In this extract from Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness by Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield, Attenborough reflects on favourite moments from his incredible career. After so many decades immersed in natural history, it is no surprise these recollections are special and beautiful. There are also some welcome hints at optimism: Attenborough is hopeful that the future may still be bright. We can only hope.
We now understand how to fix many of the biggest problems we face as a species, and we have centuries of progress to draw on for inspiration. Indeed, in the past 100 years alone we have dramatically reduced infant mortality, suppressed many of our most feared diseases, increased access to education and healthcare, acquired scientific knowledge that has transformed our understanding of the world and co-operated on global issues to a degree never seen before.
Young children playing on a beach today will live through perhaps the most consequential time for the human species in the past 10,000 years. They will grow up to see how this story ends, to see how our choices play out. If we use our great discoveries, apply our unique minds and direct our unparalleled communication and problem-solving skills to restoring our ocean, then those children will bring their own into a world where the biggest challenges our species has ever faced have already been navigated.
More picks on nature
How Tree Rings Challenged the Myth of American Wilderness
“By studying fire scars in ancient wood, many scientists have become convinced that Indigenous people transformed North America long before Christopher Columbus arrived.”
Up a Creek
“Nature writing after everyone stopped paying attention.”
The Incredible Journey of a Migratory Shorebird
“Godwits make the longest non-stop migration in the bird world. That might be the least of their marvels. Can they survive a changing planet?”
The Florida Alligator Dragnet
“When an alligator kills someone in America, it can make international headlines. What happens to the thousands of gators that people deem ‘nuisances’ does not.”
One Last Run
“A dispatch from the final Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the drinks were good, and the nature documentaries were, for the most part, sad.”
Are Crows Really Our Friends?
“An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations.”
