A Life on Our Planet My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

About this book

"The Earth's life-support machine, the thing we humans rely upon for everything we need, runs on its biodiversity. Yet the way we live on Earth now is sending it into a decline. I have been a witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement, and my vision for the future – the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right."
– David Attenborough

A Life On Our Planet: My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future is David's witness statement, reflecting on his remarkable career exploring and documenting the natural world, and the decline of the planet's environment and biodiversity he's observed first-hand in that time. An intimate, urgent and impassioned book borne out of a lifetime's experience and knowledge, it will also present his view on the future that lies ahead if we continue as we are, and a plan for how to avoid that future.

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Biography

Sir David Attenborough is Britain's best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly seven decades.

His first job – after Cambridge University and two years in the Royal Navy – was at a London publishing house. Then in 1952, he joined the BBC as a trainee producer, and it was while working on the Zoo Quest series (1954-64) that he had his first opportunity to undertake expeditions to remote parts of the globe, to capture intimate footage of rare wildlife in its natural habitat.

He was Controller of BBC 2 (1965-68), during which time he introduced colour television to Britain, then Director of Programmes for the BBC (1969-1972). In 1973 he abandoned administration altogether to return to documentary-making and writing, and has established himself as the world's leading Natural History programme maker with several landmark BBC series, including Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995), Life of Birds (1998), The Blue Planet (2001), Life of Mammals (2002), Planet Earth (2006) and Life in Cold Blood (2008).

Sir David was knighted in 1985, is an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and stands at the forefront of issues concerning the planet's declining species and conservation.