An absolutely excellent book that everyone should read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you Netgalley.

Given everything that's happened, particularly in the past few years, this is a timely reminder of the consequences of our actions have on the world around us, thought-provoking indeed.

What is there to say really? This is Sir David Attenborough! The book is his manifesto, calling for us to wake up and do something to change our habits and start reversing the trend of destruction we are currently following. It is an interesting book and a well written book, but I do wonder if he is preaching to the converted. Would you buy this book if you didn’t believe in climate change etc? And yet those are the very people who would benefit most. If you like and believe Sir David then you will nod along with many of his assertions and comments but aren’t you already on board?

I think the book should be compulsory in junior education and a topic of discussion at an age when children can understand properly and influence their parents and society. The next generation of voters will decide our fate and I think that gives us all hope. For a man in his 90’s Sir David is a titan still and this is a great way for him to capture his vision so we can all do our bit.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Attenborough has lived an undeniably extraordinary life— and a life of priivlege, too. This is, in his own words, his witness statement, a look into the world around us, the challenges to its biodiversity and global richness, and a consideration of what the future will, or could, be, depending on the choices we make. The book is interesting, but I can't help feeling that many others have done concentraed research in this area and that Attenborough's message is one we are ignoring even as we read. This lends the book a sometime phyrrhic air, but the writing and storytelling are strong and without question, it's a life worth recording.

My final book for this year’s Earth Day reading list comes from the now legendary Sir David Attenborough. A Life on Our Planet is a meticulously researched book written with help from Jonnie Hughes and it is divided into three main sections. Again, I listened to the Audible edition of this book which was narrated by the author.

Part one is Attenborough’s “Witness Statement.” At 94 years old, Sir David Attenborough has seen first hand the way our planet has changed over the previous century. Throughout this section, broken down chronologically with chapters representing specific years, he recalls events in his life which today, looking back, he sees as climate change markers he didn’t always recognize at the time. Each chapter also begins with three facts: the global population given in billions, the carbon in the atmosphere given in parts per million, and the percentage of remaining wilderness in that particular year. Through these repeated facts, the reader can see those same changes represented numerically.

Part two – What Lies Ahead – is a short middle section that looks at the world as it is today and what will happen if we continue along the path we are currently on. This is, by far the most depressing and – if I’m being honest – often terrifying part of the book. Here, Attenborough shows us just how bad the situation has become in a myriad of ways. He looks at what could potentially happen in the future, beginning in the 2030s looking forward through the decades to the 2100s. He is blunt yet factual and makes it clear that change must happen with immediate effect if we are to survive.

Part three is the Vision for the Future. This section is broken into chapters that look at specific areas: Rewilding the Seas, Switching to Clean Energy, Rewilding the Land, and Taking Up Less Space. In each area, he shares ideas and plans already in motion around the globe for restoring the balance of nature and encouraging an expansion of biodiversity. In the fishing community of Cabo Pulmo in Mexico, residents agreed to short-term hardships in order to allow depleted fish stocks to regrow and become sustainable, while in parts of the Netherlands a new generation of farmers has experimented with innovative and environmentally friendly techniques with great success. Meanwhile, the Maasai tribe in Kenya – recognizing the damage their increasingly large cattle herds were having on their environment – changed their practices and encouraged the wilderness back into their lands, finding new ways to earn a living.

While both this book and the previous entry in this list agree that humans need to act fast in order to prevent irreparable damage to our planet, they come at this problem with very different approaches. Gates looks to technology, innovation, and man-made ideas – improved batteries and new biofuels – but Attenborough looks more to nature itself for ideas on making the changes we need. Fish farms constructed in clever ways to minimize wastage through layering, a farm in southern England where harmonious animal species are grazed together among woodland to mimic what would occur in the wild, and improving farming yields by using ideas from nature itself that also prevent soils from becoming barren.

A Life on Our Planet is a book that is both heart-wrenching and hopeful. It’s hard to imagine how much destruction we have wrought on our planet in just the last two centuries, but there is hope coming from so many directions that it is hard to reach the end of this book and not be inspired to set it down and immediately start work in whatever small way you can. This is exactly what’s needed if we are to fight climate change – every last one of us working together on big projects and small ones, finding ways to live more sustainably, and making choices that will see benefits in the future, if not today. If this book can inspire even a few percent of its readers to start that work, then I hope it sells in the millions.

Brilliance was what I've expected from Attenborough, and brilliance was exactly what I got.

