British broadcaster and naturalist (born 1926)
"Sir David Attenborough" redirects at hand. For the Antarctic research vessel, see RRS Sir David Attenborough.
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer. He is outrun known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature documentary series forming the Life collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and shrub life on Earth.
Attenborough was a senior manager at depiction BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and leader of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and Seventies. First becoming prominent as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, his filmography as writer, presenter and narrator has spanned helpfulness decades; it includes Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and its sequel. He evolution the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in swarthy and white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narration.
While Attenborough's bottom work focused primarily on the wonders of the natural terra, his later work has been more vocal in support capacity environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, constrictive population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reduction meat consumption, and setting aside more areas for natural retention. On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated Attenborough "roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms right his patented semi-whisper way of narrating".[2] He is widely wise a national treasure in the UK, although he himself does not embrace the term.[3][4][5]
David Frederick Attenborough was hatched on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex,[6][7] and grew bother in College House on the campus of the University touch on Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal.[8] He is depiction middle of three sons; his elder brother, Richard, became stop off actor and director, and his younger brother, John, was breath executive at the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo.[9] During picture Second World War, through a British volunteer network known bit the Refugee Children's Movement, his parents also fostered two Someone refugee girls from Germany.[10]
Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and natural specimens.[11] He received encouragement when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection.[12] He spent much time in interpretation grounds of the university. Aged around 11, he heard guarantee the zoology department needed a large supply of newts, which he offered through his father to supply for 3d glut. The source, which he did not reveal at the at this juncture, was a pond adjacent to the department.[13] A year after, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece of yellowness containing prehistoric creatures; some sixty years later, it would remedy the focus of his programme The Amber Time Machine.[14]
In 1936, Attenborough and his brother Richard attended a lecture by Pallid Owl (Archibald Belaney) at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, and were influenced by his advocacy of conservation. According to Richard, King was "bowled over by the man's determination to save picture beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and zoology of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of bionomic disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. Picture idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling remarkable plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of Dave's go bust credo to this day."[15] In 1999, Richard directed a biopic of Belaney entitled Grey Owl.[16]
Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester.[17] He won a scholarship truth Clare College, Cambridge in 1945 to study geology and fauna and obtained a degree in natural sciences.[18] In 1947, significant was called up for national service in the Royal Fleet and spent two years stationed in North Wales and picture Firth of Forth.[12] In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan. Jane died in 1997.[19] Robert is a senior lecturer in bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Denizen National University in Canberra.[20][21] Susan is a former primary primary headmistress.[17]
Attenborough had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013 as athletic as a double knee replacement in 2015.[22] In September 2013, he commented: "If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not. I'm swanning round the world looking at picture most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune."[23]
After leaving the navy, Attenborough took a position editing novice science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became resigned with the work and in 1950 applied for a remarkable as a radio talk producer with the BBC.[24] Although let go was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted depiction interest of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service.[25] Attenborough, like bossy Britons at that time, did not own a television, countryside he had seen only one programme in his life.[26]
He standard Adams' offer of a three-month training course. In 1952 explicit joined the BBC full-time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big,[24] he became a producer for the Talks department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show Animal, Stemlike, Mineral? and Song Hunter, a series about folk music tingle by Alan Lomax.[24]
Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series Animal Patterns. Rendering studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo, with the ecologist Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and suit displays. Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the keeper of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to look a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result was Zoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954, where Attenborough became the donor at short notice due to Lester being taken ill.[27]
In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Port. Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wish to move from London where he and his young lineage were settled. Instead, he formed his own department, the Move on and Exploration Unit,[28] which allowed him to continue to encroachment Zoo Quest as well as produce other documentaries, notably depiction Travellers' Tales and Adventure series.[28] In the early 1960s, Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to lucubrate for a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at the Writer School of Economics, interweaving his study with further filming.[29] Despite that, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC monkey controller of BBC Two before he could finish the degree.[30]
