Who’s Who in Green: Sir David Attenborough

For decades, Sir David Attenborough has been the voice of nature programs on the BBC, lending his narrative skills to such documentaries as Planet Earth. His thoughtful, understated yet emotional narration set the tone for hundreds of nature-themed television specials.  The famed naturalist may have stopped traveling the globe, but at 82 years old, he’s far from retired, still working on documentaries related to the natural world.

Attenborough, the younger brother of actor Richard Attenborough, first began his career in broadcasting in 1952 when he joined BBC Television.  In 1954, he began one of the most successful and adventurous series of his career, Zoo Quest, which took him to some of the wildest parts of the world for 10 years.  Attenborough – who, as Controller of BBC2, was responsible for the introduction of color television in Britain – took on increasing responsibilities at the network, becoming Director of Programs in 1969.

Editorial responsibilities didn’t fulfill his desire to travel and learn, however, so it wasn’t long before he was back on the road, hosting series like Eastwards with Attenborough and The Tribal Eye. In the late 1970s, Sir David Attenborough helped bring a passion for the environment to millions of viewers with the 13-part series Life on Earth, which was seen by 500 million viewers worldwide. Throughout the 1980s, Attenborough worked on such programs as The Living Planet, Trials of Life, The First Eden and Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives.

Since then, Attenborough has worked on such award-winning programs as The Private Life of Plants, Wildlife Specials and The Blue Planet. In recognition of his contributions to educational television programming, Sir Attenborough has been knighted, awarded with honorary degrees, and given prestigious awards including Fellowship of the Royal Society.  He is a trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens and is also President of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.

In 2006, viewers rated their favorite David Attenborough television moments in honor of the naturalist’s 80th birthday.  At number one came a sequence with the Lyre bird, which can imitate the sounds of cameras and chainsaws with astounding accuracy:

So famous is Attenborough’s signature delivery and pronunciation that he’s been spoofed time and time again on programs like South Park and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  The stark contrast between Attenborough’s soothing, observational narration and that of American nature program narrators with their loud, exclamation-point-laden, anthropomorphic style is also frequently noted.

That’s what makes Attenborough’s contributions to educational programs about the natural world so special.  He has provided a hushed, respectful excitement that brims with contagious wonder to nature programs that have shaped a love of the natural world for millions of people across the globe. Sir David Attenborough has left an indelible mark on nature-themed television programming, giving the new generation of narrators an awful lot to live up to.

Sir David Attenborough’s Green Score: 85,003

BBC Investigated After Global Warming Denier Claims Program ‘One-Sided’

Television watchdogs are investigating the BBC after a ‘leading climate change skeptic’ claimed that his views were ‘deliberately misrepresented’ in a program about global warming. Lord Monckton, a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, had been interviewed for the program by Dr. Iain Stewart, a geologist.  Monckton is accusing the BBC of unfair editing and called the program “a one-sided polemic for the new religion of global warming”.

From Mail Online:

Earth: The Climate Wars, which was broadcast on BBC 2, was billed as a definitive guide to the history of global warming, including arguments for and against.

‘I very much hope Ofcom will do something about this,’ he said yesterday.

‘The BBC very gravely misrepresented me and several others, as well as the science behind our argument. It is a breach of its code of conduct.

‘I was interviewed for 90 minutes and all my views were backed up by sound scientific data, but this was all omitted. They made it sound as if these were just my personal views, as if I was some potty peer. It was caddish of them.’

Ofcom confirmed it was looking into a ‘fairness complaint’ about the documentary.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We stand by the programme.’

This is the guy who played a key role in a legal challenge heard in the High Court in October 2007 in an attempt to prevent the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ from being shown in English schools.  Sorry, global warming deniers: you deserve every bit of ridicule thrown your way.  Especially this Lord Monckton – he’s such a nut, he calls for Mann, Bradley and Hughes (of the hockey stick graph) to be put on trial for genocide.  Indeed.

Link [Mail Online] + [Deltoid]

BBC Puts Reality TV Show Stars Out With the Trash- Literally

Talk about trash TV – Tune into BBC America this Sunday and you might just happen upon a gaggle of lost and forlorn Brits, rummaging through mounds and mounds of their own waste. No, not THAT kind of waste… get your filthy minds out of the sewer. We’re talking garbage here, folks. Sweet-smelling and abundant, beautiful and glorious: TRASH!

For a three week period, 11 landfill-rumaging dwellers made their ways through a dump, accepting challenges along the way that involved making the most out of the one thing that they had tons and tons of: crap. Dumped, a four part BBC series, means to draw attention to the dreadful UK landfill situation and airs until the end of March.

Compared to other European nations, the UK ranks low when it comes to recycling. It is estimated that each UK resident throws away 1/2 ton of trash each year, something that this whacked-out reality show is trying to make a stink about…

Links [Green Daily] & [BBC Dumped]