A Life on Our Planet

Sharing my learnings from the book, A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

A legacy-defining book from Sir David Attenborough, reflecting on his life’s work, the dramatic changes to the planet he has witnessed, and what we can do to make a better future.

• The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion is one of the greatest human-caused environmental catastrophes in history but we are in the midst of having a greater one because of our careless way and how we have taken our environment for granted
• David Attenborough started a fascination with the natural world when he was a child cycling around Leicester UK hunting for ammonites. Eventually, he learned that the ammonites had died out during the last mass extinction
• unlike species before us, we were able to develop a culture to make the natural world easier to live in. This power comes tremendous responsibility
• Attenborough’s 1st realization that we were causing irreparable harm to the Earth’s wonder was when he had an encounter with gorillas. Only fewer than 300 gorillas were left, their habitat had been severely reduced as people cut down rainforest to create cultivated fields and poachers kill gorillas to sell their body parts as souvenirs
• Life on Earth was the first TV series (1978) Attenborough produced which was viewed by estimated half a billion people around the world
• as Attenborough traversed the globe, his concern for the natural world turned to alarm
• unless we take drastic and swift action, our life on earth will begin to degrade to the point of no return
• scientists have identified 9 planetary boundaries – critical thresholds in Earth’s environment that allow us to lead a sustainable existence
  • climate change
  • ozone layer depletion
  • ocean acidification
  • chemical pollution
  • fertilizer use
  • freshwater withdrawals
  • conversion
  • biodiversity loss
  • Air pollution
• for population scientists predicting the future, scariest thing is that we don’t know the carrying capacity for humans. One way to encourage this peak at a lower threshold is through women empowerment: women have more freedom/control over their lives (choosing to have fewer children). Another way is by investing in education
• rewilding the world will capture carbon, increase biodiversity and safeguard our food supplies
  • we should create a network of no-fish zones in coastal waters throughout the world
  • we have to change the value of land from basing on what crops we can grow to according to its biodiversity
• switching to clean energy is the most important thing we can do to create a more sustainable future
  • impose a carbon tax to limit our reliance on fossil fuel
  • carbon capture technology (pulling carbon out of air and trap it)
  • using original carbon capture technology (I.e., plants)