tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/david-attenborough-7171/articles
David Attenborough – The Conversation
2024-01-11T17:16:12Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220713
2024-01-11T17:16:12Z
2024-01-11T17:16:12Z
The animal sounds in most nature documentaries are made by humans – here’s how they do it and why it matters
<p>Wildlife documentaries like the BBC’s recent series, Planet Earth III, are renowned for offering breathtaking images of animals in their natural habitats. You’d be forgiven for thinking these shows offer an unmediated portrayal of these animals – an objective window into their lives as they hunt, rest and rear their young. But this isn’t quite the case.</p>
<p>While the images we see are filmed on location, many of the sounds are recorded and added to the programmes later. The sounds of animals walking, chewing food and panting, for example, are almost always recorded by human “<a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-foley-artist/">Foley artists</a>” in a sound studio far away from the filming location, often weeks or months later. Foley artists are specialists who produce bespoke sounds for film and television soundtracks.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Foley artists at work.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This curious fact is an inevitable consequence of modern wildlife filmmaking. A lot of wildlife documentary footage is shot using telephoto lenses that can zoom in on their subjects from a great distance. But sound recordists typically can’t get close enough to capture clear sound without disturbing the animals. </p>
<p>Wildlife documentaries also tend to require large crews. If sound were recorded on location, it would be muddied by background noises such as crew chatter or car engines. In other cases, the animals make sounds of a frequency or volume that most microphones simply can’t capture clearly. </p>
<p>In my research, I’ve talked to Foley artists who specialise in animal sound and observed them at work in their studios. </p>
<h2>How Foley artists work</h2>
<p>This Foley process generally involves deciding which of the animal’s actions or movements need sounds to be created for them, and then deciding on the specific qualities those sounds should have. </p>
<p>These decisions often involve the broader sound production team and sometimes the show’s director. The Foley artist then uses their creativity and resourcefulness to create the sounds. </p>
<p>So, what sorts of techniques do they use? It might seem cliched, but the professionals I’ve spoken to really do sometimes knock coconut shells against stone slabs to make the sound of horse footsteps. For an elephant, they might use rocks against a straw-covered tub of compacted earth. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcmhWs7HM1c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">More Foley artists at work.</span></figcaption>
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<p>A simple pitter-patter of the artist’s fingers in a water tank can create the sound of fish jumping across the surface of a lake, while a bundle of old VHS tape swished around a large water tank gives the sound of a shoal of fish moving through the ocean. </p>
<p>A pair of old leather gloves ruffled together quickly might be used to simulate the flutter of a bird’s wings as it takes off. And most artists will create the close-up sounds of animals chewing, panting or yawning with their own mouths. These sounds are created as the artist watches the footage on a monitor, making sure they perfectly match the actions they’re paired with. </p>
<p>There are some exceptions. Animal cries and roars – which are far too complex to be simulated artificially – tend to be taken from library recordings. And recent developments in microphone technology mean that sound recordists can begin to capture more sounds on location. But for the time being, Foley sound remains a staple of wildlife documentary production.</p>
<h2>Why Foley artist choices matter</h2>
<p>Watching Foley artists at work on wildlife projects gives me a thrill like the one we get when we see how a magic trick is done. But the significance of this technique goes further than that, because both the sounds that are attributed to animals and the nature of those sounds have the ability to affect how we perceive a given species. </p>
<p>On the one hand, a slithery, slimy sound may be matched to the image of a snake – even if a human would be unlikely to hear much if they were really stood next to the camera. Emphasising such an unnerving sound is unlikely to win the snake any new fans, whereas a soft yawn accompanying a close-up of a tiger cub may increase the sense of that animal’s cuteness or vulnerability. </p>
<p>Sounds guide our emotional interpretation of the things we see, and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/planet-earth-2-bbc-sound-effects-fake-a7438336.html">there have been complaints</a> about previous series of Planet Earth, when this audio guidance seemed too heavy-handed.</p>
<p>This matters because the popularity of certain animal species, driven by these documentaries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservation-shouldnt-be-a-popularity-contest-3529#:%7E:text=For%20species%20that%20are%20feared,or%20have%20their%20habitat%20destroyed">may affect support for conservation efforts</a>. Steven Spielberg’s fictional film Jaws (1975) made it clear that the way certain animals are portrayed in popular media can have very tangible real-world consequences. Spielberg himself has <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/steven-spielberg-regrets-how-jaws-impacted-real-world-sharks-180981335/">expressed regret</a> about the boom in shark hunting that the film may have encouraged by presenting the shark as both villain and potential trophy. </p>
<p>The use of Foley sound in wildlife documentaries is far more subtle, of course, but it still has the potential to affect how we perceive certain species. And it is all the more powerful because it often flies below the radar of our conscious attention. </p>
<p>So, while the masterful work done by Foley artists on wildlife programmes and films should be celebrated for its ingenuity and magical effects, perhaps it should also be taken as an invitation to think critically about exactly what we see, and hear.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Pollard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
If sound were recorded on location it would be muddied by background noises such as crew chatter or car engines.
Damien Pollard, Lecturer in Film, Northumbria University, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216854
2023-11-20T12:19:35Z
2023-11-20T12:19:35Z
Myths about plastic pollution are leading to public confusion: here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559909/original/file-20231116-24-7i6zsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5463%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/volunteer-collects-garbage-on-muddy-beach-1923099980">STEKLO/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does the prediction that there could be “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3408064/A-sea-plastic-Trash-outweigh-fish-ocean-just-30-years-unless-drastic-action-taken-recycle.html">more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050</a>” concern you? How about reports that “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/31/us/microplastic-credit-card-per-week/index.html">we eat a credit card’s worth of plastic per week</a>”? These are some of the “facts” about plastic that are cited by the media. </p>
<p>They are certainly compelling sound bites and help to focus public and policy attention on the pressing topic of plastic pollution, but their scientific basis is far from robust. </p>
<p>The scientists whose findings were used to support the “more plastic than fish” claim <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/fishy-figures-underpin-ministers-ocean-plastic-warning/">refuted this</a>. But one scientist who worked on the original source the estimation is based on has now updated his figures. The claim is further undermined by the assumptions the calculation is based on and an underestimate of fish stocks. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/research-calculates-human-consumes-less-than-a-grain-of-salt-of-microplastics-per-week.htm">Research</a> has also found that humans ingest less than a grain of salt of microplastics each week. This means that it would take around 4,700 years to ingest an amount of plastic equivalent to the weight of a credit card. </p>
<p>Over the past three years I’ve been interviewing households in the UK, Spain and Germany about plastics as part of a <a href="https://www.ukri.org/news/8-million-for-sustainable-plastics-research-projects/">project</a> focused on improving the recycling of plastic packaging. I’ve been struck by the level of confusion people have about the sources of and risks associated with plastic pollution. </p>
<p>So, in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.hereon.de/institutes/coastal_environmental_chemistry/index.php.en">Hereon Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry</a> and <a href="https://www.ahnenenkel.com">communications experts</a>, I have launched an online resource called “<a href="https://plasticmyths.coastalpollutiontoolbox.org/">Plastic Mythbusters</a>” that aims to debunk popular plastic myths that regularly feature in media. </p>
<p>Negotiations are currently under way in Nairobi, Kenya, at the UN Environment Programme headquarters, to develop a legally binding <a href="https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution">global plastics treaty</a> that covers the full life cycle of plastics – including their production, design and disposal. The <a href="https://ikhapp.org/scientist-about-us/">Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty</a> – a network of independent scientific and technical experts – are calling for decisions to be based on robust evidence.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-a-global-treaty-to-solve-plastic-pollution-acid-rain-and-ozone-depletion-show-us-why-207622">We need a global treaty to solve plastic pollution – acid rain and ozone depletion show us why</a>
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<p>The focus of the negotiations is understandably on research from the natural sciences. But what role does media play in shaping public and policy responses to the plastics crisis? </p>
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<h2>Images of plastic pollution</h2>
<p>The images of plastic pollution that are sometimes used by media are emotive and powerful, reaching vast numbers of people. The BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09g4d98/blue-planet-ii-series-1-3-coral-reefs">Blue Planet II</a>, which was broadcast worldwide in 2017, showed audiences the impact of plastic waste on the oceans through upsetting scenes. One scene depicted a pilot whale carrying her <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/heartbroken-blue-planet-ii-viewers-pledge-to-cut-plastic-waste-after-upsetting-footage-of-whale-with-dead-calf-poisoned-by-pollution-a3695596.html">dead newborn calf</a>, which narrator Sir David Attenborough said possibly died because the mother’s milk had been poisoned with plastic.</p>
<p>Scenes such as these are now synonymous with plastic pollution. They can raise awareness of the problem and help to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-prisms-plastics/article/global-perceptions-of-plastic-pollution-the-contours-and-limits-of-debate/DB3F2AF3F0A176C73CBF6CC9576713D3">shape the discourse</a> on environmental policy.</p>
<p>After Blue Plant II aired, online searches for “dangers of plastic in the ocean” <a href="https://rapidtransition.org/stories/the-attenborough-effect-and-the-downfall-of-plastics/">increased by 100%</a>. Michael Gove, UK environment secretary at the time, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/19/michael-gove-haunted-by-plastic-pollution-seen-in-blue-planet-ii">said</a> he was “haunted” by images of the damage done to the world’s oceans shown in the series and then introduced a series of proposals aimed at cutting plastic pollution. </p>
<p>However, there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-great-that-blue-planet-ii-is-pushing-hard-on-plastic-pollution-in-the-oceans-but-please-use-facts-not-conjecture-87973">no clear evidence</a> in the Blue Planet II sequence that the mother’s milk was actually contaminated with plastics. Imagery such as this can also promote the idea that plastic pollution is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X20300266">problem far removed</a> from our everyday lives and that our actions, whether it be dropping plastic litter or engaging in local clean up initiatives, will have little effect. There is still <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.280?campaign=wolearlyview">no robust evidence</a> linking Blue Planet II to a sustained change in people’s behaviours.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-great-that-blue-planet-ii-is-pushing-hard-on-plastic-pollution-in-the-oceans-but-please-use-facts-not-conjecture-87973">It’s great that Blue Planet II is pushing hard on plastic pollution in the oceans – but please use facts, not conjecture</a>
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<h2>Sidelining issues</h2>
<p>The way in which the media presents the issue of plastic pollution can shape the preference for certain solutions and sidelines others. For instance, many people <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X20300266">believe</a> that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a large collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean – is a solid mass. Framing the problem in this way assumes that plastic pollution can be removed from the ocean with the <a href="https://theoceancleanup.com/boyan-slat/">correct technology</a>.</p>
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<p>However, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0281596">scientists describe</a> the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as more akin to a “growing plastic smog” that does contain larger plastic items but is also composed of <a href="https://www.coastalpollutiontoolbox.org/112202/index.php.en">trillions of micro and nanoplastics</a> spread over large distances. </p>
<p>Experts <a href="https://hereon.de/innovation_transfer/communication_media/news/112329/index.php.en">point out</a> that technical fixes are not always the answer, particularly where plastic is spread over huge areas resembling a very thin “plastic soup”. In such cases, technical fixes are less practical, especially when considering the continuous addition of more plastic due to unchecked production. </p>
<h2>Power of media to set the agenda</h2>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(23)00497-9">growing consensus</a> advocating for investment in measures to curb plastic production, rather than investing in costly technical clean-up efforts. However, by emphasising the individual responsibility of consumers to, for example, avoid single-use plastics, media coverage can divert conversations away from reducing plastic production.</p>
<p>The connection between plastics and climate change, or the impact of plastics on global biodiversity loss, are also not often covered by the media as much as emotionally charged images depicting marine animals entangled in plastics.</p>
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<img alt="Green sea turtle entangled in a discarded fishing net." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559908/original/file-20231116-15-nvkm9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Green sea turtle entangled in a discarded fishing net.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/green-sea-turtle-entangled-discarded-fishing-783912829">Mohamed Abdulraheem</a></span>
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<p>The original focus of the global plastics treaty was on marine litter, but it now encompasses the full life cycle of plastic pollution on all ecosystems. This includes plastic pollution in the atmosphere, and in marine, terrestrial and high altitude environments. This wider scope opens up the opportunity to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-prisms-plastics/article/global-perceptions-of-plastic-pollution-the-contours-and-limits-of-debate/DB3F2AF3F0A176C73CBF6CC9576713D3">explore public perceptions</a> of the full life cycle of plastics.</p>
<p>The media is an invaluable resource that can play a key role in shaping how people perceive various issues. However, while it can effectively highlight the dangers of plastic pollution, there is a risk that an excessive reliance on emotive imagery may distract away from the policy that is actually needed. </p>
<p><em>In response to this article, a BBC spokesperson said that there is significant scientific evidence that contaminants found in some plastics can accumulate in fish and be ingested by adult whales. Those contaminants are then passed on to the offspring through the mother’s milk.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Henderson receives funding from UKRI/NERC/Innovate UK/ GCRF/ European Space Agency.</span></em></p>
Media coverage of the dangers of plastic pollution can distract from what is actually needed, says an author.
