WILD’s favourite climate revivalists

1 David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is one of Britain’s most beloved figures; a broadcaster, natural historian and, at 94, a global superstar, his reign in the public eye has been defined by environmental benevolence.

Attenborough’s epic series about the natural world have been broadcast around the globe, making a name for him as the father of our planet. Travelling from the icy Edens of Antarctica to the momentous plains of Africa’s Serengeti, his documentaries established a new genre of wildlife film. It is now almost impossible to imagine a time when Attenborough wasn’t on our screens, narrating — in his signature comforting drawl — the epic fight between bison or the silent stalk of Africa’s biggest cats. At its finest, his storytelling reimagines the affairs of the natural world into awe-inspiring tales that have captured the imagination of the globe. The migration patterns of albatross and the reign of a queen ant in her colony are crafted into stories that sparkle and delight in a way only Attenborough has mastered.

Over the last 15 years, Attenborough’s stories have shifted from a natural history perspective to an environmental one. Initially peppered with conservation issues, they are now a rallying cry for a planet in 2017 ushered in a new urgency to Attenborough’s blockbuster epics and transformed popular attitudes towards single-use plastic and pollution. He is, on all accounts, credited with making the plastic straw the single most unfashionable accessory in the UK.