A life on our Planet. David Attenborough’s witness statement.

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When David Attenborough joined instagram, he gained one million followers faster than anyone else in history. Over 6.2 million people connected to listen to his wisdom. The account was set up purely to bring attention to this new special, A Life On Our Planet. This is his witness statement of how we have gone about destroying the world over his 93 years. The film is both harrowing and hopeful.

David Attenborough feels like a sort of unofficial Grandpa to me, and many of my generation. As a child, my Sunday evenings were spent enthralled by the myriad of animal programmes on BBC2; he nourished and grew this channel during his time as Controller. He left a mark which is still visible in programming choices today. In my teens and early 20’s, I travelled the world. I marvelled at the variety and complexity of the wild places of our planet. So often my favourite quote of his came to mind: “I wish this world were twice as big, and half of it was still unexplored”. A framed illustration of this quote hangs above my bed, reminding me of what is still out there. The fact that with every passing minute, that world gets smaller as we unthinkingly destroy it is heart breaking.

The Problem

We have moved past sustainability, and are now destroying the natural world at an ever increasing rate.
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Chernobyl is surely a prime example of environmental catastrophe caused by human error. A Life on Our Planet begins here, highlighting the true catastrophe of human making. It did not happen in an instant, but continues to damage our planet with every passing second. The derelict buildings remind us of how we use up resources and leave. We produce waste relentlessly, and we live as though there is no consequence to our actions. In truth, the natural world works on a delicate balance of symbiosis. Lives sustain each other and a natural balance occurs. We have tipped this balance far past the point of sustainability and into an ever hastening race to the bottom.

The film tracks David Attenborough’s incredible life on our planet, from boyhood in the 1930s, when there was little understanding of the world. We are shown a set of statistics:

  • 1937
  • WORLD POPULATION: 2.3 BILLION
  • CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 280 PARTS PER MILLION
  • REMAINING WILDERNESS: 66%

As we track the life of this incredible man, and watch him grow and learn and experience the wild places of our planet, we watch these statistics change dramatically. Finally we reach our harrowing end point.

  • 2020
  • WORLD POPULATION: 7.8 BILLION
  • CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 415 PARTS PER MILLION
  • REMAINING WILDERNESS: 35%

Life on Our Planet

“This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world.”
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The world population has exploded. The carbon in our atmosphere has increased by 48%. The remaining wilderness is approaching half of what existed less than 100 years ago. Our planet is used to slow and steady change taking place over billions of years. The Holocene era has provided a reliable climate which allowed us to evolve and reach the point we have today. Biodiversity has been key to this stability. This steady passing of seasons has allowed us to farm, exploiting these gentle climatic changes to our gain. Our pace of change has gotten faster and faster as each generation learns from the last. The period since the end of the second world war has undoubtedly been the greatest time in human existence in terms of quality of life and advancement. Nothing has limited us, until now. The wild is finite, it needs protecting. Biodiversity is key to our existence.

A key point in the A Life on Our Planet was the 1971 trip to find an uncontacted tribe in Papua New Guinea. This group of people were living truly sustainably. Taking only what they needed from nature, and nourishing it as they did so. This was in direct contrast to what was going on in the rest of the world. This is the period when habitats really started to disappear.

The Forest

“Having spent time with Trees for Life in Glen Affric has been an amazing experience. Being part of such an incredible project whilst being cut off from technology has been highly inspirational. I now regularly volunteer with nature conservation work, which gives me purpose and a much needed opportunity to reconnect with nature. It’s the only place I feel truly myself, free and happy.” Katie

We may look at areas of farmed land, especially in Asia, see green, and think rainforest. In reality it is often nothing more than monoculture, a dead habitat filled with palm, soya, or rubber. There is, sadly, a double incentive to cut down our rainforests. Timber can be sold and many trees found in the heart of the rainforest are highly sought after. Once the forest is destroyed, we can farm the land. We’ve cut down 3 trillion trees, clearing half the world’s rainforests.