Lesley Henderson, Chair professor, University of Strathclyde
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216466
2023-11-06T15:50:08Z
2023-11-06T15:50:08Z
Planet Earth III: how cookie cutter nature programming could fail to educate and inform audiences
<p>Perhaps nothing embodies the BBC’s values of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/mission">inform, educate and entertain</a> more than its nature documentaries. <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/planet-earth-iii">Planet Earth III</a> is the latest in a proud tradition going back to the founding of the BBC <a href="https://productions.bbcstudios.com/our-production-brands/the-natural-history-unit">Natural History Unit</a> in 1957 and has everything devoted fans (myself included) expect. </p>
<p>There are sweeping shots, a soaring orchestral soundtrack, and exciting scenes of hunting, courtship and breeding. Tender family relations, desperate chases and amazing survival stories are all narrated in Sir David Attenborough’s signature style. Planet Earth III brings us all the beauty and wonder we know and love – which may be a problem when it tries to sound an urgent warning about the future of our world. </p>
<p>In terms of its story, Planet Earth III warns of environmental catastrophe more than any similar BBC show before it. The second episode includes a heartbreaking scene of seals caught screaming in a fishing net and ends with a question: can animals really adapt to survive our changing planet? </p>
<p>Part of this new willingness from the BBC to tackle environmental collapse head-on is due to the climate and ecological crisis that has become increasingly obvious and urgent. But another cause can be found in another crisis the BBC is facing. </p>
<p>What we might call the “planet format” has become so perfected and so popular, that the BBC’s competitors are eager to pick it up themselves. The format is a good fit for streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Apple+. But with them all creating similar programmes, what effect does that have on their ability to inform, educate or entertain?</p>
<h2>Comforting catastrophe</h2>
<p>Nature and wildlife stories are universally engaging and are great for showing off high budgets and virtuoso filmmaking. Copyright laws can protect a show’s characters or plot, but not a visual, musical or storytelling style. </p>
<p>This has led to many competitors fighting for a slice of this global market with shows that look, feel and sound virtually the same. Netflix has expanded their scope with <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80049832">Our Planet, Our Planet II</a> and <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81243961">Our Universe</a> (2022). Apple+ came out with <a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/prehistoric-planet/umc.cmc.4lh4bmztauvkooqz400akxav">Prehistoric Planet</a> (2022). The format – from the timbre and rhythm of Attenborough’s narration to the style of shots – is even now used globally in productions like the Indian <a href="http://www.wildkarnataka.com/">Wild Karnataka</a> (2019). </p>
<p>It’s good to have more documentaries tackling the collapse of the natural world. But, I do wonder, what effect their looking and sounding the same might have on their ability to really educate audiences about the climate crisis and communicate the urgency of it. These stories all follow a single format, comforting in its familiarity but should anything that seeks to educate about climate catastrophe be comforting?</p>
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<p>The planet formula is not just the stories it tells – it’s also how it tells them. Whether Planet Earth or Our Planet, Wild Karnataka or for the BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f0t5dp">Wild Isles</a> (2023), the sweeping shots of pristine wilderness, the striking views and the orchestral music are the same. And the main emotion this formula works to inspire is not urgency, but awe. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://cms.bbcearth.com/sites/default/files/2022-04/bbcw-real-happiness-white-paper-final-v2-58ac1df7_2.pdf">academic report</a> commissioned by the BBC tells us that watching nature documentaries can soothe climate anxiety. This may seem paradoxical when the narration tells us about the loss of precious species and habitats. But consider what the format spends most of its time showing us: untouched landscapes unfolding endlessly from the air, beautiful animals in super high definition, and no humans in sight. Even Attenborough is only present through his calm and grandfatherly tone. </p>
<p>Neither Netflix nor anyone else has attempted to change these features: they are baked too deeply into the successful formula, and keeping to the formula is what keeps audiences coming. The narration in Planet Earth III might be telling us that time is running out to act, but the show invites us to sit back and absorb. </p>
<p>There is also the question of diversity. The climate crisis is a global problem with many faces, but the BBC’s planet format was born out of a particularly British tradition of nature programming. What do we lose when environmental stories are all told through the same lens and speak with the same voice?</p>
<h2>Tackling climate change head on</h2>
<p>The increase in competition has led to one important change. Produced by the BBC’s frequent partner Silverback, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aETNYyrqNYE">Our Planet</a>, which was released in 2019, was shot and edited in the same familiar and beloved style and featured the same type of animal stories. The first season did, however, offer one distinct competitive edge: a clear focus on environmental issues, which the BBC’s had been sorely lacking.</p>
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<p>The BBC’s nature documentaries have come under <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/01/planet-earth-ii-david-attenborough-martin-hughes-games-bbc-springwatch">considerable criticism</a> over the years for not addressing the climate and ecological crisis. Historically, the BBC had chosen to <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2014/04/02/false-balance-in-climate-reporting-reveals-bbcs-sensitivity-to-political-pressure/">stay neutral on the debate about human-caused global heating</a> and this decision affected the Planet shows. </p>
<p>To undermine their rival, Netflix partnered with the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/our-planet">World Wildlife Federation</a> for Our Planet and widely promoted the show’s environmental message to audiences. The streaming platform presented itself as more progressive and cutting-edge than the staid and conservative BBC.</p>
<p>It was now survival of the fittest in the field of nature documentaries and this was not a bad thing for the BBC who now had to adapt and improve their nature content in the face of competition by explicitly tackling climate. </p>
<p>This one change, while great and urgently needed, has been quickly folded into the planet format and is a feature of all subsequent nature shows. This one change was not enough.</p>
<p>The popularity of nature documentaries means they can play an important role in making audiences aware of the state of our world. But for the Planet format to survive in the changing media ecosystem, the TV industry must keep an eye on whether and how it can continue to evolve. </p>
<p>We are seeing this happen as Planet Earth III shows the BBC rising to Netflix’s challenge by focusing on environmental issues. This is an encouraging sign but more innovative programming is needed. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leora Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This season places environmental issues front and centre more than any BBC nature programme before it.
Leora Hadas, Assistant Professor, Film and Television Studies, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174752
2022-01-12T13:38:21Z
2022-01-12T13:38:21Z
Five fascinating insights into the inner lives of plants
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440454/original/file-20220112-25-zmd311.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7289%2C4772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-plant-growing-sunlight-609086588">Romolo Tavani/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Approximately 4.5 billion years ago, Earth’s land surface was barren and devoid of life. It would take another 2 billion years for the first single-celled organisms to appear in the ocean, including the first algae <em><a href="http://www.jsjgeology.net/Grypania-spiralis.htm">Grypania spiralis</a></em>, which was about the size of a 50 pence piece.</p>
<p>Plants composed of many cells have only been around for a mere 800 million years. To survive on land, plants had to protect themselves from UV radiation and develop spores and later seeds which allowed them to disperse more widely. These innovations helped plants become one of the most influential lifeforms on Earth. Today, plants are found in every major ecosystem on the planet and scientists describe more than 2,000 new species every year.</p>
<p>David Attenborough’s new documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013cl7">The Green Planet</a> casts the spotlight on plants and their ability to inspire us. In just one recent example, engineers have successfully mimicked the shape of winged maple seeds <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Maple-Seed-Performance-as-a-Wind-Turbine-Holden-Caley/4f5e2060500f2cd06ab63bbdf74024fdbf0c0f16">to design</a> new wind turbines.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BoKyMzsa4Xs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Plants retain many secrets which scientists have yet to discover. But here are five discoveries which helped us see our distant green cousins in a new light.</p>
<h2>1. Plants ‘talk’ to each other</h2>
<p>Of course, plants do not possess vocal cords and so cannot talk like we do. But they do use chemical and electronic signals to coordinate responses to their environment.</p>
<p>When plant cells are damaged, like grass cut by a lawnmower, they release protein fragments which can be detected by surrounding plants. It’s like a neighbourhood watch system: when one plant is harmed, the others are notified that there is danger nearby. This can trigger an immune response or other defences.</p>
<p>Similarly, plants can detect pollinators in their vicinity and release chemicals to attract them. These signals make plants very complex communicators.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tropical flowering plant covered in large, green ants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440452/original/file-20220112-21-ughdth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plants can attract insects to do their bidding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Dallimore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Plants can move</h2>
<p>In his seminal book <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/power-of-movement-in-plants/9B9B104AB3638E43936A34F1FB73E393">The Power of Movement in Plants</a>, published in 1880, Charles Darwin described the ability of plants to move away or towards light. Scientists call this phototropism. Plant movements are now known to not only be guided by light, but also water, nutrients and in response to grazing by animals and competition from other plants. </p>
<p>Plants may appear frozen in place, destined to remain where their seeds germinate. But in fact, plants constantly adjust their leaves, roots and stems to improve their chances of survival. For example, the shaded sides of stems always grow longer to ensure the plant grows towards light in a process mediated by hormones. Roots show the opposite effect, causing them to grow away from the light. </p>
<p>In some extreme cases, plants can even move across an entire forest. Nomadic vines grow upwards from the bottom of a tree trunk then detach from the soil. Later, they put down aerial roots and descend again, allowing them to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2261006?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">move between trees</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Plants can grow in outer space</h2>
<p>The idea of traversing space and living on other planets has long excited the human imagination. But no planets with the same environment as Earth have been found. We know plants are experts at modifying environments to suit the needs of more complex life. As early forests began photosynthesising, they oxygenated Earth’s atmosphere and drew down CO₂, making the planet more hospitable.</p>
<p>Could growing plants on distant planets make them more suitable to our needs? During the space race between the USSR and the US in the 1950s and 1960s, scientists studied how plants grow and develop in space. So far, scientists have grown 17 different species of plants in specialised chambers, including crops like <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-astronaut-paints-a-picture-of-success-growing-plants-in-space">corn, wheat, tomatoes and lettuce</a>. Big challenges to growing Earth’s plants outside our atmosphere remain, including radiation during space flight and differences in gas movements in space compared to Earth. If you think it’s hard to keep a plant alive at home, try doing it in space.</p>
<p>The ability to terraform a planet – making it suitable for humans to live on – remains elusive. But major progress in plant science over the last few years make this an achievable target, perhaps within the lifetime of people alive today.</p>
<h2>4. One in ten plants grow on other plants</h2>
<p>Often towering tens of metres tall are some of the largest organisms on the planet. Redwood trees, for example, can grow over 100 metres tall. Scientists first began studying their lofty forest canopies by training monkeys or employing skilled climbers to collect samples. Some even used shotguns to shoot down samples. </p>
<p>It was not until the 1980s that canopy research became a scientific discipline in its own right, with the use of rope climbing techniques borrowed from mountaineering. Later, cranes, balloons and drones joined the toolset of many scientists. But why risk your life to climb a tree? What’s up there? </p>
<p>It’s estimated that up to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534717300599">80% of species</a> in a forest either use or live their entire lives in the forest canopy. One in ten of all known species of vascular plants – species which use vein-like vessels to transport water and nutrients throughout their body – grow on top of other plants. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tree whose bark is concealed by green and fuzzy plants growing on its surface." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440453/original/file-20220112-21-1khse3w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tree in Papua New Guinea covered in epiphytic ferns and orchids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thom Dallimore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are called epiphytes. They are not parasites, but instead use their host for physical support. This gives them an advantage over plants growing in the forest understorey, where light is scarce. Most orchids grow on trees and a single tree can hold as many as 50 species of epiphyte. Often, these epiphytes put out more leaves than their host tree. </p>
<h2>5. Plants can indicate global change</h2>
<p>Organisms are very sensitive to changes in their environment and plants in particular have been used to detect these changes for centuries. When leaves start to change colour in autumn, it usually heralds the arrival of cooler and darker months. </p>
<p>Certain species of ferns are particularly vulnerable to changes in their local climate. Filmy ferns grow in shaded regions of tropical forests, usually near the bases of trees or on wet rocks. They rely on water and low temperatures, and are good indicators of oncoming drought and rising temperatures.</p>
<p>Since the 1980s, the global average temperature has been rising as a direct result of burning fossil fuels like coal, which was deposited by plants millions of years ago during the early formation of forests. We are living in a time of change and understanding how plants respond to changes in climate can help us to prepare ourselves for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sven Batke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
David Attenborough’s new BBC documentary The Green Planet shows plants are stranger than they first appear.
Sven Batke, Lecturer in Biology, Edge Hill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152193
2021-01-05T16:31:28Z
2021-01-05T16:31:28Z
Why David Attenborough cannot be replaced
<p>At a recent event on the history of wildlife documentaries, I was asked a question that has popped up regularly in my <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030199814">15 years of research</a>: “Who, do you think, will replace David Attenborough?”</p>
<p>Now that Sir David is gradually drawing his career to a close with the latest BBC documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08xc2lh">A Perfect Planet</a>, the question appears more topical than ever. But still nobody has emerged to replace him at the top of the food chain. The short answer is that no one can replace David Attenborough because wildlife television – in Britain at least – is constructed around him. Take him away and the whole thing needs to be reinvented.</p>
<p>That Attenborough is irreplaceable has nothing to do with his exceptional individual qualities, but owes everything to the way he’s reached his position as the front-of-the-house person of British wildlife television. For sure, he is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/sir-david-attenborough-the-mesmerising-storyteller-of-the-natural-world-58949">mesmerising storyteller</a>. Yet wildlife television as it is experienced in Britain today came into being over several decades, and one outcome of this process was to establish Attenborough’s skills and approach as the gold-standard, and the man himself as the queen in the hive.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/692fiaoJWy8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Attenborough has been on TV since the days of clipped ‘BBC English’ accents.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attenborough began his work at the BBC in 1953. At the time, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-gloucestershire-35541103">Peter Scott</a> was the voice and face of nature on British television. Scott’s series Look was the BBC’s flagship programme and the standard every aspiring wildlife filmmaker aimed for. </p>
<p>With Look, Scott had transferred radio programmes to TV, adding images to the spoken word. In each episode, Scott introduced the work of amateur wildlife cameramen, on which he would improvise a loose commentary, before engaging in a rather guarded conversation with the filmmaker.</p>
<p>By contrast, at the same time, Attenborough was busy producing the successive Zoo Quest series. By the end of the decade, these story-based, scripted programmes, which took viewers on an adventure of discovery had become the most popular animal programmes on British television.</p>
<p>In 1965, Attenborough became BBC Two controller. In the years that followed, the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol began to diversify its output. One strategy was to turn to Attenborough. </p>
<p>First as a model, when for example the unit recruited the naturalist Gerald Durrell to appear in clones of the Zoo Quest programmes in which Durrell could be seen collecting animals for his Jersey Zoo. Then as a contributor, in an effort to import “the Attenborough style” from London to Bristol, notably his habit of scripting in detail the commentary for his programmes, paying close attention to how the words matched the images.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with bird on his back kneels beside his daughter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377205/original/file-20210105-23-10hvvg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attenborough, his daughter, and a sulphur-crested cockatoo, 1957.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA Archive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During his tenure in BBC management from 1965 to 1972, Attenborough profoundly reformed wildlife television. Getting rid of Look, he severed the link with amateur natural history, instead forging an association with scientists working on animal behaviour and evolution through programmes such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbchistoryresearch/entries/e9c3c4e7-33c8-4b9a-a0fb-9121cc47a7d5">Life</a>. </p>
<p>He also promoted the use of pre-recorded material over live sequences, instituting post-production as the key moment in wildlife television-making. Tightly controlled visual performances resting on skilled presenters could then be assembled to produce specific effects on viewers. </p>
<p>When, in November 1972, David Attenborough resigned from his managing position to become a freelance programme maker for the BBC, the professional culture of wildlife television making had changed in such a way that it was easier for him to play a central role in it as a presenter.</p>
<p>From the moment he became a freelancer, the BBC took an active part in fashioning David Attenborough as the voice and face of nature on British television. One of his first contracts with the Natural History Unit was to record the commentary for several episodes of the BBC film-based series The World about Us, which Attenborough himself had launched in 1967 when controller of BBC Two. </p>
<p>Then came Eastward with Attenborough in 1973. The series set in Borneo was meant to reconnect Attenborough with his public. Positive reviews framed the series as the return of the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030199814">prodigal son of wildlife television</a>. And in 1977 he became the narrator of the weekly series Wildlife on One, which ran until 2005.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Street art of David Attenborough and a colourful bird" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377209/original/file-20210105-15-l7rryo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Attenborough mural in London, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34427470616@N01/47737516472">Duncan C / flickr; artist: ketones6000</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it was with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b01qjcmb/life-on-earth">Life on Earth</a> (1979) that a new approach to producing wildlife television that rested entirely on Attenborough’s performance materialised. Scripting the series and working hand in hand with the producers in Bristol, Attenborough invented for himself the pivotal role of wildlife television writer and performer, wildlife storyteller. </p>
<p>In this role, he did not work for the series producers. Instead they worked for him, providing him with the visual background for his storytelling performance. Attenborough was aware that Life on Earth would consolidate his reputation, as he opposed any contract that would replace him with another presenter for the American version.</p>
<p>The decades since have been dominated by documentaries that are entirely dependent on Attenborough’s involvement and revolve around his performance as a wildlife storyteller. Replacing him will entail changing the very style of programmes that are produced. </p>
<p>Just like a new queen bee has to leave the hive and establish its own colony, for another personality to rise and become as central to wildlife television as David Attenborough is today, wildlife television will have to be reinvented, and different ways of showing nature on TV will have to be found. </p>
<p>What these will be, nobody can predict. My hunch is that it might involve fewer grand vistas and a return to amateur natural history with more down-to-earth, “wildlife on your doorstep” kind of programming.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Baptiste Gouyon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Wildlife television as we know it was constructed around Attenborough. Take him away and the whole thing needs to be reinvented.
