A Life on our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by Sir David Attenborough

I am speechless. I cannot find the words to bring justice to the manner in which David Attenborough describes our Earth - the nature, the wildlife and actions of humankind. I have always loved books about nature and animals. When I was younger I had a collection which focused on different species such as mammals, amphibians and insects, which made me really look forward to reading Sir David Attenborough's recount and insights. 

'Our Planet is small, isolated and vulnerable... Our home was not limitless - there was an edge to our existence.' There are a lot of simple impactful lines like this throughout the book which really make you consider our presence on this planet and moreso, the impact we will leave behind. 

I was not expecting to cry in this novel but I found myself tearing up as I read Attenborough's description of the struggle newborn polar bear cubs will face as our earth continues to warm; the Arctic summers getting longer and the winters shorter.

The book is divided into three parts. 
Part One: Attenborough's witness statement which is a short autobiography of his film career and international travels. In each chapter, you can read the change in his tone as describes the worsening condition of our planet. You can feel the passion in his words as he describes the sights he has seen, however you can also recognise the fear in his words as he explains human impact on the wilderness and atmosphere. 
Part Two: Is a philosophical outlook to what our Planet's future looks like. As a reader, I felt my throat close up as the bleak future of our civilisation was put in black and white in front of me. Attenborough describes 
However I did like that this was a rather short section. And more focus was placed on the third to identify what we can do now to change this foreseen future based on current human actions and conditions. 

This is only a short section as I believe Attenborough aims to change this current outlook on our planet's future through the final part of his book. 
Part Three: acts as a form of recommendation to us as to what actions we should adopt in order to preserve and improve the reserves on our planet. Attenborough writes in a tone of urgency and hope as he aims to provide solutions at restoring biodiversity. 

I enjoyed reading about how other nations have already made changes to reduce carbon footprint and increase their nation's ability to utilise more sustainable energy and left me wondering what I as an individual can do to improve the sustainability of my actions.

'We moved from being a part of nature to being apart from nature.... We need to reverse that transition.'  This line brought my attention to the fact that with each passing year our planet is deteriorating further and that rather than getting comfortable with this deterioration, we need to take action. Small steps towards changes can make a large, long-lasting impact on our planet. 

Completed on: 28th February 2021

Comments

  1. Great summary! I love the line “we grew from being a part of nature to being apart from nature”

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