Did anyone else see the words 'David Attenborough....' and feel their heart sink a bit, thinking he'd died?
Then I cheered up, life in the old dog yet, bless him
I rather thought that the fact there will be no Planet Earth IV is a rather ominous sign of our future biodiversity.
First thing I thought was like "phew, not dead. What a sad day it'll be once he does die". He's been narrating so good haha documentaries I've seen for as long as I can remember (and since I can understand English).
Better get a move on, the earth is getting up there in age and might not be able to do a third before it retires.
I thought it was an onion article; seriously, series 4 will just be "Zoos and Game Parks of Planet Earth"
Okay people of this thread you gotta just accept the fact that activism is always gonna be at the end. Like I don't intend for this to insult anyone's intelligence, I promise, but you gotta understand that it's matter of love. Spend enough time in a headspace in which funky lizards and ugly insects and smelly lil rats are your companions both physically and mentally and these things matter to you in ways that approach your love for people, it's just the truth of it. I'm surprised Attenborough docs aren't all activism and calls to action at this point, it's so frightening and overwhelming that I myself have drifted away from field research because in my cowardice I just couldn't bear to get more attached.
But yeah sadly he's too old (British) to be able to summon anything like a cohesive call to action, which sucks ass
Planet Earth is much better than his Our Planet thing on Netflix.
Our Planet just feels like episode after episode of "it's all dying, and it's all your fault".
Like, I get it, and it is. But I just want to see some pretty tigers or leopards or something to take my mind off it. I want raccoons and their funny little hands. I want sexually frustrated birds of paradise making an ever more elaborate attempts to get laid.
The sad thing is that the ones who hear it and understand it are the ones trying to change what little we can already. So hearing it over and over is depressing.
The ones who don't care are the ones who need to hear it the most, but will ignore it.
Sometimes I think we get caught up in this notion that somehow the people presenting the problem or the cause should be capable of providing us with solutions. These people have basically dedicated their lives to documenting nature, they're not going to have solutions that the researchers who basically just try to answer the climate change question somehow missed. It kinda feels like we're mad at the ad guys for Chevy for not knowing how to build a car. That's not their job. People act like "raising awareness" is some futile notion, but like, you won't force change if people don't care, and they won't care if the don't know. Obviously there are plenty who know and don't care, but knowing is still at least a prerequisite for caring. And regardless of whether you think it's a "noble" calling or not, it is still a task which requires a team of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals in a host of fields, and a serious time commitment from all involved parties. When exactly are they supposed to find the time to solve global warming?
yh despite the extremely problematically liberal bs takes he generally has publicly on what is actually required to not just stop (not possible) but simply to mitigate the environmental changes he rightly lamenting, he's still obviously made a big contribution to people's knowledge and appreciation of all the myriad forms of life. Gonna be sad when he dips.
