Movie Review - David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet

Director: Alistair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 115 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: David Attenborough

Description: David Attenborough: one man that has seen more of the natural world than any other. This unique feature documentary is his witness stateman.

Review: Faithful followers of the nature documentaries by and with David Attenborough will have noticed it already: the British biologist with his characteristic diction has become more outspoken about the consequences of climate change in recent years. For example, he spoke at the united Nations climate conference in 2018, showing heartbreaking images of walruses plunging off the rocks. Because the ice has melted, they are forced to sit on those rocks in search of food. Those sad images come from the series “Our Planet” (2019), the best viewed nature series in the history of Netflix.
David Attenborough calls his new film a witness statement. It is therefore a personal film, in which statistics coincide with the life of the naturalist born in 1926. They tell a sober story about the increase in world population and C02 emissions on the one hand, and the steady declining in wilderness on the other. In 1937 the earth consisted of 66 percent wilderness, but by now it has dropped to 35 percent.
Attenborough tells how he discovered fossils as a boy, the beginning of a lifelong fascination with nature and the history of our planet. These fossils show a decline in biodiversity, which has only increased in the Holocene. The biologist calls this the true tragedy of our time. This decline is due to human actions, mistakes and bad planning. The Holocene was stable for a long time, with ecosystems that were in balance with each other, but that has long since ceased to be the case. Attenborough explains how he slowly became aware of the consequences of human actions on biodiversity. In the 1970s, for example, he went in search of mountain gorillas for the groundbreaking “Life On Earth” (1979). They were almost extinct, so difficult to find. On archive footage from that series we see Attenborough lying amidst the gorillas, while in his looking back voice-over he observes that it’s a cold reality that humans are responsible for the extinction of species. A similar fate awaited the humpback whale and the orangutan. Through increased awareness about the extinction of animals – partly due to this program – in some cases he succeeded in stopping the process.
A shot of an orangutan hanging on a branch in Borneo speaks for itself. The rest of his habitat has disappeared, cut down. The rainforest in Borneo is now cut in half.
Attenborough also discusses the quality of the oceans that are being emptied by fishermen. Ninety percent of all fish have already been caught, which is not conducive to the diversity and survival chances of fish species. Coral reefs are dying and turn into wastelands. This is followed by the story of the polar caps that are melting rapidly due to global warming. Attenborough concludes that we have destroyed the earth.
This all sounds dark and sad, but in the last half hour of the documentary he sketches a hopeful future. Making the earth stable and rebalancing ecosystems. Not much is needed to halt the decline in biodiversity. Slowing down population growth, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy (sun, wind, water), reducing arable land, eating less meat and replanting forests. He even compliments the Dutch on its horticulture as an example of efficiency, with its more ecologically responsible cultivation of plant-based products.
In all this nature is our greatest ally and source of inspiration. A good example of what people have done to the planet is when Attenborough walks through a devastated Chernobyl. Since the nuclear disaster in 1986, the place hasn’t been inhabited by people ever since. But even a nuclear disaster shows that nature is unstoppable. Forests have taken over Chernobyl and animals that are otherwise rare walk the streets. According to Attenborough, we should not work against nature, but with it. The decay of the earth van be stopped by becoming wise. Rewild the world, that’s Attenborough’s final statement.
“David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet” is a very important documentary, one of the most important ones out there right now. Take it from someone like Attenborough, who is in his 90s and he has seen our planet change with his own eyes. It’s pretty simple: increase biodiversity and change your diet. More plant-based food. Hopefully people with take this advice at heart and Attenborough still has faith in humanity after what he witnessed first-hand.

Rating: 4,5 / 5