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, Associate professor in Science Communication, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146127
2020-09-14T14:13:46Z
2020-09-14T14:13:46Z
‘Extinction: The Facts’: Attenborough’s new documentary is surprisingly radical
<p>We have learned so much about nature from David Attenborough’s documentaries over the past seven decades. In a new BBC film he lays bare just how perilous the state of that nature really is, why this matters for everyone who shares this planet, and what needs to change.</p>
<p>This film is radical. Surprisingly radical. I have written in the past about <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-planet-is-billed-as-an-attenborough-documentary-with-a-difference-but-it-shies-away-from-uncomfortable-truths-114889">my growing frustration</a> with Attenborough documentaries continuing, decade after decade, to depict nature as <a href="https://thinkinglikeahuman.com/2013/01/18/the-bbcs-africa-as-middle-earth/">untouched by</a> any mark of humans. I felt this might be contributing to <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10052">unhelpful complacency</a> about how much “wild” was really left. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mn4n/extinction-the-facts">Extinction: The Facts</a>” is a significant departure. As one of the programme’s talking heads, I helped reveal the honest truth: in most places, remaining natural habitats <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12558">are squeezed</a> between intensive agriculture and urban sprawl. </p>
<p>The film starts with a bleak interview with <a href="https://www.mountainfilm.org/festival/personalities/james-mwenda">James Mwenda</a>, the keeper of the world’s last two northern white rhinos; a mother and daughter pair. “When Najin passes away”, says Mwenda, “she will leave the daughter alone forever … Their plight awaits 1 million more species”.</p>
<p>This sequence has a real emotional kick. However, the film makes clear that extinction is about so much more than the loss of <a href="https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-gb/">large familiar mammals</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Combine harvesters drive through a huge flat field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357912/original/file-20200914-16-1g20eux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The film looks at soy plantations in Brazil, one of the world’s biggest causes of biodiversity loss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">lourencolf / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Everything is joined up, from a single pond to a whole tropical rainforest” says <a href="https://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-katherine-willis">Kathy Willis</a> professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford. “We tend to think we are somehow outside of that system. But we are part of it; and totally reliant upon on it”. The film goes on to explain the impacts of biodiversity loss on our soil functioning (with a star turn from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxp1nnrUG0Q">below-ground beasties</a> breaking down leaf litter), the role of insects in pollinating our crops, and how losing trees and wetlands can contribute to landslides and floods.</p>
<p>The potential link between the drivers of biodiversity loss and emerging diseases is also explored. The wildlife trade brings 1,000s of stressed animals into close contact, providing the perfect opportunity for <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6502/379.summary?casa_token=RUFxOZdGEWkAAAAA:ujXLY-maf7gZN0cIAfHtqRH8Q0_3gRz2DDEG5-0quEd4XN5nQKRMNXhbtFpOOY1wFXbTZr25EC0B70o">viruses to jump</a>) between species. At the same time, removing large predators results in increased abundance of <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7039.short">rodents</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966842X14002480?casa_token=u5HI-pSi-EoAAAAA:keb7yUF9L5nU-yoU6jpBhVCuPTQzD16jdfXnkL9Ass9Wm5I81AN4sMlRoAwh4sD1-_rSUOd7kFQ">bats</a> which are more likely to carry <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2562-8">dangerous viruses</a>. “We’ve been changing biodiversity in critical ways which made [the pandemic] more likely to happen”, says Peter Daszak of Ecohealth Alliance.</p>
<p>In footage from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, then 12-year-old <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJGuIZVfLM">Severn Suzuki</a> addresses the largest UN meeting to have ever convened. “We are a group of 12 and 13 years olds come to tell you adults that you must change your ways”. The parallels with Greta Thunberg’s recent high-profile <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit">speech to the UN</a> serve to highlight how little progress has been made.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An ant climbs down a hole in sandy soil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357918/original/file-20200914-20-1mq0fgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unglamorous soil species are just as important as big mammals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">frank60 / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So if biodiversity loss is so obviously happening, and so obviously a bad thing for the future of humanity, why have we failed to act and what needs to be done? </p>
<p>Firstly, the film makes it clear that a key ultimate driver is consumption in rich countries. Given that the average Brit consumes more than <a href="http://data.footprintnetwork.org/#/">four times the resources</a> of the average Indian, reducing consumption in places like the UK is vital. This need not be painful. As the eminent Cambridge economist <a href="http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/emeritus/pd10000">Partha Dasgupta</a> says, “40 years ago people in the UK consumed a good deal less. But there is no evidence that we were unhappier then”. The film starkly highlights what we are losing in exchange for out-of-season food, fast fashion and cheap poultry.</p>
<p>Secondly, having strong environmental standards for things produced in the UK (important though it is), is not enough. We also need to consider where the products we buy and the food we eat comes from – if not, people in countries like the UK are simply offshoring environmental problems for others to deal with.</p>
<p>Finally, the film touched on the need to make us pay the true cost of the environmental damage we do. The idea that businesses should not be able to degrade our environment for free is <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230249318">far from new</a>. However, despite some progress with policies like the UK’s landfill tax or California’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-cap-and-trade-systems-offer-evidence-that-carbon-pricing-can-work-101428">carbon trading scheme</a>, most societies are far from doing this comprehensively.</p>
<p>Together, this is what makes the film so radical. It is explicitly calling for major changes in the way our economies work with a greater focus on both <a href="https://www.kateraworth.com/">planetary boundaries and global inequality</a>. I was certainly surprised to see this weaved into a Sunday night BBC prime time show.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man hangs out with gorilla." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357913/original/file-20200914-16-1clye3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The young gorillas Attenborough met in 1978 now have dozens of children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Towards the end, the film moves back to more conventional conservation territory to insert a much-needed dose of <a href="https://conservationoptimism.org/">optimism</a>. The final story includes some of the most iconic footage from Sir David’s career: his meeting with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=351001986277682">Rwanda’s mountain gorillas</a> 40 years ago. At the time, Attenborough felt he might be seeing some of the last of their kind – just 250 individuals were left and their future looked bleak. Today that population is <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/red-list-status-mountain-gorilla-and-fin-whale-improved-conservation">doing much better</a>.</p>
<p>Over his incredible career, David Attenborough has seen more of earth’s natural wonders than almost anyone. To hear him talk, with such clarity, about how bad things are getting is deeply moving. Scientists have recently demonstrated what would be needed to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2705-y">bend the curve</a> on biodiversity loss. As Attenborough says in the final scene, “What happens next, is up to every one of us”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia P G Jones appears in the programme Extinction: The Facts</span></em></p>
A conservation scientist interviewed on the programme says Sir David tells it like it is.
Julia P G Jones, Professor of Conservation Science, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/129139
2020-01-22T02:50:38Z
2020-01-22T02:50:38Z
As Earth’s population heads to 10 billion, does anything Australians do on climate change matter?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311036/original/file-20200121-145010-1ri1l23.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4960%2C3994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The United Nations predicts the world will be home to nearly 10 billion people by 2050 – making global greenhouse emission cuts ever more urgent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/90008/night-light-maps-open-up-new-applications">NASA/Joshua Stevens</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As unprecedented bushfires continue to ravage the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his government have been rightly <a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-your-people-scott-morrison-the-bushfires-demand-a-climate-policy-reboot-129348">criticised</a> for their reluctance to talk about the underlying drivers of this crisis. Yet it’s not hard to see why they might be dumbstruck. </p>
<p>The human race has never had to grapple with a problem as large, complex or urgent as climate change. It’s not that there aren’t solutions available. There are already some hopeful signs of an <a href="https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/resources/resources-hub/clean-energy-australia-report">energy transition</a> in Australia. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-could-fall-apart-under-climate-change-but-theres-a-way-to-avoid-it-126341">Professor Ross Garnaut</a> has explained, it would be in Australia’s economic interests to become a low-carbon energy <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/superpower">superpower</a>.</p>
<p>To successfully tackle climate change will require some painful transitions domestically, and unprecedented levels of international coordination and cooperation. But that isn’t happening. Global action to cut emissions is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3352">falling far short</a> of what’s needed – and meanwhile, though it’s controversial to mention, the world’s population quietly climbs ever higher. </p>
<h2>Our growing population challenge</h2>
<p>The United Nations’ <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/world-population-prospects-2019-highlights.html">World Population Prospects 2019 report</a> forecast that by 2027, India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country. </p>
<p>By 2050, the UN predicts that the world’s population will be nearly 10 billion, up from 7.7 billion now. Nine countries are expected to be home to more than half of that growth: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and the United States. The population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double by 2050 (a 99% increase), while Australia and New Zealand are expected to grow more slowly (28% increase).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311043/original/file-20200121-144962-2sskur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s population growth rate in recent years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Maps/">World Population Prospects 2019, United Nations</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given how difficult climate politics have been here in Australia, why would we expect it to be any more politically feasible in say, India, which <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/indian-leaders-vow-to-fight-poverty-to-win-over-poor-voters/a-48494945">claims the right</a> to develop as we did? However self-serving Australian coal supporters’ arguments about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/18/josh-frydenberg-puts-strong-moral-case-for-coal-exports-to-prevent-deaths">lifting Indians out of poverty</a> are, the underlying questions of national autonomy and the ‘right’ to develop are not easily refuted.</p>
<p>Even talking about demography is asking for trouble – especially if it becomes caught up with questions of race, identity and the most fundamental of human rights, the right to reproduce. </p>
<p>While reducing population growth is plainly important in the long-term, it <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4246304/">isn’t a quick fix</a> for all our environmental problems. In the meantime, research has shown that supporting <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2016/02/16/climate-change-fertility-and-girls-education/">education for girls</a> in poor countries is one of the single most important things we can do now to address this issue.</p>
<h2>How Australia can show leadership</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>I think we need to understand that global emissions don’t have an accent, they come from many countries and we need to look at a global solution… – Prime Minister Scott Morrison on <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-david-speers-abc-insiders">Insiders, ABC</a>, 12 January 2020</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the central defence of business as usual: there’s no point in Australia making huge sacrifices and ‘<a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/meeting-our-climate-commitments-without-wrecking-economy">wrecking</a>’ (or transforming, depending on your perspective) the economy if no one else is doing so. We contribute less than 2% to global greenhouse emissions, so – <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-answer-the-argument-that-australias-emissions-are-too-small-to-make-a-difference-118825">some claim</a> – we can’t make any real difference.</p>
<p>As outlined in my 2019 book, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9789811374760">Environmental Populism: The Politics of Survival in the Anthropocene</a>, nations such as Australia can play a useful role by showing what an enlightened country, with the capacity and incentive to act, might do. If we don’t have the means and the compelling environmental reasons to make tough but meaningful policy choices, who does?</p>
<p>But even in the unlikely event that Australians collectively retrofitted the entire economy along sustainable lines, there would still be a lot of the world that wouldn’t, or couldn’t even if they wanted to. The development imperative really is non-negotiable in India, China and the more impoverished states of sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<h2>Will China lead the way?</h2>
<p>From the privileged perspective of wealthy Australians, the ‘good’ news is that the <a href="http://data.footprintnetwork.org/?_ga=2.120140427.2017862279.1573786123-2044019972.1573786123%20-%20/">ecological footprint</a> of the average Ethiopian is seven times smaller than ours. India’s average is even less, despite all the recent development. However, people in India and Ethiopia may not think that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>One of the paradoxical impacts of globalisation is that everyone is increasingly conscious of their relative place in the international scheme of things. The legitimacy of governments – especially unelected authoritarian regimes like China’s - increasingly revolves around their capacity to deliver jobs and <a href="https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3002866/china-risks-legitimacy-communist-partys-regime-without">rising living standards</a>. Where governments can’t deliver, the population <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1049641">vote with their feet</a>.</p>
<p>As naturalist Sir David Attenborough <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51123638">warned last week</a>, Australia’s current fires are another sign that “the moment of crisis has come”. He called on China for the global leadership we’ve been missing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Chinese come and say: 'Not because we are worried about the world but for our own reasons, we are going to take major steps to curb our carbon output […]’, everybody else would fall into line, one thinks. That would be the big change that one could hope would happen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>China has arguably already made the biggest contribution to our collective welfare with its highly contentious, now abandoned one-child policy. China’s population would have been <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13524-017-0595-x">around 400 million people</a> larger without it, pushing us closer to the crisis Sir David fears.</p>
<p>To be clear, I’m <em>not</em> advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, will Australians try to keep living as we do today? Or will we decide to set a new example of living well, without such a heavy ecological footprint? Resolving all these conundrums won’t be easy; perhaps not even possible. That’s another discomfiting reality that we may have to get used to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Beeson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
To be clear, I’m not advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.
Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128498
2019-12-09T15:25:21Z
2019-12-09T15:25:21Z
Greenwashing? Why wildlife TV is finally engaging with the climate emergency
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305873/original/file-20191209-90609-c7afr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">St Andrews Bay, South Georgia. A colony of young penguin chicks wait for their parents to return with food.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC Studios/Fredi Devas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The BBC’s new wildlife television series featuring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041003/">David Attenborough</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p07dzjwl/seven-worlds-one-planet">Seven Worlds, One Planet</a>, marks a drastic departure from previous programmes. For the first time, the presenter can be heard repeatedly uttering the phrase “climate change” in a BBC documentary otherwise devoted to exploring and explaining animals’ behaviour and how they adapt to their environment.</p>
<p>The series marks a turn in the history of wildlife television broadcasting. In the UK, it is being celebrated as the long-awaited engagement of one of the most trusted public figures with the most pressing issue of our time. But why has it taken so long, and how will it shape the genre going forward?</p>
<p>Critics might want to claim that the move is simply a case of “greenwashing” – the BBC jumping on the bandwagon of the climate emergency so that its wildlife programming remains relevant. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qVJzQc9ELTE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>But the BBC has already produced specific <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002sh15/episodes/guide">programmes on climate change</a>, also featuring David Attenborough, over the past two decades. It just hasn’t integrated climate change into wildlife TV until now.</p>
<p>As I show in my new book, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030199814">BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough</a>, wildlife television’s main environmental focus has traditionally been the conservation of biodiversity. When <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Hawkins">Desmond Hawkins</a> created the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) in 1957, one of his objectives was to instil a sense of the value of protecting nature in audiences. </p>
<p>One line of argument in favour of this project was philosophical and aesthetic. This framed nature as indispensable to humans as a source of solace and regeneration in the aftermath of the second world war. Another argument was moral and framed wildlife as heirloom. Humans had a duty of care towards other forms of life on the planet, so that future generations could enjoy them.</p>
<p>As part of this approach, viewers were encouraged to develop an emotional attachment to wildlife, making them more inclined to support conservation. In one of the most celebrated wildlife TV sequences of all times, from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135095/">Life on Earth (BBC, 1979)</a>, Attenborough appears to cuddle with mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Emphasising how much common ground exists between humans and big apes, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Air-David-Attenborough/dp/1849900019">it is credited</a> with having been instrumental in kickstarting fundraising for the protection of mountain gorillas.</p>
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<p>But when it came to the environment, British wildlife TV took an allusive approach rather than a head-on one. That’s because producers thought that programmes with an unambiguous focus on environmental issues could only be structured around “doom and gloom” stories – scaring away the large audiences that wanted to experience the wonders of wildlife. </p>
<h2>A daring way forward</h2>
<p>This kind of tactic could only go so far, though. Forty years on, and the makers of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/wildlife-series-finally-addresses-elephant-room/586066/">Our Planet (Netflix, 2019)</a> finally did away with it. They provided viewers with uncompromising depictions of the consequences of climate change on wildlife. The now famous and disturbing sequence of walruses falling off a cliff in north-east Russia in the second episode of the series, has come to epitomise this new “show it like it is” approach. </p>
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<p>In response, the BBC likewise chose to be uncompromising in its portrayal of climate change’s impact on animals’ existence. The dramatic sequence of a grey-headed albatross chick blown off its nest during a storm induced by climate change in Seven Worlds, One Planet is similarly hard to forget.</p>
<p>Yet, none of these two series can be said to have gone down the “doom and gloom” pathway seen in many previous documentaries about climate change. On the contrary, the overall message is rather positive, one of hope. How come?</p>
<p>Throughout <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030199814">the history of wildlife television</a>, filmmakers have been adept at talking to scientists, enabling them to use cutting-edge research to renew the stories they tell. Wildlife, after all, does not change very much. And research highlights the value of wildlife conservation as one of the solutions to the climate crisis. For example, a recent study demonstrated that tropical forests with a thriving population of elephants <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334471572_Carbon_stocks_in_central_African_forests_enhanced_by_elephant_disturbance">absorb significantly higher volumes of carbon dioxide</a> than tropical forests without such animals.</p>
<p>Building on such research showing that environmental issues are connected, it becomes possible to make a positive case for wildlife conservation – beyond the moral or aesthetic arguments that prevailed in the past. </p>
<p>That climate change <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/world-economic-forum-world-biggest-problems-concerning-millennials-2016-8?r=US&IR=T#1-climate-change-destruction-of-nature-488-10">regularly polls</a> in the top three issues of concern in global populations, as extreme weather events <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-means-more-extreme-weather-heres-what-the-uk-can-expect-if-emissions-keep-increasing-112745">follow one another</a>, has obviously helped drive this change. The ability to offer hope in the shape of solutions to global warming therefore presents wildlife filmmakers with new storytelling opportunities that can draw large audiences. </p>
<p>For the first time in <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030199814">the history of wildlife filmmaking</a>, the conservation of wildlife can be presented as holding the promise of a happy ending, in ways that are relevant to a large segment of the world population. Our Planet and Seven Worlds, One Planet therefore mark the start of a new era for wildlife television – one which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/attenborough-dynasties-ecological-campaign">doesn’t shy away from</a> political and environmental problems.</p>
<p>And the trend looks set to continue. Each episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet consistently drew around 8 million viewers in the UK, whereas Our Planet boasted 33 million worldwide. In the coming years, wildlife broadcasters are likely to keep using this new story line, foregrounding the climate crisis as evidence that wildlife conservation is more necessary than ever. </p>
<p>Ultimately, wildlife television’s long-awaited engagement with climate change is not greenwashing. Instead, it is the outcome of new research enabling producers to integrate the defining issue of our time in their main narrative framework – and offering hope.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Baptiste Gouyon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Wildlife TV producers used to think that focus on environmental issues could only be structured around doom and gloom stories – scaring away large audiences.
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, Associate professor in Science Communication, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/125850
2019-10-28T16:06:19Z
2019-10-28T16:06:19Z
Seven Worlds, One Planet: why David Attenborough’s latest series disappointed me
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298986/original/file-20191028-113987-s9cnt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3822%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A gentoo penguin comes face to face with a leopard seal on Seven Worlds, One Planet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bbcpictures.co.uk/image/19048137?collection=18936427+18937595+18937817+18935962+18935936+18935897+18937999+19048098+19047968+19048137+19047994+19048163+19048202+19048411+19039061+19039100&back=L3NlYXJjaC9zaW1wbGU%2Fc2VhcmNoJTVCZ2xvYmFsJTVEPXNldmVuJTJCd29ybGRzJTJCb25lJTJCcGxhbmV0JmFtcDtzZWFyY2glNUJiYmNfd2VlayU1RD0mYW1wO3NlYXJjaCU1QmNoYW5uZWwlNUQ9JmFtcDtzZWFyY2glNUJwcm9ncmFtbWUlNUQ9JmFtcDtzZWFyY2glNUJrZXl3b3JkcyU1RD0mYW1wO3BhZ2U9MyZhbXA7">BBC NHU</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As someone who has researched the prominence of climate and ecological breakdown in David Attenborough’s documentaries, I was disappointed by the first episode of the legendary filmmaker’s latest series, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0009tt8/seven-worlds-one-planet-series-1-episode-1">Seven Worlds, One Planet</a>. Although I was enthralled by nail-biting scenes of uncertain survival, like his previous work it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/david-attenborough-world-environment-bbc-films">betrays the natural world</a> by showing it as mostly untouched by human impacts.</p>
<p>His last documentary, the Netflix production Our Planet, had taken a small step forward in this regard. Along with colleagues from Newcastle, Bangor, and Oxford, I analysed scripts from Attenborough’s last four documentary series, and <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10052">we found that</a> Our Planet discussed both conservation threats and successes more often than his previous work. Nearly 15% of the total word count of the Our Planet scripts focused on what is not well with the natural world. While this was only slightly more than Blue Planet II at 12%, talk of human impacts was woven into every episode rather than being the subject of a dedicated final episode.</p>
<p>Our Planet also shared conservation successes in every episode. While Blue Planet II devoted slightly more of its overall script length to such issues, again this was mostly concentrated in the final episode and not incorporated throughout the series.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298976/original/file-20191028-113962-gltuhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our Planet mentioned threats to nature (red) more than Attenborough’s previous three series, and shared positive tales (blue) throughout the series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Thomas-Walters</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>However, while Our Planet contained a few visually shocking scenes <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/our-planet-walrus-scene-watch-video-cliff-david-attenborough-netflix-why-climate-change-a8862196.html">(walruses spring to mind)</a> that prompted discussion of climate breakdown in the media, the series – like those before it – was almost bereft of scenes that directly showed the <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6335/270.full">abundant ways</a> in which humanity has devastated the natural world.</p>
<h2>A sideways step</h2>
<p>The first episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet showed visually breathtaking scenes of the harshness of Antarctic life, but yet again for the most part nature appeared devoid of human influence. Admittedly, it is more difficult to directly depict the effects of humans on a continent where no humans actually live, and hopefully later episodes will be bolder. But even in this episode, melting ice and calving glaciers were mentioned only briefly, and these changes to the climate were rarely explicitly highlighted as caused by human actions.</p>
<p>The exception was a vignette in which we were shown an abandoned whaling station, and told how humans caused whale numbers to crash, before their recovery following a whaling ban. This reflected a common theme of success stories in the episode – scenes capturing the struggle of albatrosses and penguins against the effects of climate breakdown also ended in triumph.</p>
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<p>This is not a bad thing – <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/69/4/274/5369894">optimism</a> can be a useful tool in driving engagement and positive change. But to be effective, it needs to be accompanied with a sense of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/69/4/274/5369894">how individuals can contribute</a> to keeping to the good news going. For example, the whaling section ignored the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/a-badge-of-honour-the-fight-to-save-the-whale-7844987.html">role of social movements</a> in pressuring governments to institute the whaling ban.</p>
<p>Seeing smelly, seasick cameraman Rolf fighting tears when ruminating on the perilous future of the penguins he filmed was perhaps the most powerful scene of the show. In connecting human guilt and sorrow to the penguins’ plight, it intertwined humanity and nature in a way not managed by the rest of the episode. But again, the segment left no sense of how we all can help.</p>
<h2>A force for change</h2>
<p>Nature documentaries have great potential to be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-david-attenborough-documentaries-help-the-natural-world-new-research-gives-cause-for-hope-125077">force for good</a>. They <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504622.2017.1303820">can increase willingness</a> among viewers to make personal lifestyle changes, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17524032.2014.993415">increase support</a>for conservation organisations, and generate <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/semi.2011.2011.issue-187/semi.2011.066/semi.2011.066.xml">positive attitudes</a> towards an issue, which may in turn make <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X18307033">policy change</a> more likely.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-david-attenborough-documentaries-help-the-natural-world-new-research-gives-cause-for-hope-125077">Do David Attenborough documentaries help the natural world? New research gives cause for hope</a>
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<p>But the way they’re framed is important. Attenborough’s position is that presenting a doom and gloom picture of the living world could be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/attenborough-dynasties-ecological-campaign">“alarmist” and a “turn-off”</a>, and prefers to focus on the marvels of nature to inspire connection. But the one major exception to his usual approach had major social impacts.</p>
<p>Almost 40% of Blue Planet II’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05n77yp">final episode</a> was dedicated to human threats to the natural world, and homed in on plastic pollution. This focus helped spark a public movement against single-use plastics. Within a year, the UK government announced its intention to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gove-takes-action-to-ban-plastic-straws-stirrers-and-cotton-buds">ban the sale of plastic straws and drink stirrers</a>, and corporations such as <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/starbucks-announces-environmental-milestone/">Starbucks</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mcdonalds-plastic-straws-ban-uk-ireland-pollution-environment-eu-rules-a8399841.html">McDonalds</a> decided to stop stocking plastic straws. A box set of the series accompanied by a letter from Attenborough was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/31/blue-planet-gift-from-theresa-may-to-remind-beijing-of-plastic-waste">gifted to Chinese president Xi Jinping</a> during his 2018 visit to the UK – which concluded with the announcement of a joint plan to tackle plastic pollution.</p>
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<p>We need more research to pin down exactly how the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-019-01271-1">portrayal of nature</a> in documentaries affects our willingness to help save it. But I’d bet that it would be a lot harder to ignore the link between high-consumption lifestyles and desolation of the natural world if the pervasiveness of commercial agriculture, mining and transport infrastructure in natural landscapes were more visible. Instead of brief references to climate change and cute chicks fighting to survive against the odds, we need to be confronted with the stark reality of the destruction resulting from humanity’s actions.</p>
<p>I believe that Attenborough and the production teams behind Seven Worlds One Planet are truly passionate about the environment. It is brilliant that they are bringing the beauty of the living world to our screens, but it is time to go beyond inspiration. Show us what we have done wrong, show us how it is affecting us, and then tell us how we can help.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1125850">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Thomas-Walters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In showing the natural world as untouched by human impacts and shying away from recommending action, Attenborough’s latest documentary falls short of its potential.
