Climate change has morphed into an abstract ideological issue, seemingly disconnected from everyday life. Sir David Attenborough’s biopic: A Life On Our Planet bridges the chasm between climate change as a concept and climate change as an everyday reality. Opening with the deserted Chernobyl, Attenborough draws a fitting parallel between the “bad planning and human error” of 1986 and the continuing human error of 2020.
Through a poignant yet hopeful film, 93-year-old Attenborough presents his “witness statement” formed over the duration of a unique life and career. He presents his statement of evidence to a court of the world’s peoples, requesting that the planet’s democracies, leaders and communities use their power to fix our gravest ecological mistake. Attenborough powerfully imposes upon his viewer a responsibility that comes with being the elite species on the planet.
The disconnect
A conversation I had with a professor from Monash University’s Faculty of Science has stuck with me. He believed a pervasive disconnect to the realities of climate change and the nonchalance with which some view the natural world was due to a lack of exposure.
Our households and societies have an influential role in shaping how we view our relationship with the natural world. Being surrounded by people who understand the importance of the natural world outside of its economic benefits can lead to persons having a respect for the wilderness. Comparatively, being surrounded with the view that the natural world is for humans to take, use up and benefit from can lead to economic-centric perspectives. Such viewpoints are fundamentally opposed to the values of preservation, conservation and sustainability.
Attenborough does not exclude any audience member from his film. He explains the tragedy of the global commons in a way that is informative to both expert and newcomer. Biodiversity is given a visual, tangible meaning in this film. Coupled with Attenborough’s unique narration are sweeping shots which form a tapestry of the worlds interconnected ecosystems. Against the backdrop of the vast Serengeti, brilliance of the Great Barrier Reef, Borneo’s lush rainforests and the (somewhat) frozen plains of the Arctic, Attenborough’s invites us to familiarise ourselves with the natural world. He ties together the natural world and the human world, painting them as interconnected— “a part” rather than “apart” he perceptively claims.
An imprecise science
It is exhausting to be constantly faced with climate change misinformation. With each new Instagram story, we are slapped with a new opinion (or the same viral post) on climate change. Posts that have not been fact checked circulate the internet, creating false narratives that bolster or erode the scientific call for better climate policy.
This is in part due to climate change not being an exact science. Unsurprisingly, certainty is largely absent from scientific discourse. The unavoidable lack of certainty leads to climate change denialists using bots and their own platforms to spread misinformation. Activists seek to re-establish the alarming nature of the climate crisis through exaggerated statistics or doctored images. It’s an unproductive and dangerous cycle.
Comparatively, the climate crisis isn’t hard to grasp when explained by Attenborough. In a measured tone Attenborough weaves through the complexities of climate change with the ease and authority of the worlds most renowned naturalist. As the film progresses from Attenborough’s childhood to adult life, the natural world declines. Viewers are met with numbers on a black screen showing the increasing global population and Co2 levels juxtaposed against a harrowing decline of wilderness. The destruction of the wild world painted in the first 50 minutes of the film is even more haunting when viewers realise this change occurred over the lifetime of one man.
The Anthropocene
Transporting viewers across continents, Attenborough takes us to the Arctic, a once pristine ice land, now depleted of 40% of its sea ice. As the cliffs of ice plummet, he gravely declares that all the wildlife destruction we have seen thus far is a direct consequence of humankind’s “blind assault on the planet”.
Our unmatched desire for more (money, growth, spending) coupled with our species place as the apex predator has “unshackled” humankind. Our development has allowed us to consume the earth’s finite resources without a plan for the future. Attenborough gravely declares that Earth is a place “run by and for the human species”. Although it seems like an achievement, taming the wilderness of the Earth is a blunder. At the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Attenborough explained that Earth’s “Garden of Eden is no more”. Anthropological behaviour has altered the world to the extent that “we are in a new geological age: The Anthropocene, the age of humans”.
The ideology of climate inaction and the logic of climate action
While the climate action movement was gaining force so was the movement against climate action. The rhetoric that climate change is an elite inner-city problem and painting a bleak picture where mining and farming industries are unkindly wiped out creates national and international divide. This contestation of reality skilfully refocuses global warming from a threat that requires immediate international action to a figment of imagination, requiring faith. The call for climate action is then viewed as based on the creed of global warming rather than the science of global warming. Therefore, it can be contested indefinitely.
However, from an economic perspective, denying that our methods of energy consumption are sustainable is both damaging and short sighted. The impact of burning fossil fuels is beyond argument and the global shift to renewable energy is already underway. From an anthropological perspective, it is clear why humans must preserve the Earth’s biodiversity. We simply need the ecosystems of the world to remain in its delicate balance if our species are to flourish. Attenborough rightly recognises that it is humankind who needs biodiversity. Nature does not need us; our planet does not need us. Nature will always regenerate, just like it did at Chernobyl. But humankind cannot bounce back if we continue in a business as usual approach, furthering irreversible anthropogenic global warming and enabling the destruction of biodiversity.
Human error, human solutions
Perhaps what is most brilliant about this film is its simplicity. Human induced climate change is a human mistake, so humans can fix it.
Attenborough unveils the sustainable mechanisms already in place around the world. The Netherlands has developed a new system of husbandry which allows for a higher yield of produce whilst using less land. Morocco has capitalised on its geographical location to power the worlds most concentrated solar farm at the edge of the Sahara Desert. Using renewable energy and incorporating a largely plant based diet is a starting point for a sustainable future.
Too often we forget that we are just another species on the planet. And like other species, we must “work with nature rather than against it”.
Looking ahead
A green change is undoubtedly coming. Perhaps the disruptions brought on by COVID-19 has encouraged more of us to reimagine the systems we have long relied upon. New economic modelling shows a net zero target could launch a $63B boom in Australia’s economy over the next 5 years. But we need to start laying the foundations for this shift immediately. Although the Coalition is vague about its net zero intentions, the rampant conversation about Australia’s manufacturing, energy and investment future suggests we might be at a juncture in our attitude towards the renewables industry.
Prominent US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg notably said “real… enduring change, happens one step at a time”. Perhaps we have arrived at a point where the climate action incrementally pushed for since the 1970s is on the cusp of being expressed in comprehensive plans, enforceable legislation and a more sustainable way forward for humankind.
Sir David Attenborough’s biopic is for everyone. It is for those on the fence about the level of climate action needed, the activist who wants to be rejuvenated in their mission, the nature lover who simply wants another Attenborough doco or the intrigued learner just stepping into the climate change conversation. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to watch, share and discuss this film. There is something powerful about it.
‘A Life On Our Planet’ is now available on Netflix.
Watch the trailer
To learn more about how we can address global warming, visit the Our Planet website.