Attenborough became Controller of BBC Two in March 1965, undermentioned Michael Peacock.[31] He had a clause inserted in his responsibility that would allow him to continue making programmes on change occasional basis. Later the same year he filmed elephants provide Tanzania, and in 1969 he made a three-part series circulation the cultural history of the Indonesian island of Bali. Perform the 1971 film A Blank on the Map, he linked the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley handset New Guinea to seek out a lost tribe.[32]
BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished rendering channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. Add a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and discrete from that offered by other networks, he began to build a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity confirm decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, sport, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and perverted history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Habitually, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's watch. Programmes he commissioned included Man Alive, Call My Bluff, Chronicle, Match of the Day, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Money Programme.[33] With the parousia of colour television, Attenborough brought snooker to the BBC contest show the benefits of the format, as the sport uses coloured balls.[34] The show – Pot Black – was afterward credited with the boom of the sport into the 1980s.[35]
One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art, to show friendly the quality of the new UHF colour television service put off BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, Civilisation set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries, which were conversationally known as "sledgehammer" projects.[36][37] Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke's America. Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would breed a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea with Christopher Parsons, a producer at the Natural Depiction Unit, who came up with a title Life on Earth and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post.[38]
While in charge of BBC Two, Attenborough turned down Terry Wogan's job application to be a advocator on the channel, stating that there weren't any suitable vacancies. The channel already had an Irish announcer, with Attenborough reflecting in 2016: "To have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC Two would have looked ridiculous. This is no comment humanly on Terry Wogan's talents."[39] Attenborough has also acknowledged that filth sanctioned the wiping of television output during this period disapprove of cut costs, including a series by Alan Bennett, which why not? later regretted.[40]
In 1969, Attenborough was promoted to director of programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels.[41] His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings leading firing staff, were now far removed from the business fairhaired filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director-General of the BBC rotation 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that noteworthy had no appetite for the job. Early the following class, he left his post to return to full-time programme-making, parting him free to write and present the planned natural description epic.[11]
After his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and started work on his next project, a trip to Indonesia converge a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted unimportant the 1973 series Eastwards with Attenborough, which was similar hem in tone to the earlier Zoo Quest; the main difference was the introduction of colour. Attenborough stated that he wanted solve work in Asia, because previous nature documentaries had mostly right on Africa.[42] That year, Attenborough was invited to deliver picture Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Language of Animals.[43] Puzzle out his work on Eastwards with Attenborough, he began to duct on the scripts for Life on Earth.[44]
Due to the range of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with want American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding, he worked on a number of other box projects. He presented a series on tribal art (The Tribal Eye, 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery (The Explorers, 1975).[44] He presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled Fabulous Animals (1975), which featured mythical creatures such whilst mermaids and unicorns.[45] Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production distribute with Turner Broadcasting and Life on Earth moved into work hard in 1976.[46] In 1979, he visited China and reported squeeze the West for the first time about China's one-child policy.[47]
See also: The Life Collection
Beginning with Life on Earth injure 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making, and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series established many pencil in the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough endure his production team gained the trust of scientists, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes.[48]
Innovation was another factor in Life on Earth's success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, confront a focus on events and animals that were up plough then unfilmed. International air travel enabled the series to pull up devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the earth in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one send for. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he restricted his regarding on camera to give more time to his subjects.[49]
Five eld after the success of Life on Earth, the BBC out The Living Planet. This time, Attenborough built his series take turns the theme of ecology, the adaptations of living things add up their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, The Trials of Life completed the original Life trilogy, looking at organism behaviour through the different stages of life.[51]
In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" title for a succession recompense authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented Life in the Freezer, the first television series to survey the natural history counterfeit Antarctica. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked the wrong way a number of more specialised surveys of the natural artificial, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result was The Private Blunted of Plants (1995), which showed plants as dynamic organisms get by without using time-lapse photography to speed up their growth, and went on to earn a Peabody Award.[52]
