Living Planet: A new, fully updated edition of David Attenborough’s seminal portrait of life on Earth

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The Irrawady dolphin has declined by roughly 44% between 1997 and 2008. This species from South and South East Asia is threatened by pollution, habitat degradation/fragmentation, and entanglement in fishing gear. The effect of climate change on species is studied in a further report, Biodiversity In A Warming World , available here. While ‘ leaf-cutter ants’ - the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth, next to humans - make use of the grass and leaves for their survival, other animals like anteaters, thrive on these ants and insects. Then there are life forms, which burrow into these grasslands like ‘ burrowing owls’. In the savannahs of Africa, Attenborough introduces us to some great instances of large herds of animals migrating from one location to another based on seasonal changes. One of the examples that he refer is the case of a million strength herd of wildebeests that migrate across the Serengeti. Sir David Attenborough is Britain's best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly six decades.

It’s just so interesting. I really enjoy stuff like geography and the natural world so learning about stuff like this is fascinating to me. I really liked the way the sections were broken down as well, focusing on each “type” of environment as a whole – not even region specific, there are areas with the same or very similar environmental parameters and factors that stretch across the globe and many of those different locations have species that are very similar, sometimes the only real difference being the name they’re known by. In other places, plants and animals have evolved very specifically to suit their exact location, this seems especially true when that location is isolated, such as islands in the middle of the Indian or Pacific Oceans. An example is species of birds on some of these islands who, because of their remoteness, face no predators and so over the years, have lost their ability to fly simply because they do not need to anymore. The island provides everything they need to thrive and they have no need to leave it, nor any threats to fly away from. It’s more important than ever that we don’t feel hopeless, and celebrate the awe, beauty, and wonder that remains across the planet. This series will bring a new important insight into our increasingly fragile natural world by revealing the deep interconnectivity of all life on Earth.It was both a blessing and a curse. Between us, the crew spent a total of 797 days in quarantine - more than two years! But it was also an opportunity that allowed us to learn how to manage more of our shoots remotely, and to work with more talented local producers and cinematographers. 50 out of 134 of our shoots were carried out by local crews, with a member of the Planet Earth III team directing remotely from home. We met great local filmmakers like Abdullah Khan, who is a self-taught cameraman from Pakistan and who filmed the Indus river dolphin for us. Perhaps the funniest example of a remote shoot is the octopus sequence in Ocean – Director Will Ridgeon was at home in Bristol, directing a camera on a remotely operated vehicle thousands of miles away, two miles beneath the surface of the ocean. That certainly wouldn’t have been possible for the original Planet Earth…. Pan BBC sustainability

This included…weeks spent in hides on the freezing plains of the Eurasian Steppe where temperatures drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius; nearly a month in the caustic waters of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula to produce a stunning new story about a nesting flamingo colony; trekking for two days through the Vietnamese jungle with 500 kgs of equipment to reach the world’s largest natural cave, Hang son Doong, where the team then lived for 18 days underground (longer than anyone has ever spent in the cave before); and filming two miles below the surface of the sea using a deep sea submersible to reveal the first broadcast footage of the largest known gathering of octopus in the world. A new, fully updated narrative edition of David Attenborough’s seminal biography of our world, The Living Planet. Nowhere on our planet is devoid of life. Plants, animals and man thrive or survive within the extremes of climate and almost infinite variety of domicile which it offers. Single species and often whole communities, adapt to make the most of ice-cap and tundra, forest and plain, desert, ocean and volcano. The adaptations are sometimes extraorfinary: fish which walk or lay eggs on leaves in mid air; snakes that fly; flightless birds that graze like deer; and bears which grow hair on the soles of their feet. Please note that Sir David Attenborough will NOT be available for any interviews or photo opportunities connected with the launch of the Living Planet Report 2020. The report also highlights that 75% of the Earth’s ice-free-land has been significantly altered by human activity, and almost 90% of global wetlands have been lost since 1700.

A beautiful and wide ranging work. The breadth of natural history covered is extraordinary and mesmerising. Life on Earth is still breathtakingly rich, and we would know far less about it were it not for Attenborough’s wonderful skills of communication over the years: our cultural and scientific lives would be poorer without him’ New Scientist Broadcast 19 January 1984, the first episode begins in the world's deepest valley: that of the Kali Gandaki river in the Himalayas. Its temperatures range from those of the tropics in its lower reaches to that of the poles higher up. It therefore shows how creatures become adapted to living in certain environments. The higher that Attenborough travels, the more bleak and mountainous is the terrain, and the more suited to it are the animals that live there. However, such adaptations are comparatively recent: these mountains were formed from the sea bed some 65 million years ago. To show the force of nature responsible for this, Attenborough stands in front of an erupting volcano in Iceland and handles a piece of basalt; the Giant's Causeway is an example of what happens to it over a great length of time. The Icelandic volcanoes represent the northern end of a fissure that is mostly underwater and runs down one side of the globe, forming volcanic islands en route where it is above sea level. It is such activity, known as plate tectonics, from deep within the Earth that pulled apart Africa and South America and created the Atlantic Ocean. Footage of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 shows what decimation it caused. However, this pales in comparison to the destruction caused by Krakatoa in 1883, which Attenborough relates in detail. When such pressure beneath the Earth shifts, it results in hot springs and caverns – which themselves support life. This episode has the alternative title of 'The Furnaces of the Earth' on the 4-Disc BBC DVD box set (BBCDVD1234).

Only by p utting the environment at the heart of our decision making can we build a safe and resilient future for nature, people and our planet.” The story of the building of the Himalayas and their subsequent colonization by animals and plants is only one example of the many changes that are proceeding continuously all over our planet… Each of these physical changes demands a response from the community of plants and animals undergoing it. Some organisms will adapt and survive. Others will fail to do so and disappear. His writing is as impressive and as enjoyable as his TV programmes and there can be no higher praise” - Daily Express A new, fully updated narrative edition of David Attenborough’s seminal biography of our world, The Living Planet . Nowhere on our planet is devoid of life. Plants and animals thrive or survive within every extreme of climate and habitat that it offers. Single species, and often whole communities adapt to make the most of ice cap and tundra, forest and plain, desert, ocean and volcano. These adaptations can be truly fish that walk or lay eggs on leaves in mid-air; snakes that fly; flightless birds that graze like deer; and bears that grow hair on the soles of their feet.Bob Fosse: Steam Heat ( Great Performances) / Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre ( American Masters) (1990) In the UK, populations of grey partridge have declined by 85% and populations of Arctic Skua in Orkney have declined by 62%.