David Attenborough’s 100th birthday is evidence there is hope in the world

Shall we take David Attenborough’s 100th birthday as evidence that there is hope in the world, that we can, in popular parlance, have nice things?

Attenborough would laugh at such an idea. He wouldn’t approve of such a woo-woo belief tying his continued existence to some kind of otherworldly spiritualism. He’s an agnostic, you know.

A living international treasure, Attenborough has spent eight decades dedicated to not just the natural world and the wonders of science, but to telling those stories to anyone and everyone who will listen.

How could humans understand its place in a vast, complex ecosystem if we don’t understand it? It’s the disconnection that has led to environmental catastrophe, born from the mistaken dogma that nature can be exploited and controlled.

Attenborough knows better, and through his countless documentaries, broadcasts, writings and more, he has endeavoured to share that knowledge. It’s not about humbling humans, although there is a bit of that, but about asking you to stop, look around and look deeper.

To mark this centenary milestone, Attenborough will be celebrated at an event at the Royal Albert Hall, to be screened in the UK on BBC, the public broadcaster he has worked with since the 1950s.

Ever gracious, in a pre-recorded message released on the eve of his birthday, Attenborough said, “I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.

“I’ve been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings, from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages. I simply can’t reply to each of you all separately, but I would like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages.”

The Natural History Museum in the UK has even named a species of parasitic wasp after Attenborough — the Attenboroughculus tau, a tiny insect discovered in its collections. It is only 3.5mm long and has a T-shaped marking on its stomach.

If you think something so small is not befitting a giant like Attenborough himself, it’s hardly the only time a species has been named after him. It’s not even the 50th occasion.

There have been butterflies (Euptchia attenboroughi), dragonflies (Acisoma attenboroughi), a gecko (Oedura attenboroughi), an orchid (Lepanthes attenboroughi),a long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi) and even a dinosaur (Attenborosaurus).

The Attenboroughculus tau may be tiny, but the Natural History Museum said it was too distinct from its closest relatives to be classified among another genus. It was its own thing.

That too goes for the man. A towering intellectual with an innate and insatiable curiosity, Attenborough’s greatest gift is his ability to connect with everyone around him. He doesn’t talk down to people. He exudes warmth, and he brings you along with him.

It’s that combination of qualities that makes him such an exemplary storyteller and broadcaster, and an unmatched chronicler of the planet we share. It’s because of Attenborough’s marvel and enthusiasm for, oh, say, how ants can defend an acacia tree, that we too can appreciate such a symbiosis of nature.

Attenborough was born the middle child of three brothers. Even in childhood, he collected fossils and specimens, and by the time he was 10 years old, after attending a lecture by conservationist Grey Owl, he realised the effect mankind’s activities had on nature.

He was educated at Cambridge where he graduated with a degree in natural sciences and then spent two years with the Royal Navy. He joined the BBC full time in 1952 and over his decades there, worked across a range of departments including as a programmer and controller.

But it was always the nature and natural history programs that sparked his greatest passions, and Attenborough came to be synonymous with the genre. He filmed documentary series and films all over the world, surveying the likes of the Galapagos, the Congo and the Zambesi River. He came to Australia multiple times.

Among his best known series was Life on Earth, a 1979 program in which Attenborough attempted to explore the evolution of life on this planet. It was a highly ambitious project that took years and involved the help of 500 scientists.

He brought into British lounge rooms the fossilised remains of jellyfish, hundreds of millions of years old, found within the Flinders Ranges, and explained how bats use sonar to hunt and ultrasound to communicate.

It was an unprecedented series that he followed with The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer and more, a collection that would span almost every type of living creature on Earth, whether in the coldest climes of Antarctica or in the humid Amazon.

Whether he was involved more intimately with aspects of production or lent his voice to one, such as he did with Planet Earth, Attenborough’s authority in the field has never diminished. If anything, it has only grown, especially as his work was discovered further afield around the world.

Through his decades of devotion, he became one of, if not the most influential figure in nature documentaries. He set the template for generations of filmmakers, and also awakened curiosity in children to engage with the natural world, to step through that metaphorical door.

Led by science and spurred on by care, Attenborough’s approach became the gold standard.

In more recent decades, he has become a fierce advocate for conservation and environmentalism. After all his time spent discovering and documenting nature, biodiversity and ecology, few are more qualified to speak on its behalf as the climate crisis worsened.

There are fewer still who have that credibility and the ability to communicate, to speak plainly and passionately, and with emotion.

Two recent films, Climate Change: The Facts in 2019 and Perfect Planet in 2021, are Attenborough’s efforts to directly address the crisis.

In 2020, in A Life on Our Planet, he talked about the changes he has seen in the environment across his career. A screening of his 2025 film, Oceans, coincided with a UN Ocean Summit in France.

At the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow in 2021, Attenborough spoke to the delegates and made an impassioned plea, as he pointed to the burning of fossil fuels, construction and carbon release in the destruction of nature.

He was forthright in his criticisms but also opened the door to action and optimism.

“Is this how our story is due to end? A tale of the smartest species doomed by that all too human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short term goals,” he said.

“Perhaps the fact that the people most affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generation, but young people alive today, perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph.”

Happy birthday, Sir David. We hope we don’t let you down.