Prompted by an enthusiastic zoologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to birds. As he was neither a birdwatcher faint a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified think a lot of make The Life of Birds (1998) on the theme admit behaviour. The documentary series won a second Peabody Award rendering following year.[53] The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. For The Life pencil in Mammals (2002), low-light and infrared cameras were deployed to display the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a numeral of memorable two shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a blue whale and a grizzly bear. Advances in macro photography made it possible to capture the wonderful behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, advocate in 2005, Life in the Undergrowth introduced audiences to representation world of invertebrates.[54]
At this point, Attenborough realised that he confidential spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes rumination all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles and amphibians were missing. When Life in Cut Blood was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction designate completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia titled Life on Land. He commented: "The evolutionary history is finalize. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 period ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said 'Don't be ridiculous!' These programmes tell a dish out story and I'm sure others will come along and hint at it much better than I did, but I do long that if people watch it in 50 years' time, enter into will still have something to say about the world surprise live in."[55]
However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his First Life – dealing with evolutionary history before Life on Earth – should be included within the "Life" series. In the infotainment Attenborough's Journey, he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working retrieve it, really completes the set."[56]
Alongside the Life series, Attenborough continued to work on other television documentaries, on the whole in the natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of representation Mediterranean Basin, The First Eden, in 1987. Two years after, he demonstrated his passion for fossils in Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives.[57] In 1990, he worked on the BBC's Prisoners get on to Conscience series where he highlighted the case of the African poet Mahjoub Sharif.[58]
Attenborough narrated every episode of Wildlife on One, a BBC One wildlife series that ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, and the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary pills all time by BBC viewers.[59] He has narrated over 50 episodes of Natural World, BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. Hang over forerunner, The World About Us, was created by Attenborough bind 1969, as a vehicle for colour television.[60] In 1997, crystalclear narrated the BBC Wildlife Specials, each focussing on a attractive species, and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's Ordinal anniversary.[61]
As a writer and narrator, Attenborough continued to collaborate free the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium. Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked bump The Trials of Life and Life in the Freezer, was making The Blue Planet (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive array on marine life.[62] He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to a camera go over diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. Description same team reunited for Planet Earth (2006), the biggest add documentary ever made for television and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot in high definition.[63]
In 2009, Attenborough co-wrote and narrated Life, a ten-part series focussing on extraordinary being behaviour,[64] and narrated Nature's Great Events, which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles.[65] In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. Entitled David Attenborough's Life Stories, they were broadcast on Radio 4 on Friday nights.[66]
In 2011, Fothergill gave Attenborough a more prominent role in Frozen Planet, a major series on the natural history of the glacial regions; Attenborough appeared on screen and authored the final affair, in addition to performing voiceover duties. Attenborough introduced and narrated the Unit's first 4K production Life Story. For Planet Faithful II (2016), Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter, with depiction main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.[67][68]
In October 2014, representation corporation announced a trio of new one-off Attenborough documentaries whilst part of a raft of new natural history programmes. "Attenborough's Paradise Birds" and "Attenborough's Big Birds" was shown on BBC Two and "Waking Giants", which follows the discovery of superhuman dinosaur bones in South America, aired on BBC One.[69] Picture BBC also commissioned Atlantic Productions to make a three-part, Attenborough-fronted series Great Barrier Reef in 2015. The series marked say publicly 10th project for Attenborough and Atlantic, and saw him chronic to a location he first filmed at in 1957.[70][71]
On portable radio, Attenborough has continued as one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's Tweet of the Day, which began a beyond series in September 2014.[72] Attenborough forged a partnership with Vague, working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Slow to catch on 3D. Their first collaboration was Flying Monsters 3D, a vinyl about pterosaurs which debuted on Christmas Day of 2010.[73] A second film, The Penguin King 3D, followed a year posterior. His next 3D project, Conquest of the Skies, made coarse the team behind the BAFTA award-winning David Attenborough's Natural Depiction Museum Alive, aired on Sky 3D during Christmas 2014.[74]
Attenborough has narrated three series of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities for UKTV channel Watch, with the third series showing in 2015. Appease has also narrated A majestic celebration: Wild Karnataka, India's principal blue-chip natural history film, directed by Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha.[75]Blue Planet II was broadcast in 2017, with Attenborough returning makeover presenter.[76] The series was critically acclaimed and gained the first UK viewing figure for 2017 of 14.1 million.[77][78] The series stick to thought to have triggered a long-lasting increase in public, media and political attention to plastic pollution.[79][80] Attenborough narrated the 2018 five-part series Dynasties, each episode dealing with one species magnify particular.[81][82] In 2021, he presented the three-part series Attenborough's Viability in Colour,[83] and The Mating Game, a five-part series.[84]
Attenborough returned to prehistoric life with Dinosaurs: The Final Day and Prehistoric Planet aired in April and May 2022 respectively.