Laura Thomas-Walters, PhD Candidate in Conservation, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/125077
2019-10-25T12:58:14Z
2019-10-25T12:58:14Z
Do David Attenborough documentaries help the natural world? New research gives cause for hope
<p>Expectations are high for the BBC’s new series <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/14/demand-david-attenborough-tickets-outstrips-glastonbury-wimbledon/">Seven Worlds, One Planet</a>, but do nature documentaries do enough for the environment? The BBC and David Attenborough have been criticised for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/david-attenborough-world-environment-bbc-films">side-stepping environmental issues</a> and portraying the natural world as a pristine wilderness in their shows. Even the recent Netflix series, Our Planet – which went further to highlight climate change, habitat loss and species extinctions – <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-planet-is-billed-as-an-attenborough-documentary-with-a-difference-but-it-shies-away-from-uncomfortable-truths-114889">shied away from depicting the true scale</a> of these problems, according to some viewers. </p>
<p>Natural history TV producers, including Attenborough, have insisted that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/attenborough-dynasties-ecological-campaign">alarmism is a turn-off for audiences</a>. But on both sides, the debate seems to be largely based on impressions of how audiences behave, rather than on evidence of how audiences react to these shows.</p>
<p>I wondered about this as I watched Planet Earth II in late 2016. I saw that the hashtag “#PlanetEarth2” was trending on social media every time an episode was broadcast, and I realised that there may be a way to measure how these documentaries affect people.</p>
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<h2>How viewers respond to nature documentaries</h2>
<p><a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12678">Our research</a>, published in Conservation Letters, analysed data from Twitter and Wikipedia to understand how people behave after watching nature documentaries. </p>
<p>Planet Earth II barely mentioned environmental issues – only 6% of the script was dedicated to topics like climate change, and audiences reacted accordingly. Analysing 30,000 tweets with the hashtag #PlanetEarth2 that were posted during episode broadcasts, we saw that only 1% mentioned topics such as species extinction or other environmental issues. </p>
<p>Although the show lacked a clear conservation message, we wondered whether it could still influence audience perceptions of nature, so we looked at the species featured in Planet Earth II. Mammals were hugely over-represented relative to their diversity in the wild, at the expense of invertebrates, fish, amphibians and reptiles. More than half the series was dedicated to mammals, although they are thought to account for <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/science/abrs/publications/other/numbers-living-species/contents">less than 4% of all animal species</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=231&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=231&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=231&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298764/original/file-20191025-173571-1hu5i05.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Well-known species recorded peaks on Wikipedia pages after Planet Earth II, but this effect was more noticeable for less-known species. Red bar: broadcast of the episode with featured species. Red band: broadcast of the entire series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darío Fernández-Bellon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Surprisingly, audience reactions on Twitter did not reflect the “charismatic mammal” bias. Whether people tweeted about a species in the show had nothing to do with what taxonomic group it belonged to. The animals that got the biggest reactions weren’t the most endangered either – they were simply those that got the most time on screen. Locusts actually received more Twitter attention than the giraffe-hunting lions.</p>
<p>The Twitter data showed that audiences reacted to the species featured in nature documentaries, but in unexpected ways. Analysing Wikipedia activity, we found that almost half of the Planet Earth II species registered annual peaks in visits to their Wikipedia pages immediately after the show was broadcast. People were searching for information on the animals they had just seen and again, the species that got the most airtime also got the most visits on Wikipedia. Those same species still had higher page visit rates up to six months after the show than they did before.</p>
<p>In fact, Planet Earth II even served to put some species on the map. Animals like the <a href="https://www.afrotheria.net/golden-moles/">golden mole</a> received little or no attention before the broadcast, but their Wikipedia pages were regularly visited after Planet Earth II. <a href="https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/wildlife/galapagos-racer/">Galapagos racer snakes</a> – made famous by the scene in which they chased an iguana – had no Wikipedia page before the show, but one was created only two days after the episode broadcast.</p>
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<p>While we had shown how nature documentaries can raise public interest and awareness for different species, we wondered how this compared to other conservation efforts. If you use social media, you’ll sometimes notice trending topics announcing international days dedicated to a particular species. For instance, February 16 2019 was <a href="https://www.pangolins.org/world-pangolin-day/">world pangolin day</a> – the scaly mammal that’s the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pangolin-illegal-medicine-trade-threatens-these-scaly-mammals-with-extinction-33817">most trafficked animal in the world</a>. </p>
<p>These campaigns are led by conservation organisations and work similarly to nature documentaries – they’re in the public eye for a day and generate huge peaks in online activity. We found that peaks in Wikipedia activity around these international awareness campaigns was similar to those we observed after episodes of Planet Earth II. In other words, the documentary appeared to be as effective in generating interest and awareness as targeted conservation campaigns.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-the-facts-the-bbc-and-david-attenborough-should-talk-about-solutions-114544">'Climate Change – The Facts': the BBC and David Attenborough should talk about solutions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We got in touch with two wildlife charities to see whether they had registered increased donations after Planet Earth II. Sadly, there was no clear link between the documentary and donations, but this isn’t altogether surprising. Donations tend to be influenced by many different aspects, including education and personal attitudes, making it difficult to track them back to specific events.</p>
<p>But our research does show that nature documentaries can make a difference – even those that don’t appear to be overtly conservation-focused. Documentaries can help raise interest and awareness in nature, helping connect increasingly urbanised societies to the natural world. There is scope for these shows to do more though. Even super-productions like Planet Earth II, Our Planet or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/07/bbcs-seven-worlds-one-planet-series-shines-spotlight-on-climate-crisis">Seven Worlds, One Planet</a> can help conservation efforts. Simply by giving more screen time to threatened species, they can help raise public awareness and engagement.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1125077">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darío Fernández-Bellon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Researchers have tracked how viewers respond to nature documentaries – and the lasting digital impression they leave.
Darío Fernández-Bellon, Post-doctoral Researcher, University College Cork
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119757
2019-07-03T07:36:34Z
2019-07-03T07:36:34Z
Glastonbury 2019: Stormzy and Attenborough a barometer for a generation’s urgent concerns
<p>There’s little doubt that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/glastonbury-11219">Glastonbury</a> is one of the UK’s – perhaps the world’s – most iconic music festivals. It always generates headlines and while the vagaries of the British seasons often mean that many of these focus on the weather, Glastonbury’s centrality to the live music calendar means that it also acts as a faultline for broader tensions in popular music culture. In particular, it embodies the collision of popular music and politics.</p>
<p>Emerging from the “free festival” movement of the 1960s, Glastonbury began in its current form in the 1970s – first as the Pilton Festival organised by Michael Eavis of Worthy Farm and then, in 1971, as the Glastonbury Fayre. That event was co-promoted with Andrew Kerr and Arabella Churchill – granddaughter of Winston – as a free “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=erMoi-fp-RYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">fair in the medieval tradition</a>, embodying the legends of the area, with music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and opportunities for spontaneous entertainments”. </p>
<p>After a hiatus, it reemerged under the supervision of Eavis as an impromptu stopover on the way to Stonehenge in 1978 and a charity event in 1979, after which it has run almost continually, with occasional “fallow years” to let the fields recover.</p>
<h2>Counterculture to mainstream</h2>
<p>Despite growing into an infrastructural behemoth attracting more than 200,000 people – even at £250 for a full weekend ticket – and broadcast live by the BBC as a mainstay of an <a href="http://livemusicexchange.org/blog/risky-business-the-volatility-and-failure-of-outdoor-music-festivals-in-the-uk-chris-anderton/">otherwise volatile festival market</a>, it has managed to retain a sense of countercultural appeal. If this appears somewhat contradictory, then that is partly because of longstanding paradoxes in rock and popular music culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282272/original/file-20190702-126340-cek16k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hippie heaven: Pilton Festival at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/35604023262">Paul Townsend via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With its status as an expensive site of mainstream consumption – and simultaneously an emblem of escapism from the everyday – Glastonbury’s politics are both implicit and explicit. The genre politics of popular music authenticity have been played out in debates about headline acts – remember when it was announced that rapper Jay-Z was to headline the festival in 2008. “<a href="http://drownedinsound.com/news/3162787">I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong</a>,” complained Noel Gallagher, an objection that was largely (and wisely) ignored. </p>
<p>Shifting genre categories and consumption patterns in the age of streaming have diluted rock’s standing as the central sound of resistance and, by 2011, Beyoncé’s set <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/27/beyonce-glastonbury-2011-review">passed without controversy</a>.</p>
<p>The broader relationship of Glastonbury to British live music is debatable. On the one hand, it’s a huge showcase of talent. On the other, there’s a massive <a href="https://www.facebook.com/musicvenuetrust/posts/congratulations-if-you-got-a-glastonbury-festival-official-ticket-we-are-very-ha/980101778863876/">opportunity cost</a> in terms of attention for the smaller venues and festivals that are the foundation of local music scenes. </p>
<p>But if it isn’t as explicitly about “<a href="https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/glastonbury-festival-statistics-reveal-average-1952547">youth culture</a>” as some might assume, Glastonbury’s prominence also makes it a bellwether for broader political concerns, through both guest appearances and the surrounding political context. </p>
<h2>Mixing the messages</h2>
<p>In 2017, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, riding high on a better than expected general election result, was cheered on by the signature tune of the White Stripes song Seven Nation Army <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/glastonbury-2017-radiohead-jeremy-corbyn-song-crowd-useless-politicians-thom-yorke-a7808506.html">recycled as a crowd chant</a>: “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn.” </p>
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<p>But <a href="https://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/66321507640/misquotation-a-week-is-a-long-time-in">a week is a long time in politics</a> – never mind two years. Corbyn’s ambivalence over Brexit – and failure to recreate his triumph at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-live-why-even-jeremy-corbyn-struggles-to-sell-a-pop-and-politics-mashup-98496">2018 Labour Live festival</a> – illustrate some of the practical complications of politicians mixing pop into their operations.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.independent.ie/au/world-news/and-finally/antibrexit-campaigners-take-aim-at-johnson-with-glastonbury-billboard-38256808.html">qualms about Brexit</a> were a perhaps unsurprising backdrop to the musical festivities in 2019. But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/29/stormzy-historic-glastonbury-performance">Stormzy’s lambasting</a> of would-be prime minister Boris Johnson – and his highlighting of the inequalities in the criminal justice system – showed that both the music, and the festival itself, are as politically potent as ever.</p>
<p>Another keynote of this year’s festival, as in the news and on the streets at large, was climate change. So the signature non-musical speaker this year was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5JYf7X5Ck">David Attenborough addressing climate change</a>, while both the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-48793814">Extinction Rebellion protesters</a> and the festival’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/30/greenest-glastonbury-david-attenborough-climate-crisis-plastic">own attempts</a> at more sustainable practice chimed with that theme.</p>
<p>This, of course, is a challenge that applies far beyond a single music festival. Another one is the problem of sexism in the music industry and Emily Eavis – who inherited the stewardship of Glastonbury from her 83-year-old father – has noted the difficulties she faces <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/24/glastonbury-organiser-emily-eavis-admits-men-music-industry-refuse-deal-10040654/">in getting some men to acknowledge</a> that she is now in charge of booking the main stages.</p>
<h2>A broad church</h2>
<p>From its <a href="https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/areas/left-field/">Leftfield</a> speakers’ tent to the unabashed pop presence of Kylie Minogue on the main stage, Glastonbury’s sheer scope allows it to straddle the nitty-gritty of current affairs and the peaks of popular music’s ability to throw a party. </p>
<p>That scope also means that one of its functions is as a prism through which to view the larger political, as well as the popular cultural, picture. The oppositions between art and commerce, anti-establishment politics and mass culture, and the grassroots and mainstream have long been a feature of popular music. Glastonbury’s sometimes uneasy journey from resistant counterculture to media-friendly centrepiece of British musical culture suggests they’re unlikely to be resolved any time soon. </p>
<p>But the longstanding affection in which it is held, and its consequent capacity to pinpoint the urgency of matters such as climate change or inequality, suggest that perhaps they don’t need to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>
From the hippie heaven of the 1970s to the massive mainstream event it is now, Glastonbury has always found a way to fuse popular culture with a potent political message.
