The sad thing is Attenborough has lived to see the destruction of nature he loved so much. His constant warnings have gone mostly unheard. In some ways I think excellent nature programming like his own Nature is doing a disservice by making it seem like there's lots of wild nature left.
I wish humans would come together to re-wild more of the earth. Restoring wild nature and cutting emissions is the only way to really restore natural ecosystems. We're nowhere close to doing that.
'Cutting emissions'. Trouble is that if folk are convinced this is so negative they'd do something about it - and they do not. Conclusion?
The renewables revolution has been accompanied by a steady increase in emissions. For emissions read carbon dioxide (no argument from anyone about toxic gases) which is a carbon source for plant growth and as we know, is pumped into greenhouses to increase production. Satellite pictures confirm greening of the Earth in many areas.
This does not have to be a counter argument but the emission story would be more convincing to a lot of people if other factors like this (and the difficult question of just how do you decrease energy use without impoverishing people?) were discussed in the public forum in a balanced way as with dissenting views from those distinguished scientists evidently holed up on luxury yachts financed by the oil industry. 'I think you are wrong because ...' or 'you have a point in that respect but ... '. In a nutshell let's get the discussion onto what used to be called 'an adult level'.
Top man, lives up on Richmond Hill and absolutely loves it - when asked about his travels and adventures and where he would choose to live, he replied, "I already live there"
Fairly well-known locally is that my favourite bookshop, The Open Book in Richmond, stocks signed copies of all his books. They used to be signed directly on the page, but since he got to the mid-to-late nineties in age, tons of hardbacks are too much, so Helena wanders up there to get a load of bookplates signed these days.
Apart from that, I order all my books from them when I'm in London and a subsequent chat with Madeleine usually lasts ten times as long as the book shopping.
Anyway, I digress, yes, Sir David, amazing body of works and the books are wonderful.
Just around the corner from The Open Book is Richmond Green. And that's where David Attenborough's brother lived; Richard Attenborough. Jurassic Park at the bottom of Richmond Hill and Blue Planet at the top of the hill.
Oh and if you were at Richmond Green today, you could have gone to the May fair.
I just love those documentaries where he starts off in Europe following some bird and ends up on a rock in the middle of the ocean. And he's been at it since when the world was much bigger. What a life!
He was just mentioned on today's Lateral podcast with Tom Scott.
Apparently, he's the reason tennis balls are yellow.
I guess they were traditionally white but when they started broadcasting matches on TV it was too hard to see the ball.
David who was at the BBC at the time suggested they use yellow balls instead so they would come through on camera. Ever since then tennis balls have been yellow.
> David who was at the BBC at the time suggested they use yellow balls instead
Apparently he didn’t explicitly say they should be yellow, he just said the white didn’t work, the ITF chose yellow after research and studies.
Ironically, Wimbledon was the last venue to switch to the colour, despite David influencing the decision to change it.
> In 1972 the ITF introduced
yellow tennis balls into the rules of tennis, as research had shown these balls to be more visible to television viewers. Meanwhile Wimbledon continued to use the traditional white ball, but eventually adopted yellow balls in 1986.
Unpopular opinion: I don't understand why people are so fascinated with a man simply because of his voice narrating truly marvelous, artistic documentaries. I have way more respect for operators, who spent months in harsh conditions with a slim chance to film anything interesting.
Didn't you see him up to his groin in a giant mound comprised of batshit and cockroaches, and sounding like he was loving every minute of it? Or being cuddled by wild mountain gorillas? Or ...
He definitely goes out there to wild and often dangerous locations, though perhaps not so much at the age of 100.
You clearly no nothing about him which is ok - if you read the adventures he put himself through when he was younger and older you would understand he was not just a narrator but someone who lived the field. If you are interested read one of the books on his life.
he is far more than just a narrator, often appearing in the documentaries he narrates. he has helped thousands of people to gain a greater appreciation of nature. his documentaries on insects are particular favorites of mine, such as Micro Monsters and Dragons & Damsels. no matter what kind of animal you're interested in, he has probably done a series or TV special on the subject.
