There are few people in this world whose voices are so recognisable a recording is included on their Wikipedia page, yet for Sir David Attenborough, whose 70-year career of semi-whisper narration has become synonymous with his persona, it almost seems necessary. Not only does the broadcaster conservationist have a recognisable voice, his name has also been used for over 40 species of plants and animals, as well as a constellation1. With an impact that quite literally spans the globe to the stars, he's also explored uncharted land and met some of the most remote people on Earth. He has led a life filled with a determined desire to innovate, explore, and enlighten, and has left an imprint across countless fields as a biologist, author, broadcaster, and natural historian1. His lifetime of devotion to the study and advocacy of the natural world has been marked by significant accolades. He was knighted twice (once in 1985 and more recently in 2022), has a Champion of the Earth award, and is the only person to win a BAFTA award in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D, and 4K resolution. Today, at 97 years old, he holds a legacy that has inspired millions of people by introducing the natural world into classrooms and homes.
Sir David Attenborough was born on May 8, 1926, in outer London. The middle child of three brothers (his elder brother, Richard Attenborough, was a well-known actor and director), he grew up on the University of Leicester's campus, where his father was the principal. As a young child, he became interested in natural history and would collect stones, fossils, and biological specimens. A crucial part in confirming his naturalist interest was a box of artefacts sent to him by Jacquetta Hawkes - a young academic his father introduced him to2. Attenborough has also previously cited the university grounds as where he first learned he could "earn a living from animals" 2. At age 11, he discovered that the university's zoology department was in need of a plentiful supply of newts, and offered to supply them through his father at threepence a newt. What he didn't reveal at the time was that he was, in fact, catching them from a pond five yards from the laboratory2. These early beginnings founded a lifelong fascination with all living creatures and natural history. The close ties with his childhood and later work can be seen with a prehistoric piece of amber given to him by his adoptive sister, Marianne - some sixty years later, it became the focus of a programme he created, The Amber Time Machine3.
Attenborough's academic focus on nature began in 1945 with a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied zoology and geology and earned a degree in natural sciences4. After a job at an educational publishing house, he began his career with the BBC as a trainee in 1952. He quickly moved up the ranks, becoming a producer and even pitching his own shows. In 1954, he created the groundbreaking Zoo Quest, which combined a presentation live in the studio with real wildlife footage that had been shot on location - something that had never been seen before. For the first time, people were exposed to the natural world's wonders right in their living rooms. The show's success also indicated to the executives that there was an audience for wildlife shows - and a large one at that. It was also the first time Attenborough appeared in front of the camera. A decade later, he became the controller of BBC Two, where he established and curated a portfolio of diverse programmes and pioneered colour television, overseeing Europe's first-ever colour broadcasts4. He was later promoted to the BBC Director of Programmes, yet quickly realised it was not for him. He resigned three years later, wanting to return to natural history by becoming a freelance broadcaster4.
Attenborough's life transformed from daily boardroom meetings to travelling the world as a wildlife explorer - producing and writing revolutionary nature programmes. By pioneering new documentary styles and filmmaking techniques, as well as immersing himself in his filming environments, Attenborough pushed the limits of natural history programmes, delivering utterly captivating wildlife shows. His show, Life on Earth (1979), became an incredible accomplishment - over half a billion people worldwide watched it, marking a commercial triumph for the BBC4. The Living Planet (1984) followed five years later, with its remarkable quality proving Attenborough's wildlife filmmaking formula was now a paragon. In the following years and decades, Attenborough kept tenaciously broadening the boundaries of documentary filmmaking, bringing never-before sounds and sights to the small screen. With visuals that span much of documentary and wildlife programme history and have contributed significantly to their evolution, Attenborough's constant ambition for innovation has captivated audiences for eight decades.