Adam Behr, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114544
2019-04-17T14:18:38Z
2019-04-17T14:18:38Z
‘Climate Change – The Facts’: the BBC and David Attenborough should talk about solutions
<p>Guardian journalist George Monbiot wrote a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/david-attenborough-world-environment-bbc-films">damning critique</a> of the BBC and Sir David Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries in late 2018, arguing that they do little to illustrate the huge environmental issues faced by the natural world.</p>
<p>Since then, Attenborough has adopted a much stronger position. He spoke at both the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/david-attenborough-collapse-civilisation-on-horizon-un-climate-summit">UN Climate Summit</a> and the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/david-attenborough-transcript-from-crystal-award-speech/">World Economic Forum</a> in Davos, and used his platform to highlight the threats of climate change.</p>
<p>Embarking on a new collaboration, Attenborough and the BBC are set to confirm their position in a one-off documentary entitled <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/exclusive-bbc-one-show-first-primetime-film-climate-change-since-2007">Climate Change - The Facts</a>, airing on April 18. The 90-minute film will explain the effects that climate change has already had and the disasters it might cause in future.</p>
<p>Although it’s crucial to raise awareness among the public about the impacts and threats of climate change, it’s equally important to explain how to fight it. That’s something the BBC has been more quiet about.</p>
<h2>Solutions to climate change</h2>
<p>The recent series Blue Planet Live featured a segment on the Great Barrier Reef in which it stated that coral bleaching is the result of climate change. That places the BBC in line with the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/great-barrier-reef-at-unprecedented-risk-of-collapse-after-major-bleaching-event">scientific consensus</a>. The same episode later described the “heroic research” effort that is needed to save the world’s reefs from coral bleaching, and covered the capture and transfer of coral spawn to a new location. </p>
<p>However, science has already given the solutions to address this problem. Recent reports from the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>, the <a href="https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/age-of-environmental-breakdown">Institute for Public Policy Research </a> and some of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/12/reusable-coffee-cups-are-just-a-drop-in-the-ocean-for-efforts-to-save-our-seas">our own research</a> all clearly indicate that tackling climate change and other environmental issues – including biodiversity loss, soil erosion and even ocean plastic pollution – requires major changes to society.</p>
<p>We need to <a href="https://www.tonyjuniper.com/content/beyond-capitalism-lecture-plymouth-business-school">revise our economic system</a> and its dependence on growth to prevent the unnecessary consumption of the world’s resources. As the youth climate strikes leader, the 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, clearly puts it, we need “<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-strikes-greta-thunberg-calls-for-system-change-not-climate-change-heres-what-that-could-look-like-112891">system change, not climate change</a>”. </p>
<p>In an era when schoolchildren are striking for climate action and radical proposals for climate action are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-green-new-deal-is-already-changing-the-terms-of-the-climate-action-debate-112144">entering the political mainstream</a>, the BBC’s timidity towards even discussing solutions seems odd.</p>
<p>Covering these arguments is political but goes way beyond party politics and certainly wouldn’t breach <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/impartiality">impartiality guidelines</a>. Audiences might understand that this isn’t as interesting as coral spawning being captured during a lightning storm, as was shown on Blue Planet Live. But if the BBC don’t address the solutions to climate change, then how can there be an educated public which understands that saving the planet <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-obsession-with-plastic-pollution-distracts-attention-from-bigger-environmental-challenges-111667">requires more than individual gestures</a> like carrying a reusable coffee cup?</p>
<p>There’s no doubt that Attenborough’s BBC documentaries have <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/11/attenborough-effect-leads-53-drop-single-use-plastic-12-months-9156711/">inspired millions of people around the world</a> to take environmental issues seriously. His programmes have encouraged many of our students to undertake degrees in environmental sciences.</p>
<p>Their insights into the natural world can present a sense of <a href="https://insider.si.edu/2017/04/argument-environmental-optimism-opinion-smithsonian-secretary-david-j-skorton/">environmental optimism</a> that promotes action. But failing to address the political and economic solutions necessary to stop climate change means the BBC could fail to respect its own <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/bbc-editorial-values/charter-and-agreement">values</a> in education and citizenship. With their new documentary, Attenborough and the BBC should challenge our current economic system – only then can they fulfil their duty to inform the public with accuracy and impartiality.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1114544">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Stafford is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter JS Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The BBC’s new documentary is a great opportunity to challenge our current economic system.
Rick Stafford, Professor of Marine Biology and Conservation, Bournemouth University
Peter JS Jones, Reader in Environmental Governance, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107539
2018-11-29T09:43:16Z
2018-11-29T09:43:16Z
Dynasties: should nature documentary crews save the animals they film?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247500/original/file-20181127-76764-17bndtv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Picture this, a cute baby penguin, blown down a gully during a fierce storm, with no escape. You’ve been filming the natural world for weeks, following this individual. You’ve invested in it, become interested in it, attached to it – would you be able to let it die, or would you want to save it? Well, while filming an episode of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06mvqjc">Dynasties</a>, a BBC crew decided to intervene, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46261959">causing controversy</a> in the process.</p>
<p>As noted by presenter David Attenborough at the end of the episode, intervention by film crews is “rare”. Indeed, the goal for any nature documentary crew is to capture the living world without succumbing to emotional distress, and thus the urge to alter the things they film. So, was saving the penguin the right thing to do? </p>
<h2>A controversial move</h2>
<p>There are many arguments against what the BBC crew did: first, death is a natural process in the animal kingdom. Without dead animals many species would starve to death. In fact, many animals have evolved to feed off other dead animals – these are the scavengers, the ones that clean up the mess – and carcasses can attract thousands of animals. For instance, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/november-december-2009/dead-whales-make-underwater-feast">carcasses of whales</a> may support fauna such as crabs, lobsters, sharks and fish, for up to 80 years.</p>
<p>Death is also needed in order for species to evolve and become adapted to their environment: evolution via natural selection, otherwise known as <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/survival-of-the-fittest-1224578">“survival of the fittest”</a>. This is where individuals that are more suited to take advantage of the resources in the environment – be they food, shelter or mates – are more likely to survive. They are also more likely to survive long enough to reproduce, hence they will pass their advantageous genes on to their offspring and, over time, we end up with a population that is perfectly adapted to their environment. Once we start intervening with this natural process we are potentially augmenting a “survival of the not-so-fit”, and often “survival of the weakest”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247547/original/file-20181127-76752-ppxplw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Survival of the fittest ensures only the best genes are passed on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cheetah-hunting-springbuck-etosha-national-park-1034657560?src=BUfeeHn1Dbq3Js1SpXGweA-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Well-meaning</h2>
<p>However, intervention doesn’t always take the form of a benevolent documentary crew. Often, animals are saved by well-meaning people – those who want to nurture animals and provide them with the best life possible. Every spring the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) are inundated with calls from members of the public who have found <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/injured-and-baby-birds/baby-birds/">“abandoned” birds</a> and tried to save them. However, most of the birds haven’t been abandoned, as they are typically only a short distance from their parents. Unfortunately, well-meaning people often <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160523-when-to-rescue-wild-animals/">“rescue”</a> animals which, in reality, means that they will either be destined to a life in captivity or will be returned to the wild without the necessary skills to survive, so will probably perish. </p>
<p><a href="http://bufvc.ac.uk/articles/born-free">Born free</a>, the true story of Elsa the lioness who was rescued by George and Joy Adamson, documents how Elsa was raised by the Adamsons until she became too big and caused chaos. By this time, Elsa had been in captivity for so long that she didn’t display the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2008/01/predators-captivity-habitat-animals/">normal behaviour needed to survive in the wild</a> – she couldn’t hunt and didn’t know how to behave around other lions – she had to learn how to be a wild lion again. The film portrays the emotional attachment and inner turmoil that Joy has towards Elsa. For example, “I know what is good for her but I don’t want to let her go”, is seen in many humans, putting their own compassion over what might be best for animals.</p>
<h2>A Man-made crisis</h2>
<p>However, to denounce the direct action of humans in this way would seem to ignore the alterations humans have already made to our environment. By destroying habitats, exploiting species, polluting the planet and introducing non-native species, humans have already caused destruction to the planet, and are the cause of the <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sixth-mass-extinction-humans-animals-conservation">current extinction crisis</a>. This could see much-loved species such as lions go extinct in the wild through <a href="https://theconversation.com/dynasties-lions-may-disappear-without-urgent-funding-for-conservation-107116">human-induced</a> threats including persecution and trophy hunting.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247700/original/file-20181128-32191-164hm0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A seal trapped in discarded netting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grey-seal-horsey-beach-norfolk-england-771362797?src=Caoj2spS8YzOeY30g-O_Yg-1-13">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given our profound impact on wild populations, it is fitting that we help as many animals as possible. One way to do this responsibly would be to undertake more effective habitat management or educate people on aspects of conservation. </p>
<p>For example, Attenborough released a three-part documentary, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002sh15">State of the Planet</a>, in 2000, but it didn’t attract the usual number of viewers. The danger is that repetition may make people numb to the issues, or simply stop watching. Although, more recent attempts have been far more successful. The final episode of the Blue Planet II highlighted the current <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46275742">plastic problem</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45438736">people took notice</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, the emotional response that such documentaries elicit, and that is inherent in most of us, can be beneficial. However, its benefits are often limited as the biggest conservation draws are the <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/wildlife/flagship_keystone_indicator_definition/">“flagship species”</a>, those that are cute, cuddly, charismatic and pull on our heartstrings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247552/original/file-20181127-76752-1qew64j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are nature documentaries part the problem or the solution?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/action-nature-wildlife-documentary-filming-cameraman-443953465?src=LY9gUYPvBZgG4-v733u3yw-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, what about the penguins? If these were animals being killed by a natural predator, it is hard to justify why you would intervene and prioritise one species of animal over another. But, if these were animals dying from a human-induced threat, surely we have a responsibility to help. Regardless of whether the storm that stranded the penguins was natural or not, I would have found it hard to watch the penguins perish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Gentle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
If animals are dying from a human-induced threat, then surely we have a responsibility to help them.
Louise Gentle, Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95714
2018-05-01T02:35:52Z
2018-05-01T02:35:52Z
Planet Earth II Live unites art and science in a celebration of nature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216943/original/file-20180501-135848-1om4qfh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flamingoes dance on a lake in South America in Planet Earth II Live in Concert. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Travis Hayto</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following an epic and determined journey by an amorous male pygymy <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Pygmy_Three-toed_Sloth">three-toed sloth</a>, witnessing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Golden_Eagle">golden eagles</a> duel over a fox carcass against a backdrop of majestic mountains, or simply being in awe of one of evolution’s most sublime creations, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04gdkhf/p04gdh7x">sword-billed hummingbird</a>, it’s fair to say I was more than a little excited to experience the Melbourne production of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb7nj_mh0gs">BBC’s Planet Earth II Live in Concert</a>. </p>
<p>The show is a fusion of BBC’s extraordinary wildlife and landscape footage, from the Planet Earth II documentary series. It’s presented on a suitably massive screen, accompanied by a live orchestra playing a score written specially for this visual and aural celebration of nature.</p>
<p>The start of the show was sensational, a montage of wildlife imagery from around the world, with the emotional roller-coaster expertly enhanced by the beauty and fusion with the music that filled the room. It was akin to walking through a gallery, where the individual, finer details of paintings were unimportant, but the overall majesty of what was on show swept you away. I wish the remainder of the show had continued in this vein. </p>
<p>The actual images of wildlife were as we’ve come to expect from the BBC’s legendary wildlife team, second to none. A close-up of a lioness’s paw rippling as it moved across the sands of the Namib Desert while <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04h6dm7/p04h668w">stalking a giraffe</a>, a starling <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151028-the-language-of-starling-murmurations">murmuration</a> above Rome, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epPHYZrGPqs">langurs leaping through Jodhpur</a> and, of course, the now famous <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-defence-of-racer-snakes-the-demons-of-planet-earth-ii-theyre-only-after-a-meal-68514">great escape by a hatchling marine iguana</a> from scores of hungry racer snakes were all captivating.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B3OjfK0t1XM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The orchestra was outstanding. Such was the power of the wildlife footage that at times it was possible to forget their presence, but at key moments onscreen they were most certainly heard and felt, providing a truly emotional and visceral experience.</p>
<p>There were many things to like, but a number of important elements didn’t work, which really detracted from what the show <em>could</em> have been. The first and perhaps most important problem was that each sequence was introduced, in far too much detail, by Eric Bana, who had the unenviable task of trying to replace some of David Attenborough’s narration of the original documentary series. </p>
<p>Bana’s commentary was aimed at making people more informed about the wildlife being featured, but it had the unfortunate effect of giving away exactly what was about to happen next, rather than allowing the audience to have the joy of discovering this for themselves, a very odd production decision. It made the performance feel quite stilted and disjointed, which wasn’t helped by an unannounced 20-minute intermission mid-show. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216942/original/file-20180501-135814-1scdizs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sword-billed hummingbird.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Travis Hayto</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bana is a fine Australian actor, but his casual approach and lighthearted jokes were unnecessary, and often not particularly funny. Most importantly, it took attention away from the main event, which should have been what was happening on screen. It reminded me of watching a great film on commercial TV and being engrossed, only to be wrenched out of this blissful state by the dreaded commercial break. This happened multiple times throughout the evening. Judicious and sparing use of surtitles could have remedied this situation. </p>
<p>Another deficiency was the editing and sequence of footage. We were told about the plight of a primate relative of humans, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av4m0FoVOus">Indri</a>, from Madagascar’s rapidly disappearing forests. So why then did this sequence start with flying <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a94DNeLh6r0">draco lizards</a> from Southeast Asia and toucans from South America? Perhaps many were not bothered by this and instead it just reflects my ecological background. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216946/original/file-20180501-135810-abtlhr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sloth swims between islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Travis Hayto</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Indri was one of several species to appear a number of times in the show, sometimes without narration or explanation. This seemed puzzling given how much amazing material the BBC has at its disposal. Australian wildlife was also conspicuous by its absence. </p>
<p>Finally, at times the show’s lighting was over-the-top, washing out and obscuring imagery on the screen. </p>
<p>There was an attempt towards the end of the show to send a message to the audience about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-just-how-bad-is-it-and-why-should-we-care-13751">plight of life of Earth</a>, including how our cities could better accommodate plants and animals to live alongside us. There were painful times during the show when I felt like I was watching soon-to-be ghosts, given the current and dire mass extinction event we have created and are witnessing. I couldn’t help notice the irony of the many audience members watching wildlife while drinking <a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-shopping-tap-water-is-best-but-what-bottle-should-you-drink-it-from-92931">bottled water</a> they’d bought during the show’s intermission, a symptom of our dependence on plastics and consumption. </p>
<p>There is no question in my mind that a greater <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/science-inspires-so-dont-let-your-art-rule-your-head-20131101-2wrjb.html">union between the arts and sciences</a>, such as this event, has enormous potential for positive change. </p>
<p>So my greatest hope is that everyone who attended the show felt moved the next day to assess their own choices and how they affect the other species with which we share this planet, and that together we collectively demand our governments to ensure a sustainable future that preserves <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSo1MyWf8g">Earth’s remarkable wonders</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Planet Earth II Live in Concert will be showing in Brisbane on May 1 and Sydney on May 4.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, The Hermon Slade Foundation, Australian Geographic, and Parks Victoria. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</span></em></p>
Planet Earth II Live fuses footage from the BBC series with live orchestration. Despite some narrative flaws, it’s a stirring call to look after our environment.
