Free: Watch Our Planet, a Groundbreaking Nature Documentary Sequence Narrated by David Attenborough

The character doc­u­males­tary collection Our Plan­et opens with a star­tling­ly stark obser­va­tion cour­tesy of broad­solid­er, biol­o­gist, nat­ur­al his­to­ri­an, and creator Sir David Atten­bor­ough:

Simply 50 years in the past, we closing­ly ven­tured to the moon…

Since then, the human pop­u­la­tion has greater than dou­bled…

(and) Within the final 50 years, wildlife pop­u­la­tions have, on aver­age, declined by 60 per­cent.

The twelve-episode collection, nar­rat­ed by Atten­bor­ough, is the results of a four-year col­lab­o­ra­tion between Web­flix, Sil­ver­again Movies and the World Wildlife Fund. The cre­ators aren’t shy that it’s a race to beat the clock:

For the primary time in human his­to­ry, the sta­bil­i­ty of nature can now not be tak­en for grant­ed.

Slightly than take view­ers on a doom scroll of glob­al professional­por­tions, they cul­ti­vate their con­ser­va­tion­ist impuls­es with gor­geous, nev­er-before-filmed views of ice caps, deep ocean, deserts and dis­tant forests.

The excessive def footage of the mul­ti­tudi­nous crea­tures inhab­it­ing these realms is much more of a hook.

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Whether or not the body is crammed by a Philip­pine eagle chick, a herd of migrat­ing ele­phants, a hunt­ing Ben­gal tiger or a male orchid bee per­fum­ing him­self to wager­ter his possibilities of entice­ing a mate, Our Plan­et’s non-human stars are con­sis­tent­ly cap­ti­vat­ing.

A number of the footage speaks direct­ly to the onerous­ships these crea­tures are expe­ri­enc­ing as the results of cli­mate change, dwin­dling habi­tats, and oth­er hav­oc wreaked by our species.

Area professional­duc­er Ed Charles mentioned Atten­bor­ough remarked that the plight of a starv­ing polar bear and her cubs pad­dling across the Arc­tic Ocean looking for meals was “an actual coronary heart­break­er, and that it will cap­ture peo­ple’s imag­i­na­tions:”

This moth­er and her cubs ought to have been hunt­ing on the ice, even bro­ken ice. That’s the place they’re supreme­ly adapt­ed to be, however we discovered them in water that was open for so far as the attention might see. That’s the actual­i­ty of the world they reside in in the present day. Nature could be bru­tal. However to see this fam­i­ly with the cub, strug­gling as a result of no fault of their very own, it makes it very onerous.

Giv­en what number of non-human crea­tures’ fates hinge on human motion, and the movie­mak­ers’ purpose of assist­ing us “tru­ly beneath­stand why nature mat­ters to us all, and what we are able to do to reserve it, (so) we are able to cre­ate a future the place nature and peo­ple thrive”, it’s terrible­ly sport­ing of Web­flix to convey the collection out from behind its sub­scrip­tion pay­wall.

The primary sea­son can cur­hire­ly be loved free of charge on YouTube right here.

The movie­mak­ers additionally professional­vide a num­ber of free edu­ca­tion­al sources for colleges and youthful view­ers.

Not that we adults ought to sit again and look forward to the youthful gen­er­a­tion to bail us out of this appear­ing­ly insol­u­ble mess.

Our Plan­et’s net­website shares methods by which all of us can take an lively function in sav­ing and restor­ing pre­cious components of the plan­et our species has close to­ly destroyed.

Once more, it’s wager­ter than doom scrolling.

Con­sid­er our stay­ing jun­gles and rain­forests, “a nat­ur­al ally within the combat in opposition to cli­mate change” because of the incred­i­ble diver­si­ty of life they har­bor.

They assist reg­u­late glob­al weath­er, cool the plan­et by replicate­ing the solar’s warmth, gen­er­ate and ship out huge quantities of water, and take away automobile­bon from the atmos­phere.

Atten­bor­ough factors out that people have cleared jun­gle and for­est suf­fi­cient to satisfy­ing all future human demand for meals and tim­ber. The trick will likely be be taught­ing learn how to use this pre­vi­ous­ly cleared land extra effi­cient­ly whereas prac­tic­ing envi­ron­males­tal stew­ard­ship.

Indi­vid­u­als can begin by edu­cat­ing them­selves and maintain them­selves to a excessive stan­dard, refus­ing to purchase any merchandise whose professional­duc­tion is tied to defor­esta­tion.

Gov­ern­ments can supply finan­cial incen­tives to com­pa­nies with a confirmed com­mit­ment to utilizing this land in thought­ful, eco­log­i­cal­ly sus­tain­ready methods.

Slightly than suc­cumb to over­whelm­ing despair, take coronary heart from inno­va­tors breath­ing new life into a defor­est­ed a part of Brazil sev­en occasions the scale of the Unit­ed King­dom.

Eco­log­i­cal con­cerns didn’t appear close to­ly so press­ing when huge quantities of rain for­est as soon as occu­py­ing this land had been cleared as a way to pas­ture cat­tle. A scarcity of fore­sight and sus­tain­ready prac­tices led it to turn into so degrad­ed it might now not sup­port graz­ing.

(Cat­tle apart, birds, bugs, mam­mals, vegetation and oth­er for­mer inhab­i­tants had been additionally SOL.)

Slightly than lower down extra pre­cious jun­gle, path­blaz­ing envi­ron­males­tal imaginative and prescient­ar­ies are professional­mot­ing regen­er­a­tion with native seedlings, plant­i­ng fast-grow­ing, super-effi­cient crops, and restor­ing the jun­gle adja­cent to develop­ing areas as a type of nat­ur­al pes­ti­cide.

That professional­vides a glim­mer of hope, proper?

The 97-year-old Atten­bor­ough may even get on board with eco­tourism, a dangerous transfer giv­en how a big automobile­bon foot­print can trans­late to a dim pub­lic view.

Per­haps he’s financial institution­ing that first-hand encoun­ters with received­ders as soon as encoun­tered solely in doc­u­males­taries might assist maintain the plan­et spin­ning lengthy after we’re now not right here to bear wit­ness.

Watch the primary sea­son of Our Plan­et free of charge right here.

Relat­ed Con­tent 

David Atten­bor­ough Reads “What a Received­der­ful World” in a Mov­ing Video

How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Doc­u­males­taries: Meet the Artists Who Cre­ate the Sounds of Fish, Spi­ders, Orang­utans, Mush­rooms & Extra

Watch Younger David Atten­bor­ough Encounter Ani­mals in Their Nat­ur­al Habi­tats: Video from the Fifties and Sixties

– Ayun Hal­l­i­day is the Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine and creator, most up-to-date­ly, of Cre­ative, Not Well-known: The Small Pota­to Man­i­festo and Cre­ative, Not Well-known Activ­i­ty Guide. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.