Today, despite being nearly a century old, Sir David Attenborough has shown no sign of slowing down and is as tenacious and innovative as ever. More recently, his work has been focused on raising awareness of the ever-looming and quickly increasing threat our world faces - climate change. Having spent his life studying and documenting the natural world, Attenborough has seen first-hand the drastic and damaging changes human activities have caused. Extremely passionate on the matter, he has said, 'It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth'4. In 2019 and 2020, respectively, he created the series Our Planet, and David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, in which he focused on the destruction caused by humans, aiming to instigate change and a renewed appreciation and desire to save our planet before it's too late. However, Sir David has always stressed that he didn't begin making his nature series with conservation in mind - instead, he simply found great joy in observing nature4. That is, until over the decades he began to notice the threat facing the habitats and animals he was filming, driving him to advocate for them. While he has now authored documentaries that overtly confront environmental issues, his previous preference was to be more subtle by capturing the natural world on camera in hopes that we might be encouraged to preserve it.
Action like this defines Sir David Attenborough as a unique kind of public intellectual - one with great power and influence yet who wields them with deep care and quiet gentility. Rather than using his knowledge and platform to imprint fear and panic into viewers, which can be polarising, he shows the beauty surrounding us and everything we risk losing to motivate individuals to make change. A significant difference between the two means of persuasion and education is that in the latter, the individual feels they are acting on a decision made by themselves rather than ostracising people with fear and judgement - which can make them less likely to act. By immersing audiences in the magnificence of the planet and its species, viewers are more likely to get attached and understand the depth of what would be lost. They are far more likely to be motivated to make a change as they are emotionally involved with the subject on a positive level rather than a negative one. The urge to protect and defend drives the action, making the individual feel more enabled and positive rather than doing something out of fear or coercion. To put it plainly - no one wants to feel lectured or like they're a terrible person, but rather, they want to feel empowered by their choices.
Only some people agree with his methods, however. Critics have argued that Attenborough was silent for too long and that despite his expansive storytelling platform, he has failed to properly tell the most crucial story of all - the destructive ramifications of human activity on the Earth5. There is a valid point to be made in this argument - Attenborough was sceptical of climate change for a long time and entirely silent on it until 2006. For a naturalist with such a global stage, some have claimed that his "long silence on extinction and global warming in his television work has contributed towards a popular knowledge deficit”6. This "knowledge deficit" is particularly troubling, considering that despite the lethal consequences of climate change, it is a kind of slow violence that makes it difficult to notice7. Many struggle to act to halt the disastrous effects of our species, primarily because it feels so distant and is not always immediately visible. Yet, despite long being too incremental and obscure for enough concern or outrage to be sparked to stop it, climate change's slow violence has not been entirely hidden. "If you look at the lived experience of people who are exposed to slow violence, they can notice the incremental changes that are happening to their ecosystems and environment," explains Thom Davies, a geographer from the University of Nottingham7. While it may occur over the span of decades or even generations, those who have lived through it are able to describe it. It may not have a clear perpetrator, and the pace of it can make it complicated to record, prosecute, or punish - but crucially, it is always felt7. The question then is, how could the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other human being to have ever lived, not feel the change and cry out for help as soon as he did?
It's hard to be sure exactly why Attenborough feared speaking out for so long, but one thing is certain - Attenborough's career and passion have thrived for the past seven decades because he has always had a sense of how attitudes move and change with the times7. For much of his life, he maintained that his programmes must highlight the marvels of the natural world and not touch on the human one. Today, his newer series are filled with desperate messages about the destruction of the environment. He resists claims that he has changed, however, preferring to say the transformation has been in public mood instead7. Regardless, after a life of caution, it is refreshing to see him become a leader of action, finally advocating for change.
Yet, with advocation typically comes controversy, and Sir David has been no exception. Specifically, his opinions on population control and calls for more awareness and debate on the environmental consequences of overpopulation were criticised. His comments that garnered the greatest criticism were his link between famine and overpopulation and his claim that "sending food aid to famine-hit areas is barmy"8. By his own admission, however, Attenborough is not a politician but "a man who enjoys looking at animals and seeing what they do"8. In that aspect of life, he is second to none.