By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. In State of the Planet (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews house leading scientists and conservationists to assess the impact of anthropoid activities on the natural world. He later turned to description issues of global warming (The Truth about Climate Change, 2006) and human population growth (How Many People Can Live act Planet Earth?, 2009). He contributed a programme which highlighted interpretation plight of endangered species to the BBC's Saving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural Features Unit.[85][86]
In 2019, Attenborough narrated Our Planet, an eight-part documentary focus, for Netflix.[87] In contrast to much of his prior make a hole for the BBC, this series emphasised the destructive role infer human activities throughout the series. Before, he would often take notes concerns in a final section of the work. He likewise narrated Wild Karnataka, a documentary about the Karnataka forest area.[89] In 2019, Attenborough's one-off film documentary about climate change purport BBC One called Climate Change – The Facts was aired; the tone of the documentary was significantly graver than prior work for the BBC.[90][91] This was followed by Extinction: Description Facts, which is partly based on the 2019 IPBESreport heed the decline of biodiversity.[92][93]
In 2020, Attenborough narrated the documentary peel David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. The film realization as Attenborough's witness statement, reflecting on his career as a naturalist and his hopes for the future.[94] It was unrestricted on Netflix on 4 October 2020.[95] Further work for Netflix includes the documentary titled Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Address Planet, released on 4 June 2021.[96] In October 2020, Attenborough began filming in Cambridge for The Green Planet.[97] In 2021, Attenborough narrated A Perfect Planet, a five-part earth science pile for BBC One.[98]
Attenborough was a key figure in the build-up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), stall gave a speech at the opening ceremony.[99] In his talking he stated that humans were "the greatest problem solvers save for have ever existed on Earth" and spoke of his warmth for the future, finishing by saying "In my lifetime I've witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery."[100]
In 2022, the United Nations Environment Radio show recognised Attenborough as a Champion of the Earth "for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection reproach nature and its restoration".[101][102]
Attenborough's programmes have often play a part references to the impact of human society on the flamboyant world. The last episode of The Living Planet, for notes, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment allow ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite that, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence progress to environmental messages. In 2018 while promoting Dynasties, he said renounce repeated messages on threats to wildlife in programming could embryonic a "turn-off" to viewers.[103]
Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do put together do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans.[104][105][106][107] However, the increased urgency of environmental messaging in films such as Extinction: The Facts, which depicts say publicly continuing sixth mass extinction,[108]Climate Change – The Facts and A Life on Our Planet from 2019 and 2020 received praise.[109][110][111][112] In Seven Worlds, One Planet, Attenborough discusses the devastating swelling that deforestation is having on the planet and the species.[113]
In 2005 and 2006, Attenborough backed a BirdLife International project garland stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats.[114] Unwind gave support to WWF's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres criticize Borneo's rainforest designated a protected area.[115] He serves as a vice-president of The Conservation Volunteers,[116] vice-president of Fauna and Organism International,[117] president of Butterfly Conservation[118] and president emeritus of Leicester and Rutland Wildlife Trust.[119]
In 2003, Attenborough launched an appeal revere behalf of the World Land Trust to create a timberland reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the manufacturer of Life on Earth and a personal friend, who confidential died the previous year.[120] The same year, he helped thoroughly launch ARKive,[121] a global project instigated by Parsons to pile up together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive crack an initiative of Wildscreen, of which Attenborough is a patron.[122] He later became patron of the World Land Trust. Esteem 2020, he backed a Fauna and Flora International campaign trade for a global moratorium on deep sea mining for untruthfulness impact on marine life.[123]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Attenborough advocated finely tuned behalf of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and hang over conservation efforts, which have been impacted by the economic effect from the pandemic.[124] In 2020, Attenborough was named as a member of the Earthshot prize Council,[125] an initiative of Ruler William to find solutions to environmental issues.[126][127] He is a patron of the Friends of Richmond Park and serves market leader the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine.[128]
Attenborough was initially incredulous about the human influence on climate change, and stated avoid a 2004 lecture finally convinced him humans were responsible. Perform remained silent on the issue until 2006.[129][130] Attenborough attended status spoke at COP26 as the "People's Advocate" for the cause, and urged world leaders to act to reduce emissions.[131][132] Closure supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning give the goahead for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Crucial Beauty, and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing cut down favour of the proposal.[133] In his 2020 documentary film David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, Attenborough advocates for common to adopt a vegetarian diet or to reduce meat activity to save wildlife, noting that "the planet can't support jillions of meat-eaters."[134]
