David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

From Pripyat, a deserted area after the nuclear disaster, Attenborough gives an overview of his life. Interspersed with footage of his career and of a wide variety of ecosystems, he narrates key moments in his career and indicators of how the planet has changed since he was born in 1926. As a child, Attenborough enjoyed studying fossils. His documentary career began in the 1950s when he began working for the BBC, a British public service broadcaster. He visited places such as the African Serengeti, in which native animals require vast areas of land to maintain grazing patterns. Over time, he noticed a decline in wildlife when searching for fish or orangutans in Borneo or other animals which he was looking for as part of his documentaries. Areas of the Arctic or Antarctic were different to what the filming crew expected due to ice caps melting. The causes are anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss pushing the planet towards a sixth mass extinction event over a period of centuries rather than the hundreds of millennia that built up to previous mass extinctions.

Attenborough describes the film as his "witness statement" and gives an impression of what could happen to the planet over the course of a lifetime beginning in 2020 and lasting as long as his own, were human activity to continue unchanged. The Amazon rainforest could degrade into a savanna; the Arctic could lose all ice during summer; coral reefs could die; soil overuse could cause food crises. These irreversible events would cause mass extinction and exacerbate climate change further.

However, Attenborough describes actions which could prevent these effects and combat climate change and biodiversity loss. He asserts that the solution has been "staring us in the face all along. To restore stability to our planet, we must restore its biodiversity. The very thing that we've removed." He proposes re-wilding; moreover, he says that bringing countries out of poverty, providing universal healthcare and improving girls' education would make the growing human population stabilise sooner and at a lower level. Renewable energy such as solar, wind, water and geothermal could sustainably power all human energy usage. Protecting a third of coastal areas from fishing could allow fish populations to thrive and the remaining area would be sufficient for human consumption. Humans changing their diet to eliminate or reduce meat in favour of plant-based foods could allow land to be used far more efficiently. Attenborough cites government intervention in Costa Rica causing deforestation to reverse, Palau's fishing regulations and improved use of land in the Netherlands as good examples.

Initially scheduled for cinematic release on 16 April 2020, the film was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic."[https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-09-23/netflix-a-life-on-our-planet-david-attenborough/ When is David Attenborough's new film A Life On Our Planet released?]". Radio Times. The film premiered on 28 September 2020 in cinemas and debuted on the online streaming platform Netflix on 4 October. The day prior, a promotional video was released showing Attenborough answer questions from celebrities."[https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a34255937/david-attenborough-quiz-netflix-documentary/ Game of Thrones and Sex Education stars quiz David Attenborough on his new Netflix documentary]. Digital Spy.

A companion book, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future, was released in October 2020.{{cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/faced-with-catastrophe-david-attenborough-and-tim-flannery-search-for-a-cure-20201029-p569o5.html|title=Faced with catastrophe, David Attenborough and Tim Flannery search for a cure|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|last=Bradley|first=James|date=6 November 2020|access-date=21 November 2020}}{{Cite web|last=Haysom|first=Sam|title=David Attenborough's new book and Netflix film tackles climate crisis with a 'vision for the future'|url=https://mashable.com/article/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-book/|access-date=2020-08-19|website=Mashable|date=28 May 2020|language=en}}

The film received positive critical reception. Patrick Cremona of Radio Times gave it five out of five stars, finding it "quite unlike" Attenborough's previous works and lauding its "blending" of a "terrifying condemnation" of humans' treatment of the natural world, and a "hopeful and inspirational manifesto" of how to address the climate crisis."[https://www.radiotimes.com/news/film/2020-09-25/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-netflix/ David Attenborough delivers poignant mission statement in powerful Netflix doc A Life on Our Planet]". Radio Times. Rating it four out of five stars, Ed Potton of The Times approved of the depiction of animals and Attenborough's "intimacy" and "authority" in his narration, but suggested that more of Attenborough's personal life could have been shown."[https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-a-pre-emptive-eulogy-for-the-earth-802j82r9f David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet review — a pre-emptive eulogy for the Earth]". The Times. Emma Clarke of the Evening Standard called the film "an essential watch"."[https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/david-attenborough-life-on-our-planet-netflix-reaction-a4563201.html David Attenborough's A Life On Our Planet leaves viewers in tears as Netflix doc reveals devastation of natural world]". Evening Standard. Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times praised the "astonishing nature photography" and juxtaposition between thriving and dying ecosystems.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/movies/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review.html|title='David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet' Review: Ruin and Regrowth|first=Natalia |last=Winkelman|date=October 4, 2020|work=The New York Times}}

In 2021, the film was nominated for five Emmy Awards.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.attenborough.film/ Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109084517/https://www.attenborough.film/ |date=9 November 2020 }}
• {{IMDb title|tt11989890}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|m/david_attenborough_a_life_on_our_planet}}

{{David Attenborough}}

Category:British documentary television films

Category:David Attenborough

Category:Documentary films about nature

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:2020 documentary films

Category:2020 films

Category:2020 television films

Category:Films directed by Alastair Fothergill

Category:Films directed by Keith Scholey

Category:Films produced by Keith Scholey

Category:Films scored by Steven Price

Category:2020s British films