt look at climate change yet, with his one-off special, Climate Change: The Facts, which didn't just look at threats and impacts of climate change on the planet, but also on some of the possible solutions.

Away from television, Attenborough also started to get directly involved with more causes.

2005/06 - he backed BirdLife Internationals project to stop albatross being killed by longline fishing boats.
He joined the WWF campaign for 220,000km2 of Borneo's rainforest to become protected.
He is the Vice-President of BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers).
He is the Vice-President of Fauna & Flora International.
He is President of Butterfly Conservation.
He is President of Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust.

Population Growth:
Attenborough has not been afraid to shy away from more sensitive topics, and especially that of population growth. In 2009, he had a programme out called How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? In the same year he became Patron of Population Matters, saying,

The growth in human numbers is frightening. I've seen wildlife under mounting human pressure all over the world, and it's not just from human economics or technology. Behind every threat is the frightening explosion of human numbers. I've never seen a problem that wouldn't be easier to solve with fewer people - or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.

He went on, in an interview with the Radio Times in 2013;

Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us.

Criticism:
While Time Magazine labelled him the 'Hero of the Environment' in 2007, saying that. 'no living person has done more to make the people of Planet Earth aware of the world around them,' there has been criticism of his programmes from some quarters.

This centres around a belief that the programmes are too much about entertainment, and do not give enough, or sometimes even distort, facts. Professor Keith Someville, from the University of Kent, said about the 2018 series, Dynasties.

[It is] too full of embroidery and misleading explanations whose purpose seems to be to build up jeopardy throughout each episode.

Attenborough stressed what he believes his programmes are about, saying, "these are not ecological programmes. They are not proselytising programmes. They are not alarmist programmes. What they are is a new form of wildlife film-making."