For a book which I thought was remarkably compact for one on environmental and climate awareness/sciences, this was an immensely well-written, concise and insightful narrative. Attenborough's 'Witness Statement', a summarised memoir of sorts, outlined the changes wrought on the planet from the time when he was just eleven and through the intervening years of his illustrious career up until 2020. With just three statistical numbers - world population, carbon in atmosphere, and remaining wilderness - he was able to portray such a shockingly drastic deterioration of life on our planet that occurred just within the span of a human life. The world's population has more than tripled, carbon in the atmosphere increased by almost 50% and remaining wilderness almost halved. The picture is thoroughly depressing.

The next two sections talk about what lies ahead of us if we continue living as we do in the present and his vision for the future with proper and sustainable efforts to rewild the world. Biodiversity is what keeps Earth stable and balanced, with its resources constantly renewable to sustain life on the planet. However, the demands of the human race have far outstripped Earth's capacity to renew. It is heartening to note that there have been progress made in certain sectors or countries, with notable impact in the targeted areas. But I've seen both ends of the spectrum when it comes to awareness of what is happening and the impact of our choices in our daily lives on the planet that we live in. I would certainly recommend this book as an authoritative, and easily digestible narrative to raise awareness for everyone. There's also the excellent audiobook read by the author himself, as well as a new documentary available on Netflix for those less inclined to read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this wonderful book. You could hear David Attenborough utter every word. It is a shame that we humans have done such damage to our planet in such a short time - he must be very sad at our greed.
Read it !!!

Thought-provoking and enlightening. Everyone should read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. I plan to buy more copies for friends and family members.

My final read of 2020 had to be this. With everything going on in the world today, sitting down with David Attenborough for a few hours to understand how bad a state we are in and what we could do to make a difference to the planet was exactly what I needed.

The book is divided into 3 sections. The first is Attenborough's witness statement. What he has seen during his lifetime in terms of changes in the planet. Then we look at a stark warning of what lies ahead. This hits hard. The final part focuses on the vision for the future. Tangible changes are put forward, this isn't about recycling or go vegan, these are huge changes that need to come from the top down in every country. They are well thought through and I hope influential leaders in our country are reading this and taking heed.

The message is clear. The damage is done. We are the generation to understand it the most and have an obligation to reverse it before it really is too late.

"Everything is set for us to win this future. We have a plan. We know what to do. There is a path to sustainability. It is a path that could lead to a better future for all life on Earth."

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouseuk for the opportunity to review.

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"I am 93. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity."

David Attenborough is a king among men, really, someone who has spent his life trying to leave the planet better for future generations, and so this is just a wonderful book capturing everything that makes him and his work - and his hope for the future - so wonderful and vital.

This beautifully written book is a must for everyone who believes that we can continue to carry on as we are, without our wonderful planet suffering and dying before very long. That is a sobering thought, but David Attenborough has lived for 94 years and has seen more the planet than pretty much anyone now living, and he knows what he’s talking about. This book might sound like heavy going, but the writing style is so approachable that it can (and should) be read by everyone who believes in change for the better, whether they be young or old. None of what Attenborough says is new, but he brings all the current thinking on environmental abuse together in an easily digestible format and gives an encouraging view of the future if we heed the warnings. Please read this book - it will not change only your life, but could change the future for everyone and every place on our precious earth.

Wow, not only was this book informative, it was interesting. Most books with statistics and figure, I will admit I usually get bored with. That being said I am a massive fan of Sir David Attenborough and I love the work he does, so I said I'd give this a try. It did not disappoint. I will admit at times could almost hear him telling the story.

This book is very informative. He tells it as it is. The good, the bad and the ugly. True be told, at times I did find it hard to read. I kept thinking that can't be true! That still happens?! Unfortunately there were the facts and figures staring back up at me, in black and white. Not only was it informative, but it was also educational.

I will be taking a lot away from this book,

Thank you to Sir David Attenborough, Netgalley, Random house and EburgPublishing for a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing man. I could hear his voice all through this book. I thought at first it was depressing and it was as the reality of what could happen to the world or actually what is happening now.
But the message throughout the rest of the book gave me hope and makes me think about how everything we do has a reaction. A really good read.

I think it would be an underestimation to suggest that David Attenborough is one of the leading environmentalists in the country or the planet. His career on television has spanned over 60 years and has introduced the world to a world it never knew existed previously. Our own.

In A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future, which is the book to accompany the 2020 film, David Attenborough not only takes us on a tour throughout some of the highlights of his remarkable career but reminds us, as he always that nature is a fragile thing. A life on Our Planet is not just another book on nature, it is a book on how nature is dying and we are the ones killing it.

Attenborough here certainly does not take the ‘softly softly’ approach when it comes to getting to the crux of the matter, this is a very blunt book, and regardless how we read in his unique and engaging tone it doesn’t make the subject matter any easier to digest. This is very much a telling off by David Attenborough!