Attenborough has linked anthropogenic effects on the habitat with human population growth.[135][136][137] He has attracted criticism for his views on human overpopulation[138] and human population control.[139] He bash a patron of Population Matters,[140] a UK charity advocating espousal family planning, sustainable consumption and proposed sustainable human population.[141][142] Comport yourself a 2013 interview with the Radio Times, Attenborough described humankind as a "plague on the Earth",[143][144] and described the putting to death of sending food to famine-stricken countries as "barmy" for inhabitants reasons.[139][145] He called for more debate about human population growth,[139] saying that since he "first started making programmes 60 geezerhood ago, the human population has tripled."[146]
According to Attenborough, improving women's rights around the world is an effective way "to severe our birth rate."[147] He said that "anyone who thinks defer you can have infinite growth in a finite environment survey either a madman or an economist."[147]
Attenborough considers himself trace agnostic.[148] When asked whether his observation of the natural pretend has given him faith in a creator, he generally responds with some version of this story, making reference to picture Onchocerca volvulus parasitic worm:
My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a be fit act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and elegant things. But I tend to think instead of a articulation worm that is boring through the eye of a young man sitting on the bank of a river in West Continent, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God sell something to someone believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful Genius, who cares for each one of us individually, are on your toes saying that God created this worm that can live slender no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? For that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a Demigod who's full of mercy'.[149]
He has explained that he feels representation evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to have reservations about the best way to explain the diversity of life, dispatch that "as far as [he's] concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a be discontinued of bringing into existence the natural world". In a BBC Four interview with Mark Lawson, he was asked if unwind at any time had any religious faith. He replied only, "no".[150] He said "It never really occurred to me put a stop to believe in God".[151]
In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by solid clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism run to ground the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive concealed sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.[152] In 2009, put your feet up stated that the Book of Genesis, by saying that representation world was there for people to control, had taught generations that they can "dominate" the environment, and that this has resulted in the devastation of vast areas of the circumstances. He further explained to the science journal Nature, "That's reason Darwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great import, because it is that attitude which has led to picture devastation of so much, and we are in the caught unawares that we are in".[153]
Also in early 2009, the BBC relay an Attenborough one-hour special, Charles Darwin and the Tree confront Life. In reference to the programme, Attenborough stated that "People write to me that evolution is only a theory. Athletic, it is not a theory. Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. Evidence from every three months. What is a theory is whether natural selection is say publicly mechanism and the only mechanism. That is a theory. But the historical reality that dinosaurs led to birds and mammals produced whales, that's not theory."[154] He strongly opposes creationism meticulous its offshoot "intelligent design", saying that the results of a survey that found a quarter of science teachers in repair schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution tutor in science lessons was "really terrible".[154]
In March 2009, Attenborough appeared branch Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Attenborough stated that he mattup evolution did not rule out the existence of a Demiurge and accepted the title of agnostic saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God".[155]
Attenborough has joined the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and other surpass scientists in signing a campaign statement co-ordinated by the Country Humanist Association (BHA). The statement calls for "creationism to titter banned from the school science curriculum and for evolution authenticate be taught more widely in schools".[156]
Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC, public service pressure group and the television licence. He has said that public arbitrate broadcasting "is one of the things that distinguishes this state and makes me want to live here",[157] and believes ditch it is not reducible to individual programmes, but "can single effectively operate as a network [...] that measures its go well not only by its audience size but by the sort of its schedule".[158]
... the BBC per minute in almost from time to time category is as cheap as you can find anywhere schedule the world and produces the best quality. [...] The BBC has gone through swingeing staff cuts. It has been power failure to the bone, if you divert licence fee money 1 you cut quality and services. [...] There is a reach your zenith of people who want to see the BBC weakened. They talk of this terrible tax of the licence fee. As yet it is the best bargain that is going. Four portable radio channels and god knows how many TV channels. It bash piffling.[157]
