The Teacher

“I wish the world was twice as big — and half of it was still unexplored”

“It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all on Earth”

“People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure”

“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it”

“The fact remains that man has unprecedented control over the world and everything in it. And so, whether he likes it or not, what happens next is very largely up to him”

Five quotes from one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent men on this planet Earth today. For me personally, he will always be “The Teacher”, instructing us about this very planet we live on, The Earth, and the life we share It with. Since 1952, when his first programme “Animal Patterns” was broadcast on television, right up to the present year, 2022, at 96 years of age, he has been presenting nature programmes (of every kind) to us via the same media, the television. He is Sir David Attenborough!

I don’t usually write articles about living persons, being kind of superstitious, but this guy looks like he’ll ‘live forever’, and I just did not want to miss out on this research — it is so interesting!. In his lifetime, Sir David has travelled (an estimated) 1.9million miles, which is equivalent to flying around the world 763 times, and he has made almost 400 trips to 94 different countries. In 1985, he was knighted in recognition of his years of service in television. Sir David has done the following programmes (deep breath) : Zoo Quest 1954-1963 / Life on Earth 1979 / The Living Planet 1984 / The Trials of Life 1990 / Life in the Freezer 1993 / The Life of Birds 1998 / The Blue Planet 2001 and The Blue Planet II 2017 / The Life of Mammals 2002 / Life in the Undergrowth 2005 / Planet Earth 2006 and Planet Earth II 2016 / Life in Cold Blood 2008 / Natural Curiosities 2013-2017 / Seven Worlds, One Planet 2019 / The Perfect Planet 2020 / The Green Planet 2021.

Sir David grew up in Leicester, England, where his father was the principal of the University College. David was the middle of three boys, his older brother was Richard (the actor and director) who died in 2014, and his younger brother was John (an executive at the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo) who died in 2012. All through his childhood, David collected fossils, stones and natural specimens, spending a lot of his time in the grounds of the University. Whilst growing up, he won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, (1945) to study geology and zoology, obtaining a degree in natural sciences.

Sir David was called up for National Service in the Royal Navy (1947), and he spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth. He married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel in 1950, and the couple had two children, Robert and Susan. ‘Life’ still had its impact on David, with his wife, Jane, dying in 1997, and David himself having a pacemaker fitted (2013) and a double knee replacement (2015).

“If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I’m not. I’m swanning around the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune”, Sir David commented in September 2013.

During his life, Sir David has also written several books: Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster 2002 / Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions 2017 / Journeys to the other Side of the World: Further Adventures of a Young Naturalist 2018 being among his autobiographies.

Giving a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Sir David said that humans were “the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth”, finishing the speech by saying: “in my lifetime I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery”. In 2022 (this year), Sir David Attenborough was recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme as a “champion of the Earth” — “for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration”.