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

Jul 28, 2021 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: environment, ecology, economics, natural-history

David Attenborough is a natural historian and a broadcaster. He produced a large number of films about life on earth, ecology, and natural history. His book "A Life on our Planet" is a summary of what he has seen around the world. It is not a biography or even a memoir. The book summarizes the various ecological problems faced by the human population.

The first half of the book is--depressing. It lists the numerous problems, and tries to quantify the seriousness of each. A group of Earth System s David Attenborough is a natural historian and a broadcaster. He produced a large number of films about life on earth, ecology, and natural history. His book "A Life on our Planet" is a summary of what he has seen around the world. It is not a biography or even a memoir. The book summarizes the various ecological problems faced by the human population.

The first half of the book is--depressing. It lists the numerous problems, and tries to quantify the seriousness of each. A group of Earth System scientists developed a model of planetary boundaries. They classified the ecological problems into nine categories:
1) Climate change*
2) Ocean acidification
3) Chemical pollution
4) Fertilizer use*
5) Freshwater withdrawals
6) Land conversion*
7) Biodiversity loss*
8) Air pollution
9) Ozone layer depletion

The four categories marked by an asterisk are the most serious; they are currently beyond the boundary of a "safe operating space". Attenborough goes into some detail about the most pressing of these environmental problems. Reading the first two parts of the book, I got very depressed. It is a pessimistic outlook, showing how serious these problems are, and how difficult they will be to overcome.

The third part of the book is more optimistic. It describes the efforts currently underway to mitigate the ecological problems. These include reduction of the carbon footprint, changes toward renewable energy, re-wilding of farms, developed lands and the oceans, and putting human population growth into a sustainable trajectory.

The book begins and ends with a description of Pripyat in the Ukraine. This model city was evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The city is now abandoned, and is being "re-wilded". Buildings sag under the weight of new vegetation, as the city has become the home to foxes, elk, deer, wild boar, bison, brown bear and racoon dogs. This is a depressing vision of what the world could become, were humans to become extinct due to our self-induced environmental catastrophes.
Abandoned building and encroaching nature in Pripyat, Ukraine

Abandoned building and encroaching nature in Pripyat, Ukraine

This book is short, and is an easy read. I highly recommend it to everyone who lives on Earth. ...more

20 likes · Like · see review

Mar 22, 2021 Jimmy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: environment, essays

I have to admit his suggestions for change brought a bit of hope to a diehard skeptic like myself.

Here is my suggestion: Fight back and fight back hard against the so-called "conservative" movement which is destroying the planet and its people in the name of profit, all the while wrapping themselves up in a phony flag of freedom.

Solving the climate catastrophe we are heading toward will require good government, not no government or "less" government. Profit can still be one of the three Ps but ...more

13 likes · Like · see review