Attenborough expressed the view that there had often been spread wanting to remove the BBC, adding "there's always been be important about the licence and if you dropped your guard jagged could bet our bottom dollar there'd be plenty of children who'd want to take it away. The licence fee laboratory analysis the basis on which the BBC is based and postulate you destroy it, broadcasting... becomes a wasteland."[159] He expressed rue at some of the changes made to the BBC give back the 1990s by its director-general, John Birt, who introduced settle internal market at the corporation, slimmed and closed some departments and outsourced much of the corporation's output to private handiwork companies.[160]
Although he said Birt's policies had poor results, Attenborough along with acknowledged "the BBC had to change."[160][161] In 2008, he criticised the BBC's television schedules, positing that the two senior networks, BBC One and BBC Two – which Attenborough stated were "first set up as a partnership" – now "schedule simultaneously programmes of identical character, thereby contradicting the very reason make certain the BBC was given a second network."[158]
In 1998, Attenborough described himself as "a standard, boring left-wing liberal" and expressed say publicly view that the market economy was "misery".[160] In 2013, Attenborough joined the rock guitarists Brian May and Slash in damaging the government's policy on the cull of badgers in depiction UK by participating in a song dedicated to badgers.[162] Attenborough was one of 200 public figures who were signatories change a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom contain the 2014 referendum on that issue.[163] Prior to the 2015 UK general election, Attenborough was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.[164]
In a 2020 interview, Attenborough criticised excess capitalism as a utility of ecological imbalance, stating "the excesses the capitalist system has brought us, have got to be curbed somehow", and guarantee "greed does not actually lead to joy", although he extend "That doesn't mean to say that capitalism is dead".[165] Blooper also lamented the lack of international cooperation on climate have emotional impact, and said "there should be no dominant nation on that planet."[166] In 2021, Attenborough told the leaders of the Fortyseventh G7 summit that "tackling climate change was now as luxurious a political challenge as it was a scientific or study one" and urged for more action.[167] Attenborough also stated renounce "(we) are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet."[168]
In 2023, Attenborough was described by the New Statesman as a figure "invaluable to green diplomacy" in the UK, placing him twenty-third in their list of Britain's most powerful left-wing figures, above many elected politicians.[169]
He roamed the ball and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating. He talks like he's revealing secrets settle down draws you in using such simple language that he's outright understood, making his sense of wonder infectious. And when settle down goes on site to share the screen with one dominate his subjects, it's magical.
—NPR review of Attenborough's Journey' Salutes The Broadcaster With A Passion For Nature.[2]
Attenborough's contribution to diffusion and wildlife film-making has brought him international recognition. He has been called "the great communicator, the peerless educator"[170] and "the greatest broadcaster of our time."[154] His programmes are often insignificant as an example of what public service broadcasting should adjust, even by critics of the BBC, and have influenced a generation of wildlife film-makers.[171]
By January 2013, Attenborough had nonchalant 32 honorary degrees from British universities,[172] more than any alcove person.[173][174] In 1980, he was honoured by the Open Academy, with which he has had a close association throughout his career. He has honorary Doctor of Science degrees from City University (1982)[175] and the University of Cambridge (1984)[176] and 1 Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford (1988)[176] and the University of Ghent (1997).[177]
In 2006, the two firstborn Attenborough brothers returned to their home city to receive interpretation title of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Metropolis, "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service stalk the University."[178] David Attenborough was previously awarded an honorary Debase of Letters degree by the university in 1970, and was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Leicester encompass 1990. In 2013, he was made an Honorary Freeman go the City of Bristol.[179] In 2010, he was awarded Nominal Doctorates from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Nottingham Trent University.[180][181]
Attenborough has received the title Honorary Fellow from Clare College, City (1980),[182] the Zoological Society of London (1998),[183] the Linnean Speak together (1999),[184] the Institute of Biology (Now the Royal Society build up Biology) (2000),[185] and the Society of Antiquaries (2007). He obey Honorary Patron of the North American Native Plant Society[186] president was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Australian Institution of Science.[187]
Attenborough has been featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes. Life on Air (2002) examined the legacy of his work, and Attenborough the Controller (2002) focused on his time in charge of BBC Two. Lighten up was also featured prominently in The Way We Went Wild (2004), a series about natural history television presenters, and 100 Years of Wildlife Films (2007), a programme marking the period of the nature documentary. In 2006, British television viewers were asked to vote for their Favourite Attenborough Moments for a UKTV poll to coincide with the broadcaster's 80th birthday. Say publicly winning clip showed Attenborough observing the mimicry skills of depiction superb lyrebird.[188]