Reminded at each chapter, in Part 1, that with the increase of humankind equals the demise of Earth’s wilderness each chapter is a stark reminder that it is our footprint that is leaving a mark on the planet, detailing extensively our failures to protect the planet, this may seem like a damning report on our behaviours, but there is hope within its pages. With the great abandon which humankind has shown to the planet, there is much progress being made to help resolve the situation for the next generation, and the extensive reports of these projects leave the reader engaged from the first page to the last.

As mentioned above, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future, is the book to accompany the film, and knowing that more often people will get the message easier from watching the film I hope that this message is heard by all those who watch it. However, I believe that everyone should read this book!

Attenborough’s latest book – subtitled “My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future” – makes it clear that it sits on a slightly different parameter to his usual substantially visual presentation linked to his brilliant TV programmes on the complexity but beauty of other wildlife and landscapes around the planet. The title “A life on our planet” is also a challenge – we might indeed regard the planet as our own, but other species also live on it and are deserving of life too. But how we use the planet - due to our growing population and cultural and economic demands – is having a major impact on “the other” and causing possibly irreversible destruction and mass extinctions. This book looks clearly at what as a species we are doing, the impacts (direct and indirect) we are having and what we can – or should – do to reverse our negative ways of life. By matching his critique of the destruction against the years of his own (albeit longer than many) life, he shows not just the scale but the escalating speed of changes and thus the magnitude of the problem. All of this is done in a clear and unambiguous way – and because it references and cross links to examples he has shown in his extraordinary series of BBC productions over the years, it resonates with personal experiences and interest and rings very, but worryingly, true.
Starting in his introduction with the deserted city of Pripyat – known to the outside world for the Chernobyl disaster he shows how established practices can lead to massive problems that will resonate for years – but maybe with the disappearance of humans – the other species might have a chance to re-establish themselves and new ecosystems. But his “countdown” of the years of his life, matched with the specific programmes that reflected interest in wider and deeper ecosystems around the world. These increasingly started to raise about the issues of damage, decline and biodiversity loss, are in this book matched with the research that has been undertaken on the losses and indeed the build up of the attempts to “conserve” individual elements. Although now it is being recognised that this might be too little and too late and that a wider global response will be needed and urgently.
So this book will document forestry and habitat loss and how that impacts on both species and the climate, the impact this has on the salination of the oceans, on the growth of (largely monoculture) farming, on increasing pollution of the air and critically the seas – all leading the inexorable loss of biodiversity of plants, insects, mammals and birds. Our international lifestyle has also meant the transfer of diseases of all types across all species around the world. All these problems feed into each other and impact on human behaviour, causing political instability and making it harder for countries or individuals to prevent this damaging carousel.
I cannot talk to the full scale of what is covered in this book, or the detail of complex issues, but Attenborough’s exposition is clear, detailed (if only in the extensive notes at the end) and easily understood. In this book, too, he is a first rate communicator of his message about the urgency of the need to change. All intelligent people should read this book and absorb the advice. It is clear cut, not dense and so should be central to anybody working in education, planning, politics, development, agriculture, design or the environment. But it also gives clear advice to the individual of changes in behaviour and attitudes needed. It will become a conservation “classic”. The message is the most important thing though – and the need to start acting immediately to prevent greater loss and disaster. So this book could be regarded as very timely one hopes - rather than too late.

I received this as an ARC from Ebury/NetGalley a couple of months back, & devoured it immediately, but for some reason never reviewed it. I think I wanted a little time to think on it and, in all seriousness, I need to go back and read it again more slowly.

Sir David looks back on his career, giving us witness statements of was happening on the planet at each stage, the population, the rising CO2 levels. It’s a very effective look at our world over the last 80 years, and I could feel my stress levels rising as he lays out the facts and figures at the start of each chapter.

The final section looks at the actions we (together, and as individuals) can take to make a difference, to pull things back. He highlights hope, innovation and technologies coming from the developing world, and demonstrates his belief that it’s not too late to make a difference.

It has changed how I think about certain things, how I go about certain purchases, and I plan to find a print copy to revisit.

David Attenborough is a national treasure he can do no wrong. A Life on Our Planet
My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future, he shows that we humans can and how we must change how we love to protect and preserve the planet.
A fascinating , sobering but eye opening read which will make you change your life and how you live.

Thank you to Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for sending me a copy via netgalley for an honest review

I was so excited and overwhelmed when I received this copy and couldn't wait to get stuck in and start reading it. The books makes so much sense and Sir David adds that on how we can take care of our planet and halt the process of it potentially becoming near the end. The books has many scientific facts and statistical data that is easily to understand
i really enjoyed reading the journey and reflective experiences with some memories
A very inspirational read

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Great book. I loved reading it. Very interesting and covers alot of information

Interesting view on the changing climate by the God of wildlife, giving the story of it over his own lifetime.