For sixty years, Sir David’s films have expressed his passion for the living world, perhaps like none other. Looking back, one realizes that he was always trying to get us to feel the utter astonishment that is nature’s creativity. How wondrous the forms she has wrought. How nuanced and intricate the behaviors she has sculpted over deep time. He never pointed out the threats much, although surely he knew they were growing. Perhaps he’d concluded that a focus on the beauty and wonder would make humanity want to protect such grandeur. And for some of us, that happened. But not for enough of us.

And so now, given the state of the living world, his demeanor has turned melancholy, but with a remaining glimmer of hope. In “A Life on Our Planet,” Attenborough shows how much has been lost just in his lifetime. Nevertheless, he shows us that reasons for hope remain. Even at this late date, if we make the right moves now, we can avoid a ruined planet followed by inexorable human decline. Attenborough imagines that humanity can thrive if we act now.

Please register here for this Zoom event:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-tickets-148271178085