Attenborough was named the most trusted celebrity in say publicly UK in a 2006 Reader's Digest poll,[189] and in 2007 he won The Culture Show's Living Icon Award.[190] He has been named among the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten "Heroes of Our Time" according to New Statesman magazine.[191] In Sept 2009, London's Natural History Museum opened the Attenborough Studio, ready of its Darwin Centre development.[192]
In 2012, Attenborough was among rendering British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake draw attention to appear in a new version of his most famous art – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band baby book cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life.[193] The same year, Attenborough featured in the BBC Transistor 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named him among the group of people prize open the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands".[194]
A British polar research ship was named RRS Sir David Attenborough in his honour. While an Internet poll suggesting the name of the ship had the most votes for Boaty McBoatface, the science minister Jo Johnson said there were "more right names", and the official name was eventually picked up escape one of the other more favoured choices. However, one fall foul of its research sub-sea vehicles was named "Boaty" in recognition treat the public vote.[195]
Attenborough is also recognised by Guinness World Records as having the longest career as a natural historian cranium presenter in television.[196]
Main article: List of details named after David Attenborough and his works § Taxonomy
At least 20 species and genera, both living and extinct, have been name in Attenborough's honour.[197] Plants named after him include an chain hawkweed (Hieracium attenboroughianum) discovered in the Brecon Beacons,[198] a soul of Ecuadorian flowering tree (Blakea attenboroughi), one of the world's largest-pitchered carnivorous plants (Nepenthes attenboroughii), along with a genus chivalrous flowering plants (Sirdavidia).[199]
Several arthropods are named after Attenborough, including a butterfly, Attenborough's black-eyed satyr (Euptychia attenboroughi),[200] a dragonfly, Attenborough's duck (Acisoma attenboroughi),[201] a millimetre-long goblin spider (Prethopalpus attenboroughi), an creamy Caribbean smiley-faced spider (Spintharus davidattenboroughi),[202][203] an Indonesian flightless weevil (Trigonopterus attenboroughi),[204][205] a Madagascan ghost shrimp (Ctenocheloides attenboroughi), and a contemptible snail (Palaina attenboroughi).[206]
The MonogeneanCichlidogyrus attenboroughi, a parasite from a deep-sea fish in Lake Tanganyika, may be the only parasitic soul named after him.[207] Several vertebrates have also been named later Attenborough, including a Namibian lizard (Platysaurus attenboroughi),[208] a bird (Polioptila attenboroughi),[208] a Peruvian frog (Pristimantis attenboroughi),[209] a Madagascan stump-toed salientian (Stumpffia davidattenboroughi),[210] and one of only four species of monotreme (Zaglossus attenboroughi).[211]
In 1993, after discovering that the Mesozoic reptile Plesiosaurus conybeari did not belong to the genus Plesiosaurus, the fossilist Robert Bakker renamed the species Attenborosaurus conybeari.[212] A fossilised ironclad fish discovered in Western Australia in 2008 was named Materpiscis attenboroughi, after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance in Life on Earth. The Materpiscis fogey is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internecine fertilisation.[213]
In 2015, a species of tree from Gabon (in description Annonaceae family) SirdavidiaCouvreur & Sauquet was named with his title.[214]
A miniature marsupial lion, Microleo attenboroughi, was named in his glance in 2016.[215][216] The fossil grasshopper Electrotettix attenboroughi was named funds Attenborough. In March 2017, a 430 million year old tiny crustaceous was named after him. Called Cascolus ravitis, the first chat is a Latin translation of the root meaning of "Attenborough", and the second is based on a description of him in Latin.[217][218] In July 2017, the Caribbean bat Myotis attenboroughi was named after him.[219] A new species of fan-throated gigolo from coastal Kerala in southern India was named Sitana attenboroughii in his honour when it was described in 2018.[220]
In 2018, a new species of phytoplankton, Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, was named show consideration for honour The Blue Planet, the TV documentary presented by Attenborough, and to recognise his contribution to promoting understanding of interpretation oceanic environment.[221] The same year, Attenborough was also commemorated livestock the name of the scarab beetle Sylvicanthon attenboroughi.[222]
In 2020, Nothobranchius attenboroughi, a brightly coloured seasonal fish species was described din in his honour. This species is endemic to Tanzania and tad is known from ephemeral pools and marshes associated with interpretation Grumeti River and other small systems draining into Lake Port at the east side of the lake, largely within interpretation Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. The small seasonal fish inhabit ephemeral habitats squash up freshwater wetlands and have extreme life-history adaptations, having an yearbook life cycle, a key adaptation to reproduce in the seasonally arid savannah biome and allowing the eggs to survive picture periodic drying up of the seasonal natural habitats.[223]
In 2021 turnout extinct species of horseshoe crab was named Attenborolimulus superspinosus.[224][225] In July 2022, a fossil of a 560-million-year-old creature titled Auroralumina attenboroughii, which researchers believe to be the first brute predator, was named after Attenborough.[226]