It just doesn’t feel right not to at least acknowledge this milestone here.
Have you heard him speak… lately? His mental health is incredible. I wish I was even half as well-spoken as he is now – and he’s got 33 years on me.
Anyways (he said, less elegantly), a heartfelt salute to a man who has contributed so much to the world, and especially the world of natural sciences. He’s done more to promote general public awareness of ecological issues than almost anyone else I can think of.
Happy Birthday! Thank you for your dedication, your energy, and your ability to instill a love for the wonders of nature in a brilliant and illustrious career!
An incredibly good broadcaster and advocate for nature. I don’t know the extent of his global reach (it would be interesting to hear from people from other countries), but here in the UK I think it’s fair to say that he’s the closest thing that we have to a national treasure.
If anyone reads this thread and isn’t familiar with his work, I’d recommend watching some of his programmes. Some of the grand scale ones like Life on Earth and Living Planet, I’m sure, will be familiar to many, but I’d particularly recommend his Secret Garden series that highlights some of the wonderful wildlife that people have in their backyards.
Did you catch his latest on gorillas? Wow. That one really tapped into something special.
But that’s his magic. He is absolutely, genuinely so infectiously enthused about his subjects that it propels you to play close attention to what he’s communicating.
We say little here about the true spirit of observing – but I think what Sir D delivers, is a sincere sense of ‘awe’ that we all can share, and it’s this spirit that makes us reach further for deeper answers – and better questions!
Other than a quick snippet, I haven’t seen anything recent on Gorillas, but I remember his wonderful documentary from when I was a kid. That was breathtaking.
I’m from India and he’s very famous here as well! At least among the people who watch nature documentaries and stuff. Though that segment is also growing now imo.
His deep, sonorous voice as the background narration to some wonderful, spectacular shots of nature is a core memory for many.
He’s the voice of so many documentaries on TV! Whenever I think of one iconic line of his, it’s any sentence beginning with “This extraordinary creature…” as he points.
When I was a child I rewatched The Life of Birds and Blue Planet many times. Later I remember my family all watching Planet Earth together. I’m very glad those documentaries existed at the time to satisfy and inspire my curiosity.
Thanks for calling our attention to this!
I’m sorry to say that U.S. media has not paid much, if any, attention.
I read two major newspapers daily, and had to search his name to check. One of them, shockingly, has nothing; the other has a story in the “Lifestyle” section ?!?! (a section I never read, so I would’ve missed it.)
But the day is young, here… maybe something will appear? (hope springs eternal)
Thanks to everyone for the all the links.
Logged in to this forum today specifically looking for any sort of tribute or thread regarding David Attenborough on here, and was not disappointed.
Sir Attenborough, you are a living legend. Your voice, work and passion for our planet are an inspiration to myself and everyone on iNaturalist. A very happy 100th birthday to you!
The Life of Birds is such an incredible work of art. His narration is fantastic and the footage his camera operators recorded is truly remarkable. They recorded so many amazing bird behaviors for the first time for that series. Sir David is absolutely a gift to the world and he deserves all the honor on his centenary.
There are many “100th birthday” tribute videos on YouTube, as well. One good thing about being successful, and living a long time, is that they start making tribute videos when you get old, long before you hit 100.
Here is one such YouTube video from Australia — 43 minutes long — that stitches together many of the tribute videos that were made as he got older, including interviews with some of his staff.
One notable thing, in my opinion, is the lack of scandals. He has spent more time than any other human in natural environments that are very stressful for filming: muddy, too hot, too cold, terrible food, running out of time, running out of money . . . and yet, you never hear anyone saying he was demanding, or unreasonable, or difficult to work with. He seems to be a great human being!
When I lived in Borneo, I went to a lodge that he had stayed in. I managed to get them to move me into the “Attenborough Suite” (just a room!) All the staff remembered him being super kind and thoughtful, remembering all their names.
he is certainly well-known among nature documentary lovers in the US, at least in the past decade or so. sad to say the big mainstream ‘breakthrough’ BBC nature documentary series in the US, Planet Earth, replaced his narration (criminal!) with a US celeb. they did the same with some others, including 2009’s Life.
Life in the Undergrowth and Trials of Life are, in my biased opinion, two of the best (maybe the two best?) nature documentary series.