Additionally, despite these moments of controversy, considering the length of his career, they are quite mild and hardly damaged his persona. In fact, in our divided times, Attenborough has been heralded by some as the "closest we have to a universally beloved public figure"5. He was the most popular person in Britain, according to a 2018 YouGov poll. Crowds went wild when he appeared on stage at Glastonbury5. Love Island viewers were outraged when a contestant deemed his programmes boring5. Yet more than a British national treasure, he is a globally revered intellectual. According to the Sunday Times, his show, Blue Planet II, was downloaded by so many Chinese viewers "that it temporarily slowed down the country's internet"5. His viewers span from South Africa to India, where during a broadcast of one of his series' premieres, schoolchildren held up signs for him, such as "Thank you for being you – Sir David A" and "Sir David, please come to India please”5. He's also spoken on a global scale, moving from the World Economic Forum to the White House, imploring businesspeople, presidents, and the public to up their conservation efforts to preserve our environment5. He has come to be seen (in a way he modestly sees as overblown) as the guardian and voice of humanity's conscience5.
This ties into his role as a public intellectual. It is only natural and human for people to disagree and have differing opinions - each individual has their unique perspective and worldview. For most people to speak up and advocate in the way Sir David has, they would be met with far more sceptics, deniers, and critics than he has been. Yet, because of his lifetime of contributions and study, he has earned a place in society where criticism rarely comes, as very few (perhaps even none) are in a position of more knowledge or experience than him. For people to be upset about his opinions, however, only strengthens the evidence for his role as a public intellectual, as it is their job to be honest members of society who remind the world of topics often shied away from or considered taboo9.
There are very few public individuals unbiased by politics, money, corruption, or selfishness, so to come across such intellects is vital to the health of society9. After years of learning and questioning, as well as making mistakes and being criticised, public intellectuals such as Sir David have a unique and invaluable vision, as well as an adamantine care for the topic. He takes his work extremely seriously, bringing up voices and points from places that often don't have a beacon or chance to do so themselves, rather than speaking up because someone discreetly filters bills into his pocket9. He is realistic and honest in times when those two values can be challenging to come by. By questioning things we don't question enough or have come to accept when we shouldn't, he keeps the conversation going - even when no one wants to talk about it anymore9. When the world is sick of hearing about climate change, they will listen to Sir David Attenborough. It's because we trust him - he's been around as long as television, and throughout his life, he has never been anything other than the man he says he is. Modest, incredibly genuine, with a kind demeanour, and a familiar voice, it's been clear for the past seventy years that Attenborough is truly driven by pure passion, curiosity and, above all else, a profound love for our planet and every being that calls it home.
REFERENCES
1 “9 Facts about David Attenborough That Have Shaped Your World.” BBC Teach, BBC, 18 Aug. 2023, www.bbc.co.uk/teach/nine-astonishing-ways-david-attenborough-shaped-your-world/z4k2kmn#:~:text=Now a staple of any,wonders of the natural world.
2 Mercury, Leicester. “Picture of the Day: Leicester Celebs, before They Were Famous.” Leicester Mercury, 11 Feb. 2014, web.archive.org/web/20140222033240/www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Picture-day-12-Leicester-celebs-famous/story-20596134-detail/story.html.
3 "Jewel of the Earth". PBS. Archived from the original on 3 June 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
4 “National Treasure: The Life of Sir David Attenborough .” Sky HISTORY TV Channel, www.history.co.uk/articles/the-life-of-sir-david-attenborough. Accessed 3 Feb. 2024.
5 Mercury, Leicester. “Picture of the Day: Leicester Celebs, before They Were Famous.” Leicester Mercury, 11 Feb. 2014, web.archive.org/web/20140222033240/www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Picture-day-12-Leicester-celebs-famous/story-20596134-detail/story.html.
6 Naraharisetty, Rohitha. “Why David Attenborough’s Environmentalism Is Flawed.” The Swaddle, www.theswaddle.com/why-david-attenboroughs-environmentalism-is-flawed. Accessed 3 Feb. 2024.
7 Mercury, Leicester. “Picture of the Day: Leicester Celebs, before They Were Famous.” Leicester Mercury, 11 Feb. 2014, web.archive.org/web/20140222033240/www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Picture-day-12-Leicester-celebs-famous/story-20596134-detail/story.html.
8 “Who Is Sir David Attenborough?” TheCollector, 26 Oct. 2023, www.thecollector.com/who-is-sir-david-attenborough/#.
9 Mack, Stephen. “The ‘Decline’ of Public Intellectuals?” The New Democratic Review: The Public Intellectual Archives, www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/the_public_intellectual/index.html. Accessed 3 Feb. 2024.
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