He is far more than just a narrator. His 77-year career created and defined the wildlife/nature documentary as a genre, beginning at a time when television was so new that it really was just him and a few individuals making all the decisions. In his youth, he was given some cash and sent to travel the world in a 2-3 man team, off-grid for months, in the “Zoo Quest” series - the first time anyone had really seen animals, in the wild, on television.
Switching to a desk job, he went on to use his position in the BBC to green-light then-pioneering documentaries like “Civilisation” and “The Ascent of Man” (and still travelled occasionally for anthropological and nature documentaries, that he also green-lit) that remain a huge influence on all documentaries today.
Then in 1979, “Life on Earth” created an entirely new format of nature documentary that has only seen iterative change in the almost-50-years since. The rest, as they say, is history. He’s been heavily involved in the production of so many documentaries in the decades since, only reducing his role as he got older. Even in his 90s most of the series he narrates have short on-location sequences with him.
It’s safe to say that he, perhaps more than anyone else, created the “nature documentary” - both in experimenting with the format, and in green-lighting shows - and therefore shares a huge amount of responsibility for the many positive second order effects. Certainly in the UK, I would argue that a significant amount of public awareness of climate change comes from BBC documentaries. As attested to by others in this thread, generations of scientists and conservationists pursued their professions in part because they were inspired by him (and I can throw my own hat in the ring for this). It was also spoken about, at his 100th birthday concert, what an outsized influence his documentaries had on increased worldwide awareness of plastics pollution and the recent UN treaty beginning to address it.
His voice, really, is secondary to all that.
(I would highly recommend reading his “Adventures of a Young Naturalist” and “Journeys to the Other Side of the World” books for anyone with an interest in this sort of thing. They’re combined volumes of books he wrote back in the 1950s and 60s about his Zoo Quest expeditions - both a wondrous first-person view of the travels and interactions with wildlife, but also a fascinating teleportation back in time into a world where air travel and television were brand new, and all of these remote communities were near-untouched compared to today).
He basically invented the natural history documentary, maybe even the science documentary. Before him, there was little to no serious natural history programming, or what there was was quite "folksy". And with it, he created, sustained and increased the public interest and concern about the natural world.
I suspect many scientists can trace their early interest in science back to him. And I believe the green movement would have had a lot less impact without him.
It's also fascinating to see he is still active with regards to BBC documentations. I watched some newer BBC documentaries with other people voicing it, and while they are not terribly, all (!) of those newer guys are significantly more boring than even an old David. David understands things better than the newer guys do.
I'll never forget the disgust amongst me and my friends when we found out that American television had replaced Attenborough's documentary voice with Oprah fucking Winfrey. Cultural vandalism.
He definitely influenced my life and choices; some of the strongest memories of my youth in the '80s are tied to his documentaries Life on Earth and The Living Planet. I was lucky to live in the countryside and near a beautiful lake but his documentaries expanded my horizons so much more. I didn't love watching TV but that content was a magic window. They were dubbed by the magnificent voice of Claudio Capone and skillfully commented by Piero Angela, who died recently at 93. Piero was the most prominent Italian science journalist and his own career shaped TV and spanned 70 years.
Their work made me and my family definitely more environmentally conscious.
I don't doubt this content will have a lasting impact on humanity even if we can't clearly discern its effects right now.
Happy Birthday David! I'm so happy you are still alive and well.
50 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 67.3 ms ] threadhttps://www.google.com/search?q=david+attenborough
I wish humans would come together to re-wild more of the earth. Restoring wild nature and cutting emissions is the only way to really restore natural ecosystems. We're nowhere close to doing that.
The renewables revolution has been accompanied by a steady increase in emissions. For emissions read carbon dioxide (no argument from anyone about toxic gases) which is a carbon source for plant growth and as we know, is pumped into greenhouses to increase production. Satellite pictures confirm greening of the Earth in many areas.
This does not have to be a counter argument but the emission story would be more convincing to a lot of people if other factors like this (and the difficult question of just how do you decrease energy use without impoverishing people?) were discussed in the public forum in a balanced way as with dissenting views from those distinguished scientists evidently holed up on luxury yachts financed by the oil industry. 'I think you are wrong because ...' or 'you have a point in that respect but ... '. In a nutshell let's get the discussion onto what used to be called 'an adult level'.
