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

A Life on Our Planet is not an autobiography. Instead, Attenborough intends to refer to witnessing the dewilding of Earth over the past century. Dewilding, a neologism, denotes the growing extinction rate, loss of wilderness, over harvesting of the oceans and all the myriad ways we humans have pushed nature to the outskirts of the planet. None of this will be new to viewers of his documentaries. But the medium of print allows him to develop these themes in more depth.While there are those who say that he is an alarmist, no serious scientist contests that this description of natural history is largely correct. And so, the controversy comes down to what measures must be taken to halt this more and more pressing situation.Attenborough’s solution is for a sea change in public attitudes. Such an approach shouldn’t be mocked: witness the change in attitudes to human slavery in the nineteenth century. But it would take a sea change to accept, for example, his proposal for zero economic growth as the new normal.Otherwise, the suggestions are mostly the large scale implementation of successful scientific experiments already in place. He tends to sugarcoat these by saying that they will benefit both humankind and the rest of nature. But the book is more intended to change attitudes and bring about awareness than set forth a blueprint for action.As a fan of the documentaries I was predisposed to like this work. Everyone, however, will acknowledge that Attenborough, by working on BBC nature shows since the 1950s, has a privileged position with which to view the dewilding and subsequent loss of biodiversity on Earth. Thus, while it is certainly recommended to fans, newcomers who want to go beyond the trivial and tired question of “What to do about the environment” will also find that it opens a prescient perspective on the panoply of life that share the planet Earth.

I am extremely happy that I bought this book. David Attenborough has spent a lifetime admiring and studying nature, and his pure love for wild places shines through in this book. The first half or so of the book is his testimony as to what he has witnessed firsthand, hence the title of the book stating it is his witness statement. I was wholly fascinated with this part of the book. His firsthand accounts leave no doubt that there are essentially atrocities being committed against the Earth by humans and something does need to be done. The later half of the book is devoted to ways to mitigate and erase the problems created by humans. This is where the book fell apart for me. I am a realist and I do not see how these proposals could ever become reality. Getting all of the many factions of humans (nations, religions, race, tribe, whatever) across the world to agree on these just seems like fantasy to me. Not that I don't think that some of these proposals could do some good, just that there is only one way I see them coming to fruition. That would be after the future catastrophic event, and not before. You need a 9/11 type of event first, before people will come together. Sorry, my pessimism is now showing. I still easily recommend this book. To me, it is a must read.

The world is in trouble. We know that and this book affirms it. But that is not ultimately what this book is about. There is a roadmap here to a future that is not only sustainable but more satisfying. Lift your spirits. Read this book.

Through experiences during Attenborough’s life in sequential order we see how he viewed earth at first unaware of the fact global warming was impacting plants and animals. Looking back, he explains how we were missing information that was evident. Then, climate changes rapidly increased to where we all can see the problems. Solutions are beautifully described. We already know what to do. Some countries are already demonstrating how to increase fish in the ocean, or farm in limited space. New Zealand has a new understanding of how to calculate growth and progress. Will mankind learn and avoid a mass extinction?

I find David Attenborough's style of writing thoughtful, insightful, and clearly he, now in his 90's, is issuing a warning to all his readers and followers that climate change is indeed transpiring all around us in all parts of the world!!!!!!I'm so glad I read this book but when I think of the tens of millions of people who will ignore and could care less about his clearly stated facts...I shudder for our planet Earth and all the magnificent creatures who will perish because of our unwillingness to change our behavior!

This is the best book on environmental science I have read in recent years. The stories are interesting and the facts are quite shocking. Humans have done so much damage to this planet, very often without knowing it or don't care. The over population puts too much demand on the economy and our lifestyle is clearly unsustainable. Eventually, the planet will run out its resources and humans will end up having no escape. It sounds scary but this is the truth.

This one is a very important book, laying out the wonders of nature, our current climate issues, what the future might be-negative and positive....and a guide to the best, newest environmental practices that hopefully can be done.

I purchased the hardcover and though it was called "New", it had grease spots on the cover and also some white discolorations in the cover spine. I'm going to return it.Note: if you don't like a very small font, then this book is not for you because the font - at least for the hardcover book - is tiny.

It is rare for me to read, let alone purchase, a non-fiction book. However, anything David Attenborough related and I am immediately there!I received the book yesterday and have been so engrossed by the content that I have already finished it.To me the book felt like the right length; it went through what the problems are in clear language, and what the solutions are. The images and pictures were also nice little breathers as you are reading the book.The evidence and predictions of what could happen if nothing changes is horrifying, but the solutions do give hope for the future, if they are implemented.I hope that politicians everywhere are given a copy of this book and read it.David Attenborough is quite rightly a hero to many people, myself included. It is amazing that he is 94 years old and still fighting hard to save the natural world, with this book and the related film his latest brilliant efforts.He is an inspiration to us all and this book should be read by anyone that is a human and lives on planet earth!

I think this is the only book I've finished in 15 years.The book covers various aspects of how things used to be and have changed over the years. It covers sections on how we've extracted more and more from our surroundings over the decades to the current unsustainable levels.I found the potential future options interesting to read because it outlines how the rest of our (and our kids) lives will be affected over the next 10-80 years or so.It seems to also highlight how much our governments, banks and big corporations roles play into the state of our planet, how much we need them to change so that our individual choices can actually make a significant difference.

Everybody on this planet should read this book. Its now the survival bible for the human race. Also survival for every living thing on this planet because of human activity . So YOU should read this and do your bit.

David Attenborough is a well known and loved British personally and his love and passion for nature and our planet is unbelievable.This book is split into three parts covering different aspects of how we have changed the very fabric of our planet earth.Part one of the book covers David Attenborough's time of how he started making programs of all natural world and how the effects we have had on the planet and animals were already being seen and continues up until present day.Part two tells us of things to come if we don't change or do so at a slow pace and how these things are already beginning right now.Part three is what we all need to do to hopefully slow the pace and eventually change the course of fate that we and are planet are on. Helping to restore nature to its natural balance and live within our means in a more sustainable and sensible way.This book is quite hard hitting and upsetting, but David Attenborough brings his love and passion of nature out to us to encourage us to make a difference and save the planet not just for ourselves but for future generations.

Worth the read - makes you think. Time to wake up and wise up.