Euan Ritchie, Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95513
2018-04-26T20:16:17Z
2018-04-26T20:16:17Z
It’s funny to name species after celebrities, but there’s a serious side too
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216446/original/file-20180426-175041-8uwtff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Attenborougharion rubicundus_ is one of more than a dozen species named after the legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Grove/Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2016/1490-new-marsupial-lion">Microleo attenboroughi</a></em>. <em><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1440-6055.2011.00809.x">Scaptia beyonceae</a></em>. <em><a href="http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2009/f/z02206p068f.pdf">Crikey steveirwini</a></em>. These are the scientific names of just a few of the nearly 25,000 species of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms discovered and named in Australia in the past decade.</p>
<p>In each case, the honoured celebrity’s name is Latinised and added to the name of an existing or new genus – a set of closely related species that share common characteristics. In the above examples, <em>Microleo</em> (meaning “tiny lion”) is a genus of extinct carnivorous possums, while <em>Scaptia</em> is a genus of colourful horseflies. And in the case of <em>Crikey steveirwini</em>, a rare snail from northern Queensland, even the genus name honours Irwin, in the form of his favoured colloquialism.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-the-science-of-tax-and-five-other-things-you-should-know-about-taxonomy-78926">It's not the science of tax, and five other things you should know about taxonomy</a>
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<p>Scientists have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_famous_people">naming species in honour of celebrities</a> since the 18th century. The father of taxonomy, <a href="https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/linnaeus.html">Carl Linnaeus</a>, coined names to curry the favour (and open the purses) of rich patrons.</p>
<p>These days, we usually do it to curry short-lived attention from the public by injecting a degree of attention-grabbing frivolity. <em>Scaptia beyonceae</em> is one example – so named because the fly in question has a shiny, golden bum. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216424/original/file-20180426-175044-1ps4wqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">I don’t think you’re ready for this genus: Scaptia beyonceae.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scaptia_Beyonceae.jpg">Erick/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But to taxonomists and biosystematists – the scientists who discover, name, classify and document the world’s living and fossil species – the naming of organisms is a serious business.</p>
<h2>Not just celeb jokes</h2>
<p>Consider this. The <a href="https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/discovering-biodiversity-decadal-plan-taxonomy">current best estimate</a> is that Australia, including its shores and surrounding oceans, is home to more than 600,000 species of plants, animals, fungi, microbes and other organisms.</p>
<p>This tally ranks Australia as one of the most biologically rich and diverse nations on Earth. We are “megadiverse” – one of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megadiverse_countries">select handful of nations</a> that together comprise less than 10% of Earth’s surface but are home to more than 70% of its living species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216428/original/file-20180426-175050-tpkbzp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s biodiversity hotspots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAS/Royal Society Te Apārangi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now consider this: only 30% of Australia’s living species have been discovered, named and documented so far. That leaves <a href="https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/discovering-biodiversity-decadal-plan-taxonomy">more than 400,000 Australian species</a> that we know absolutely nothing about.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216431/original/file-20180426-175061-1su6cdl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Estimated number of described (centre shaded areas) and undescribed (outer unshaded areas) species in Australia and New Zealand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAS/Royal Society Te Apārangi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Does this matter? Do organisms need names? The answer is yes, if we want to conserve our biodiversity, keep our native species, agriculture and aquaculture safe from invasive pests and diseases, discover new life-saving drugs, answer some of the greatest scientific questions ever asked, or make full use of the opportunities that nature provides to improve our health, agriculture, industries and economy.</p>
<p>Taxonomists construct the framework that allows us to understand and document species and manage our knowledge of them. Such a framework is essential if we are to sustainably manage life on Earth. At a time when Earth is facing an <a href="https://theconversation.com/radical-overhaul-needed-to-halt-earths-sixth-great-extinction-event-68221">extinction crisis</a>, brought about by <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/land-clearing-7412">land clearing</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/pollution-306">pollution</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/global-warming-2768">global warming</a>, it is more vital than ever.</p>
<p>Without the understanding provided by taxonomists, we’re like the largest, most complex global corporation imaginable, trying to do business with no stock inventory and no real idea of what most of its products look like or do.</p>
<h2>Time for an overhaul</h2>
<p>The magnitude of the task seems daunting. At our current rate of progress, it will take more than 400 years even to approach a complete biodiversity inventory of Australia. </p>
<p>Fortunately, we don’t have to continue at our current rate. Taxonomy is in the midst of a technological and scientific revolution. </p>
<p>New methods allow us to cheaply sequence the entire DNA code of any organism. We can extract and identify the minute DNA fragments left in a river when a fish swims past. We are globally connected like never before. And we have supercomputers and smart algorithms that can catalogue and make sense of all the world’s species.</p>
<p>In this context, the release today by the Australian Academy of Science and New Zealand’s Royal Society Te Apārangi of a <a href="https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/discovering-biodiversity-decadal-plan-taxonomy">strategic plan</a> to guide Australian and New Zealand taxonomy and biosystematics for the next decade is a significant step. The new plan outlines how we will rise to the grand challenge of documenting, understanding and conserving all of Australia’s biodiversity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_L_oh6yKvTo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sir David Attenborough endorses the new taxonomy plan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Grand challenge</h2>
<p>The plan lays out a blueprint for the strategic investments needed to meet this grand challenge. It envisages a decade of reinvestment, leading to a program of “hyper-taxonomy” – the discovery within a generation of all of Australia’s remaining undiscovered species.</p>
<p>It sets out the ways in which we can use our knowledge of species to benefit society and protect nature, and also the risks involved if we don’t. A small example: there are an estimated 200 unnamed and largely unknown species of native Australian mosquitoes. Mosquitoes cause <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week">more human deaths than any other animal on Earth</a>. New mosquito-borne viruses and other parasites are being discovered all the time. It doesn’t take much to put these facts together to see the risks.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-name-all-of-earths-species-but-we-may-have-to-hurry-11815">We can name all of Earth's species, but we may have to hurry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With such a weighty challenge and such important goals, it’s hardly surprising that taxonomists sometimes indulge in a little quirky name-calling. Names like <em><a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/research/records-supplements/records/notes-on-genus-draculoides-harvey-schizomida-hubbardiidae-descr">Draculoides bramstokeri</a></em>, a cave-dwelling relative of spiders; or the tiny, harmless <a href="http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues/pseudoscorpions">pseudo-scorpion</a> <em>Tyrannochthonius rex</em>; or <em><a href="http://www.transatlanticplantsman.com/transatlantic_plantsman/2009/12/fun-with-plant-names.html">Hebejeebie</a></em>, the name that botanists simply couldn’t resist when a new genus was separated from <em>Hebe</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216442/original/file-20180426-175050-1lymp6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Materpiscis attenboroughi lived hundreds of millions of years before its celebrity namesake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MagentaGreen/Sularko/Museum Victoria/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the greatest celebrities of all, the naturalist Sir David Attenborough, has more than a dozen species named in his honour. No fewer than five of them are Australian. These include the brightly coloured slug-snail <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FssBml8rLmI">Attenborougharion rubicundus</a></em>, and the fossil of the first known organism to give birth to live young, <em><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/05/29/2257284.htm">Materpiscis attenboroughi</a></em>.</p>
<p>As Sir David <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L_oh6yKvTo">puts the case in endorsing the plan</a>, discovering and naming species is vitally important, not only for the future of taxonomy and biosystematics, but for the future of our living planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Thiele receives funding from the Ian Potter Foundation</span></em></p>
Scientists have been naming species after well-known people since the 18th century, often in a bid for publicity. But the issue deserves attention – 400,000 Australian species are yet to be described.
Kevin Thiele, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95015
2018-04-20T08:32:40Z
2018-04-20T08:32:40Z
Plastic packaging is often pollution for profit
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214786/original/file-20180413-46652-v2ydwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=390%2C558%2C2852%2C2146&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Big Foot Productions / www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You benefit from plastic from the moment you get up and use your toothbrush or kettle. Plastic is <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-can-agriculture-solve-its-1-billion-plastic-problem">embedded in agriculture</a> – and it keeps you alive if you end up in hospital. Even some of our <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/polymer-banknotes">money</a> is made from it. Yet I can’t watch the news without being bombarded by the evils of plastic. As a polymer scientist, it feels like my life’s work is dismissed as immoral by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/15/david-attenborough-urges-immediate-action-on-plastics-blue-planet">even my hero Sir David Attenborough</a>, simply because I deal with plastics. </p>
<p>But plastic itself is inanimate and cannot be evil – what’s morally wrong is what humans do with it.</p>
<p>But some plastic packaging does have benefits – even for the environment. Some packaging, for instance, prevents enough food waste (and therefore deforestation, fertiliser use or vehicle emissions) to balance out the inevitable litter. So how can you tell what is and isn’t worth it?</p>
<p>One reason this is so hard to figure out is down to the nature of the material itself. Different kinds of plastic have to be separated for recycling because they contain tiny building blocks that don’t mix at the molecular level. For instance, even many chemists don’t realise that polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) don’t mix, though they are the two of the most common forms of plastic and both have the same empirical formula of n(CH2). That’s why separating plastics at the recycling centre is so important.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214791/original/file-20180413-105522-kmojx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No time to peel your fruit and vegetables?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ayrat A / www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A sports drink, for instance, can have three different and incompatible types of plastic in the bottle, the shrink-wrapped film, and the lid. All three components can be individually recycled but they are rarely separated other than by shredding. </p>
<p>Or look at black plastic trays. Their only function is to amplify the colour of a product, yet they also prevent recycling as <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/black-plastic-hard-recycle-waitrose-pledged-stop-using/">sorting machines cannot detect black pigment</a>. </p>
<p>In many cases, the packaging does have a genuine function and prevents waste by, for example, sealing in moisture or gas. But this can also mean certain thin films of plastic become impossible or prohibitively expensive to separate.</p>
<p>Packaged fruit and vegetables are egregious examples of excess plastic because they already come in a protective skin. Bananas already come in a perfectly designed wrapper – individuals can be snapped off a from a bigger pack, the skin splits length ways to expose the product, and it is truly biodegradable. Prepacked <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jfq.12074">orange segments, meanwhile, last about four days</a> whereas a whole orange can last months. Compare the environmental lifetime of orange peel (months) and polyethylene (effectively eternity) – all for the convenience of not peeling an orange. Such packaging serves little practical purpose, yet only a minority of supermarket fresh fruit and veg is offered “loose”.</p>
<p>Consumers are waking up to some of the worst excesses – see the recent furore over an <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/marks-spencer-cauliflower-steak-stop-stock-price-reaction-cost-a8153151.html">M&S cauliflower steak</a> that was pulled after complaints. But none of this is simple. Given that prepacked fruit and vegatables enable <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/11/criticisms-prepared-packaged-food-completely-ignore-thousands-people-uk-living-disability-7221575/">some disabled people</a> to access fresh food, one person’s lazy and profligate is another’s lifesaver.</p>
<h2>Durable plastic can be useful</h2>
<p>So what can be done to reduce single-use plastic? A society that valued the environment over marketing could make evidence-based choices. On a larger scale, this involves policies such as the UK’s 5p carrier bag charge, which has driven <a href="https://www.edie.net/news/5/Plastic-bag-charge-UK-sustainability-statistics-from-Defra-2017/">an 80% reduction</a> in single-use bags.</p>
<p>But personal actions matter, too. Take the choices involved in a simple packed lunch of a falafel wrap, prepared at home. For the wrap, many advocate reusing aluminium foil rather than clingfilm. But foil has to be reused nearly 200 times to release less greeenhouse gases than clingfilm – 5g of aluminium versus 0.2g of film at <a href="http://www.circularecology.com/embodied-energy-and-carbon-footprint-database.html">six times more embedded energy and nine times more GHG per gram</a>. </p>
<p>Compare this to a reusable plastic sealed bag made from 14g of the same material as the clingfilm. This only needs to be used 70 times to get ahead (on GHG emmisions) of using new clingfilm every time, while there is no daily clingfilm or weekly foil going to landfill.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214792/original/file-20180413-587-1h95a0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cuckmere Valley UK, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sixpixx / www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Or consider bottled water. The logical approach here is to reuse thicker bottles 100 times or more, but this may require a deposit scheme, collection and return, wash and refill – all of which costs. Thin single-use bottles are the lowest price, whereas refilling and reusing has the lowest environmental burden. Companies’ balance sheets and our pockets lead us to single-use plastics in the sea.</p>
<p>Single-use plastic is a complex issue – in some cases it is very useful, in others just the opposite. But consumers can make conscious choices, businesses can act responsibly and governments can enforce good policy to rid ourselves of pollution for profit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony J Ryan receives funding from EPSRC and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. </span></em></p>
Yet plastic itself isn’t inherently evil as sometimes the environmental benefits outweigh the costs. So how to tell good plastic from bad?