Fairly well-known locally is that my favourite bookshop, The Open Book in Richmond, stocks signed copies of all his books. They used to be signed directly on the page, but since he got to the mid-to-late nineties in age, tons of hardbacks are too much, so Helena wanders up there to get a load of bookplates signed these days.
Apart from that, I order all my books from them when I'm in London and a subsequent chat with Madeleine usually lasts ten times as long as the book shopping.
Anyway, I digress, yes, Sir David, amazing body of works and the books are wonderful.
Oh and if you were at Richmond Green today, you could have gone to the May fair.
https://youtu.be/P3ump1Buszo?si=0DoXiDTqZOyTBUst
Apparently, he's the reason tennis balls are yellow.
I guess they were traditionally white but when they started broadcasting matches on TV it was too hard to see the ball.
David who was at the BBC at the time suggested they use yellow balls instead so they would come through on camera. Ever since then tennis balls have been yellow.
Apparently he didn’t explicitly say they should be yellow, he just said the white didn’t work, the ITF chose yellow after research and studies.
Ironically, Wimbledon was the last venue to switch to the colour, despite David influencing the decision to change it.
> In 1972 the ITF introduced yellow tennis balls into the rules of tennis, as research had shown these balls to be more visible to television viewers. Meanwhile Wimbledon continued to use the traditional white ball, but eventually adopted yellow balls in 1986.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_ball#
https://pressurebox.com/blogs/news/why-are-tennis-balls-yell...
Didn't you see him up to his groin in a giant mound comprised of batshit and cockroaches, and sounding like he was loving every minute of it? Or being cuddled by wild mountain gorillas? Or ...
He definitely goes out there to wild and often dangerous locations, though perhaps not so much at the age of 100.
Switching to a desk job, he went on to use his position in the BBC to green-light then-pioneering documentaries like “Civilisation” and “The Ascent of Man” (and still travelled occasionally for anthropological and nature documentaries, that he also green-lit) that remain a huge influence on all documentaries today.
Then in 1979, “Life on Earth” created an entirely new format of nature documentary that has only seen iterative change in the almost-50-years since. The rest, as they say, is history. He’s been heavily involved in the production of so many documentaries in the decades since, only reducing his role as he got older. Even in his 90s most of the series he narrates have short on-location sequences with him.
It’s safe to say that he, perhaps more than anyone else, created the “nature documentary” - both in experimenting with the format, and in green-lighting shows - and therefore shares a huge amount of responsibility for the many positive second order effects. Certainly in the UK, I would argue that a significant amount of public awareness of climate change comes from BBC documentaries. As attested to by others in this thread, generations of scientists and conservationists pursued their professions in part because they were inspired by him (and I can throw my own hat in the ring for this). It was also spoken about, at his 100th birthday concert, what an outsized influence his documentaries had on increased worldwide awareness of plastics pollution and the recent UN treaty beginning to address it.
His voice, really, is secondary to all that.
(I would highly recommend reading his “Adventures of a Young Naturalist” and “Journeys to the Other Side of the World” books for anyone with an interest in this sort of thing. They’re combined volumes of books he wrote back in the 1950s and 60s about his Zoo Quest expeditions - both a wondrous first-person view of the travels and interactions with wildlife, but also a fascinating teleportation back in time into a world where air travel and television were brand new, and all of these remote communities were near-untouched compared to today).
I suspect many scientists can trace their early interest in science back to him. And I believe the green movement would have had a lot less impact without him.
Why not stop there?
You've got some awareness that there's something other people know that you don't.
Better to ask a question than express an opinion based on ignorance, right?
It's also fascinating to see he is still active with regards to BBC documentations. I watched some newer BBC documentaries with other people voicing it, and while they are not terribly, all (!) of those newer guys are significantly more boring than even an old David. David understands things better than the newer guys do.
Happy Birthday David! I'm so happy you are still alive and well.