We might think that this is a problem unique to the tropics, but not so. Britain was once covered in rainforest, something we can still see a memory of in ancient woodlands across Britain. In Scotland, the once mighty Caledonian Rainforest is just a shadow of its former self. It was famously cleared to create pasture for sheep, but Trees for Life are aiming to change that. Through donations and the hard work of volunteers like our very own Sales Support Manager, Katie, they have been able to reintroduce pines and other native trees to areas which had been completely stripped.

The Oceans

“I have been lucky enough to dive all over the world, and explore a wild place unknown to most people. Even in the beautiful Red Sea I found coral bleaching, like that shown in the seaweed covered ribs of this huge specimen. We cannot survive without functioning oceans, and out of sight out of mind is not good enough anymore.” Sophie

To most of us, the oceans are an unknown world. For me they are my sanctuary, so much so that I still keep diving even in our frigid British waters! 90% of large fish have been removed from our oceans since the 50s. Without predators nutrients sink to the depths and the ocean starts to die. Fish (especially large ones) do not have the charm of marine mammals. Unlike whales, dolphins and seals, we don’t fight for them. Fishing fleets are subsidised to maintain an industry which is becoming ever more unsustainable.

No Take Zones, like the one created by the Community of Arran Seabed Trust, give shelter and safe harbour to fish. It has been shown that by excluding fishing from certain areas, the increased stocks spill over into the surrounding water and boost catches. This also boosts biodiversity. Rewilding of the seas is surely key in securing our future.

Another sign of a dying ocean highlighted in A Life on Our Planet is coral bleaching, something I have seen first hand. As the temperature of the sea rises into the high 20s, coral expels algae which lives in symbiosis with it. This leads to its eventual death. Coral forms the largest living structure on earth: the Great Barrier Reef. This rich and biodeverse habitat continues to shrink as water temperatures warm. We are not just losing our tropical reeds, but also our frozen poles. Sea ice is shrinking at an ever increasing rate, reduced by 40% in 40 years. The Earth’s temperature is 1 degree warmer than when David Attenborough was born. This might not seem like much, but the speed at which this has happened exceeds any other change in the last 10000 years.

What does this mean?

  • 30% of fish stocks overfished to critical levels. 
  • Over 15 billion trees cut down each year.
  • Freshwater populations reduced by 80%.
  • 50% of fertile land is now farmland.
  • 70% of the mass of birds are domestic, mainly chickens.
  • We account for over ⅓ of the weight of mammals on Earth.
  • A further 60% are the animals we raise to eat. 
  • The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%.
  • Wild animal populations have more than halved since the 50s.
  • We’re replacing the wild with the tame.

We have overrun the planet, and created global decline in the space of a single, incredible, lifetime. Predictions show that the 6th mass extinction our planet has seen is well under way. If something doesn’t change our children could be the ones experiencing it. As the absorption of Chernobyl back into the forest has shown, nature will prevail; it is us that will pay the costs.

Life finds a way.
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So, what do we do?

David Attenborough urges us to restore biodiversity and rewild the world. Raise people out of poverty. Keep children, especially girls, in education for as long as possible. Improve healthcare for all. By doing these things we can slow population growth. The next step is to phase out fossil fuels, and work with renewables instead. Reduce the space we use to farm by converting to a more plant based diet. Allow our ocean to grow healthy again by restricting fishing and increasing marine reserves. Support the projects linked above, and find similar initiatives close to you. Educate yourself and make sure you watch A Life on Our Planet. As with farming, we must take this wisdom from a previous generation, and pass it on.

For our part, Real Plastic Free are committed to reducing fossil fuel usage by reducing packaging waste. You can find out more about how we do this here. We use national couriers to bring our carbon emissions down when delivering to you. We are a vegetarian and vegan shop, along with our sister store Real Foods. Together, we offer a wide range of responsibly farmed and sourced plant based foods. You can find tips and recipes on how to prepare them here.

The human race can only thrive when everything around us thrives again. We need to work with nature and not against it. We must all listen to David Attenborough’s witness statement, and make a change.

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