A Life On Our Planet ~ David Attenborough

A Life On Our Planet: My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future is a memoir by Sir David Attenborough. In this book, David Attenborough describes what he has seen and some of the people and animals he has met throughout his long career. He also describes the devastating impact of climate change that he has witnessed during his life. Backed up with a lot of scientific information, this book reminds us what we stand to lose, what we are saving and what we can do in the face of such an extreme challenge. 

I grew up on David Attenborough’s documentaries and so, even though I am not a huge fan of memoirs and struggle a bit with non-fiction, I wanted to read this. It is full of information and suggested reading and websites which can inform you more about the issues facing our planet. 

I found reading this book to be a little demoralising. What David Attenborough has witnessed is amazing, however, the constant reminder that we as humans are destroying this is sad. The second part then describes how much worse this can get for us over the next few decades. When the book gets to the more instructive part, it doesn’t really include what the general populace can do. It details how farming and fishing can improve but not what more the individual can do other than cutting down meat and petitioning your local politicians. I don’t know why but I really hoped there would be instructions. I think this may be me projecting my feeling of inadequacy when it comes to the climate crisis because there has got to be more I can do.

Overall, this book was very interesting and well worth the read even if it is a little disheartening. I gave it four stars.

C🌙