I’m looking forward to Planet Earth 2 which starts this weekend (Sunday BBC1 8pm) – the trailer is amazing and so are these images.
What if? What if you could only watch this programme if you could prove that you had done something for wildlife this year? Or this week?
It’s not a serious suggestion but the serious point, and not a new one, is how do these documentaries translate into action for wildlife? I’m not for a moment suggesting that they don’t, but how much do we know about their impacts on people, their commitment to wildlife and their following actions to help conserve this planet’s unique plants and animals?
What is their legacy? What is their impact?
I’ll be watching anyway and am expecting a treat.
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I don’t watch any ‘soaps’, but wonder if more people would realise what is around them if somehow the occasional wildlife item could creep into the script! Maybe the next competition you have could be along these lines, Mark?!
Hopefully these documentaries inspire people with awe about nature and make them want to protect it.
However they have one serious negative aspect: they give people the impression they’re seeing what’s typical of the areas they show and that nature is thriving. Really of course, they are the exceptional places shown at the best times for seeing wildlife. No matter how much you tell people ‘this has been lost over much of xxx’, in their sub-conscious, what they see trumps the words, and they are left with the impression that ‘things are pretty much ok’. The reality, as we know, is a human-induced mass extinction. In that way, you’re doing the planet a real dis-service Sir David.
if only we could get him involved in a documentary on raptor persecution.
For anyone to claim to ‘Dislike’ this post seems to me pathological. That fella is obviously ‘playing the man’ again. Do tell who he is!
It’s a brilliant thought though Mark which I will now ponder, not driving though (tut-tut) bust having a good soak in the bath.
A very real issue, I think, is that if you compared the typical audience for such programmes with those that follow what Attenborough tries to say, when he gets a public platform, you may find the latter audience dominated by those “in the business”, the already converted (and hopefully pro-active).
For my own part, even when I’m in “my own patch”, it’s more observing than acting proactively, I will admit. But, in the last 3 years, I’ve cut down on BTO-type activity and tend to concentrate on the bigger issues, largely online. Take UK ospreys, for instance. You can just watch your favourite osprey project, either live or online, or you can interrogate what’s happening collectively, try to financially support one or more of them and keep up to date with the best information available on migration issues.
I think what I’m saying is that it’s EASY to become more proactive, caring and supportive if you think about it a bit.
It’s Sunday evening fodder. Looks lovely, technically brilliant, will appeal to mum, dad and the kids but translate into action? Thats not its job. It’s job is to entertain and make the BBC look good. It will achieve both those things. Just don’t expect hordes of eco-zealots to suddenly appear and demand we save the planet.
Very good questions, Mark. I suspect the majority of people enjoy the HD wildlife curled up on the sofa of a Sunday evening, but give it very little afterthought, despite the best efforts of Sir David. Attenborough’s documentaries inspired me and many others as a child, and continue to do so, but I fear we may be a minority.
Ooh, that reminds me – I must put some mealworms out for the hedgehogs…
At the Butterfly Conservation AGM today, probably the most inspiring speaker was a youngster from Aberdeen who spoke about her work in schools and the community. She showed such passion for wildlife.
She said that holding a moth in her hand when a child was the moment she decided to get involved with Lepidoptera and with their conservation……no mention of tv…
Nick
As a public service broadcaster, perhaps the BBC could (be required to) carry out follow-up consumer research in connection with its educational output. If the BBC then categorise these programmes as entertainment, that in itself will be revealing.
Personally, I am put off by BBC trickery such as including zoo animals. What I would be very much in the market for as a consumer would be a programme about the life of raptors, especially hen harriers and Kornweihen, their natural habits in the UK and in Germany. I would like this idea to be pitched to an independent production company, who would employ a top notch actor as narrator (David Tennant and Mark Rylance are easy on the ear as well as principled people). This program would motivate viewers to search for these birds and it would be only then that they would find about about their persecution and the villains in that plot.
I would keep things very simple, using nature sounds rather than musac and steering clear of celebrity presenters. I would make consumer research a key feature of the development of such a program.
It’s been a recurring criticism or at least comment on D.Attenborough’s output that he inadvertently presents a cosy image of the natural world that never gets to the nitty gritty of why it’s endangered and thereby gives a lead to viewers what they can do to save it. It’s a strong criticism of natural history programming full stop and incredibly frustrating. I remember in 1985 Gemima Parry Jones the falconer being interviewed on a kid’s programme and saying that we had to make a choice hardwood doors or wildlife. Never forgotten it, blunt summing up of what it’s all about. It’s still extremely rare today to get such a frank statement. The one person that really did do it well was David Bellamy. He was always a bit of a maverick which I respected because I felt he made valid points, but now I believe he has just become a contrarian and a bit of a pain. However, in his day I think he was peerless and because he managed to interweave environmentalism within natural history I felt he was actually a better broadcaster than Sir D – although I respect the latter enormously. I would love to see some of his old series such as Bellamy’s America being repeated, they were wonderful. There’s always been a dire shortage of that type of programming and we need more of it, green consumerism as a principle seems to have bitten the bullet. So much of the damage is caused by idiotic personal choices – e.g paying to shoot grouse.
I frequently have to give advice to people who have protected species on their property. I’ve lost count of the times that they’ve told me enthusiastically that they love wildlife and watch all the wildlife documentaries; then they realise that said wildlife does not just consist of attractive and unproblematic birds coming to their feeders but also species that might result in a delay to their plans to build their extension or convert their loft, and their enthusiasm for all creatures great and small wanes immediately. I’m not criticising this – it’s a natural reaction in the circumstances – but I have long believed that part of the problem is the total lack of coverage, in wildlife programmes or elsewhere, of the reality i.e. nature conservation is not just about the wildlife we go on holiday to see, but the animals that live in and around us. The problem of course is not just getting the coverage, but it being portrayed in a positive way. Springwatch/Autumnwatch would be a good start.
Did you see Channel 4’s China: Between Clouds and Dreams. Despite my usual fear of watching any wildlife or environmental offerings relating to China, I found this heart warming and hopeful. There was inspiring footage about the Spoon-billed sandpiper and the schoolchildren in China being taught about the importance of trying to protect and save this now endangered bird. Of special note were they would-be journalists, again young school children who were ‘reporting on the chemical factories and the problems facing the spoon-bills. I was left feeling that they should be running the country. Perhaps we could learn something from this….get the education bit right and we might stand some chance of a better future. More hopeful than the ‘clowns’ who are our parliamentarians running the show now.
I saw the programme and, like you, found it very inspiring.
Yes, me too. Will follow this series avidly. We toured China along the Yangtse in 2012. HUGE environmental issues but a lot of evidence that kids are being encouraged to challenge locally. The most worrying issue was the reference to the fate of fresh water from glacier depletion in the Himalayan region and how the country will cope. The Yellow River basin problems must tell them they’re in BIG trouble. Same problem, on a much bigger scale, as here in the UK………people are aware and proactive here and there but the proletariat isn’t listening; they have different priorities.
Personally, I find the glossy, artificiality of set-piece wildlife programmes a complete turn off! They do nothing but encourage a complacent escapism from what is really happening to planet earth. I fear that one day future generations will have precious little variety to look at except on a screen. Too pessimistic? – I hope so.