Anthony J Ryan, Professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94457
2018-04-09T13:59:24Z
2018-04-09T13:59:24Z
A rubbish idea: how blockchains could tackle the world’s waste problem
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213580/original/file-20180406-125161-1ym6jw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/almada-portugal-2014-landfill-bulldozer-working-269654900?src=aOvTZ49dEuj9K8oYDQ02GA-1-12">ShutterPNPhotography</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may fill news headlines, but attention has been shifting to the technology that underpins them: <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-business-revolution-why-the-future-is-blockchain-78409">blockchains</a>. Blockchains are virtual ledgers on which data can be permanently stored. They are a public record, so they are very transparent and accountable. </p>
<p>The Big Four accounting firms, IBM and JP Morgan have been driving uptake by investigating applications. Blockchains could transform everything from <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/03/16/congress-blockchain-government/">national government systems</a> to payment apps <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/starbuckscoin-exec-says-coffee-seller-will-probably-use-blockchain/">for coffee chains</a> to the fight against <a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/climate-action/how-blockchain-technology-could-boost-climate-action/">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>They are also starting to make a difference to the world’s waste problem. As we shall see, this has exciting possibilities. </p>
<h2>What a waste</h2>
<p>Despite significant progress, the weight equivalent of one SUV <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Waste_statistics">is still</a> going to landfill every year for each of the circa 500m people in the EU. Waste litters our oceans, beaches and wider environment, making it one of the pressing issues of our times – not least thanks to David Attenborough’s popular <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tjbtx">Blue Planet series</a> for the BBC, whose last episode addressed waste directly. </p>
<p>It is becoming harder to just shift it elsewhere – witness <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-environment/eu-targets-recycling-as-china-bans-plastic-waste-imports-idUKKBN1F51SP">China’s recent ban</a> on importing plastic waste, for example. Most countries are far behind Sweden, <a href="https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/">which has</a> such a well developed network of waste-to-energy plants that it imports waste to feed them. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213582/original/file-20180406-125170-1017z0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Block action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/digital-chain-blockchain-technology-concept-3d-1010588287?src=Ygq-b0Vg6VDFi07rDI8GDA-1-63">Iaramenko Sergii</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So where do blockchains fit in? They are a sophisticated way of recording transactions without having one central institution like a bank controlling them. They comprise a series of blocks, each containing a set of transactions such as sales of assets or other transfers of value. </p>
<p>It’s almost impossible to tamper with the information these blocks contain, since each has a unique tag of numbers and letters known as a cryptographic hash, overlaid with other complicated security mechanisms. Blockchains are so reliable that the ability of governments and central banks to control currency in future is very much in question. </p>
<p>Various waste initiatives have seen potential to incorporate this technology. One is the <a href="https://www.plasticbank.org">Plastic Bank</a>, a global recycling venture founded in Canada to reduce plastic waste in developing countries – so far Haiti, Peru, Colombia and the Philippines, with <a href="https://sdg14.net/2017/06/22/social-plastic-links-the-clean-up-of-ocean-plastic-to-ending-extreme-poverty/">plans to extend</a> this year. </p>
<p>The initiative rewards people who bring plastic rubbish to bank recycling centres, and one option is blockchain-secured digital tokens. These can purchase things like food or phone-charging units in any store using the <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/plastic-bank-deploys-blockchain-to-reduce-ocean-plastic/">Plastic Bank app</a>. </p>
<p>The plastic is meanwhile bought by companies and recycled into new consumer products. The system attracts them because blockchain’s transparency means they can see where their investment goes. </p>
<p>A more novel use of blockchains is meanwhile emerging in French rail. Waste management in stations has traditionally been chaotic, with up to six providers sorting endless rubbish. The central station in Lyon, for example, <a href="https://www.digital.sncf.com/actualites/data-tritus-comment-la-blockchain-simplifie-le-tri-des-dechets">produces</a> 360 tonnes of waste each year. </p>
<p>A new system developed by SNCF subsidiary Arep uses blockchain to allow detailed information to be collected. There is a block for each station bin, which uses Bluetooth to continually update on quantities of each type of waste, which waste managers collected it and how it is being moved around. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213581/original/file-20180406-125170-1ex3o9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French rail’s rubbish problem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paris-france-july-7-tgv-high-149039333?src=tkqFrmcO40Flao9aX_z0ow-1-16">ostill</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Station managers can use this data to see what providers have done and when. This enables them to improve waste management and optimise sorting. In a pilot, this saved almost €2,000 (£1,746) in one month in one station by facilitating a new system for collecting five different streams of waste separately. </p>
<p>Blockchains are also <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/applying-blockchain-principles-waste-management-jon-mark-sabel">being mooted</a> to underpin a system for trading waste quotas similarly to how carbon quotas are traded under the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets_en">EU Emissions Trading System</a>. Using blockchains could help keep track of how much waste companies are producing, and could also help facilitate trading. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>These are various ways in which this technology can help address our waste problem, but they all focus on existing waste. They don’t look at the full life cycle of products from when they are created to when they are thrown away. </p>
<p>For a proper life cycle approach to waste, we need to think about holding the companies responsible who made the products in the first place – as well as other companies in the supply chain, since they will potentially put pressure on the producers. </p>
<p>We need to introduce standards to underpin this shift in responsibility, along with costly penalties for those who infringe them. Some incentives exist already – the EU’s <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/archives/waste/eu_guidance/introduction.html">extended producer responsibility</a>, for example – but countries don’t tend to implement them because of issues around tracking the waste and enforcing the rules. Again, blockchain technologies could have a role here.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213881/original/file-20180409-114084-l6s8jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">QR checking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/scan-qr-code-mobile-phone-electronic-311420912?src=_a4h3CpdmKXOam5zc6GeXw-1-5">Lesia_G</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When goods are produced, responsibility for them could be assigned. This would be recorded as a transaction to be stored in a block on the blockchain, identifying the product and the responsible party. Every time the product was transferred – when it was sold, say, or when it was disposed of in landfill – this would be recorded in a new transaction. This could all be accessible via a QR code stamped on each product. </p>
<p>If the product then ended up as litter on a beach somewhere, the blockchain would provide a digital trail to identify who was responsible. It would be up to the government in question to determine where responsibility lay at any given time. </p>
<p>Setting up this kind of system raises many practical considerations, of course: set-up costs, running costs, how to monitor and enforce it. But none are necessarily insurmountable. There are parallels, for example, with the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-efficient-products">EU’s system</a> of requiring energy labels for household appliances to help consumers choose energy efficient products. </p>
<p>When it comes to our worldwide problem with waste, it is time to think outside the box. Blockchains are already beginning to provide benefits in this area and they have much greater potential yet. If we can use them to build decentralised reliable networks for where rubbish has come from and where it ends up, it could lead to the breakthrough that has been eluding us for decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The technology underlying Bitcoin is starting to spread its wings.
Katrien Steenmans, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, King's College London
Phillip Taylor, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/89688
2018-01-05T13:22:56Z
2018-01-05T13:22:56Z
David Attenborough’s Sea Dragon – and the science behind a tantalising prehistoric ‘murder mystery’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200993/original/file-20180105-26145-1wickxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How the fossilised creature may have looked in its heyday.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sea Dragon, you ask? It sounds as if David Attenborough has decided to change things up a bit and enter the world of Game of Thrones. But, not quite. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m2kgl">Attenborough and the Sea Dragon</a> – to be screened on January 7 – is a new, one-off BBC documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough, which tells the story of a newly discovered ichthyosaur from the Dorset coast, England.</p>
<p>The word “Sea Dragon” refers to two extinct types of reptiles, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Ichthyosaur">ichthyosaurs</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Plesiosaur">plesiosaurs</a>. They were first brought to the attention of the scientific world in the early 19th century, and described and named in 1821. </p>
<p>The scientists were well aware that these were not actual dragons, of course, but some people (notably the early collector, Thomas Hawkins), thought the word “dragon” would help to popularise these incredible animals. Their discovery even predates the formal recognition of the word dinosaur, in 1842. </p>
<p>Indeed, these animals are not “swimming dinosaurs”, as they are commonly and mistakenly described as, but are an entirely different group of extinct reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. They were a highly successful group that first appeared in the Early Triassic, around 248m years ago, and became extinct about 90m years ago, in the Late Cretaceous.</p>
<h2>On British shores</h2>
<p>Most of the early discoveries were found in the UK, having come from the early part of the Jurassic Period, from inland quarries in Somerset and from the coastal section of the Lyme Regis-Charmouth area, Dorset. The inspirational Victorian fossil hunter and palaeontologist, <a href="http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/collection/mary-anning/">Mary Anning</a>, collected many ichthyosaur specimens from around Lyme Regis and Charmouth, including some of the first brought to the attention of geologists. </p>
<p>Such fossils captivated scientists and the general public, which led to interest from museums and institutions around the globe, eager to add a specimen to their collection. Remains are displayed and stored in museums around the globe. Today, there is still major interest in collecting and studying such specimens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200942/original/file-20180105-26154-pn6r09.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Partial skeleton of <em>Leptonectes moorei</em>, a species of ichthyosaur named after fossil collector Chris Moore. Held in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natural History Museum, London</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For most of my academic career, which spans just over a decade, I have been studying ichthyosaurs, with a key emphasis on those collected from the Early Jurassic rocks of Britain. Over the years, I have been through countless museum collections across the UK and elsewhere, in hope of examining as many British Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs as possible. In doing so, I’ve seen thousands of specimens, ranging from isolated bones to complete skeletons, and from pregnant individuals to specimens with their last meal preserved. It is hard to quantify the great number of specimens known, but I have probably seen (either physically, or as photos) more than 90% of all British Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs that are stored in museums and university collections.</p>
<p>Globally, there are 25 species of Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs known. I have named five of them: <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2014.903260?journalCode=ujvp20"><em>Ichthyosaurus anningae</em></a>, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14772019.2016.1183149"><em>Wahlisaurus massarae</em></a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1065/pdf"><em>Ichthyosaurus larkini</em> and <em>I. somersetensis</em></a>, and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2017.1361433?journalCode=ujvp20"><em>Protoichthyosaurus applebyi</em></a>. </p>
<p>Each of the new species were based on the (re)discovery of specimens already in museum collections – indeed, palaeontology collections contain a treasure trove of fossils that await rediscovery. But new discoveries straight from the field are particularly exciting – and this is where Attenborough steps in …</p>
<h2>A new ‘dragon’</h2>
<p>In 2016, I was in contact with somebody at the BBC regarding a possible new one-off documentary on ichthyosaurs, presented by Sir David Attenborough. David has a bit of a soft-spot for ichthyosaurs, you see.</p>
<p>Excited probably doesn’t quite capture what I was feeling, given that ichthyosaurs have pretty much been my life for ten or so years and I grew up watching Attenborough documentaries. Anyway, the idea was based around a new ichthyosaur discovery in Dorset. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200949/original/file-20180105-26169-19il3ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Attenborough examines the fossil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Robin Cox</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I had actually already been aware of this discovery (in early 2016), as I am long-time friends with the collector, an excellent chap called Chris Moore. I met Chris when I was about 17 years old. He is one of the best fossil collectors I have ever met. He just has a gift when it comes to finding new or rare fossils. For example, one ichthyosaur specimen he found back in January, 1995, turned out to be a new species. It was named <em><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-4983.00096/pdf">Leptonectes moorei</a></em>, in honour of Chris. He has certainly got an eye for recognising something rare.</p>
<p>The documentary thus focuses on telling the life story of Chris’ 2016 ichthyosaur specimen. From how it lived, what it would have looked like, to ultimately how it died. Several of my colleagues, including Emily Rayfield, Ben Moon, and Fiann Smithwick (all from the University of Bristol) were on hand to help piece together this 200m-year-old puzzle. </p>
<p>Various other colleagues, including Cindy Howells (National Museum of Cardiff) and Steve Etches (The Etches Collection – Museum of Jurassic Marine Life) also helped. The specimen itself is almost complete, although, sadly, is missing the skull. But therein lies the mystery, and part of the story. It is thought that the animal may have been killed from an attack by another ichthyosaur. So, perhaps this is a 200m-year-old crime scene, even what the BBC publicity has called a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m2kgl">“murder mystery”</a>?</p>
<p>I have yet to see the documentary, and am looking forward to seeing it. However, I have read, in various press articles, that this specimen has been hailed a new species. </p>
<p>I actually disagree with this. I have seen the specimen, well parts of it, and the forefin matches what is known for the ichthyosaur genus, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1065/pdf"><em>Ichthyosaurus</em></a>. The forefin of <em>Ichthyosaurus</em> is unique to the genus, and the forefins of Chris’ new specimen, match perfectly. Indeed, they probably belong to <em><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/an-ichthyosaurus-breviceps-collected-by-mary-anning-new-information-on-the-species/860729195FFDE7504DB6214F5C7D7FCB">Ichthyosaurus breviceps</a></em>, a short-snouted species, known from about 30 specimens – although Chris’ specimen, if it is an <em>Ichthyosaurus breviceps</em>, would be the largest known. </p>
<p>Of course, without a skull, it is difficult to say for certain what species this specimen belongs to, or what really happened to it, and I’m interested to see whether the mystery is finally solved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dean Lomax does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As a new David Attenborough documentary examines a remarkable fossil, a leading expert gives his verdict.
Dean Lomax, Visiting Scientist (Palaeontologist), University of Manchester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88955
2017-12-26T19:55:38Z
2017-12-26T19:55:38Z
That time when science came with me on a tropical holiday
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200047/original/file-20171219-4980-5d0qjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hanging out in Borneo. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-baby-child-orangutans-sabah-malaysian-102696650?src=ehzWR3HYthFCwpguVsALow-1-35">from www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Curiosity and awe dwell deep in the heart of most scientists. They are central to the motivation behind scientific thinking, and they have been my faithful and comfortable companions since childhood.</p>
<p>In 2004 my partner and I travelled to the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. At the time I was a postdoc, just a few years out of my PhD. </p>
<p>Sweating it out it in the oppressive tropical heat of Borneo was tough, but worth it for the amazing natural attractions. My time there had an intellectual impact too. It helped crystallise for me the innate nature of scientific thinking, and drew me even closer to one of my great scientific influences: David Attenborough.</p>
<p>It was a holiday when science came along for the ride. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-found-evidence-of-early-humans-in-the-jungles-of-borneo-87336">We found evidence of early humans in the jungles of Borneo</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unfamiliar and mysterious</h2>
<p>There’s something special about travel – it somehow reinforces that innate scientific drive to understand the world around us. What is it about being in unfamiliar and exotic environments that sharpens the senses, heightens the instinct to want to know how the world works? Maybe that’s why scientific thinking seems to <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/337/6102/1623.long">come so naturally to children</a>. So much of their daily existence is unfamiliar and mysterious.</p>
<p>Immersion in nature is associated with <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051474">increased creativity and problem-solving abilities</a>. And experiencing awe - feeling wonder and insignificance at something so vast it is difficult to comprehend - has been linked with <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/understanding-awe/201704/the-emerging-science-awe-and-its-benefits">enhanced critical and creative thinking</a>. Awe has also been shown to make people more <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27612-seeing-awe-inspiring-natural-sights-makes-you-a-better-person/">considerate and generous, endorse more ethical decisions, and report more prosocial values</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve been lucky to experience many amazing natural wonders. The Great Barrier Reef, Hawaiian volcanoes, alpine glaciers, and ancient forests in New Zealand and North America, harbouring some of the <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/12/sequoias/quammen-text">largest</a> and <a href="http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-plants/kauri/">oldest</a> living things on the planet.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-too-cheap-to-visit-the-priceless-great-barrier-reef-83717">Is it too cheap to visit the 'priceless' Great Barrier Reef?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Exotic Disneyland</h2>
<p>One place stands out to me as a kind of biological Disneyland: the exotic jungles of Borneo. Home to iconic animals like the orangutan and proboscis monkey, weird and wonderful plants – like the carnivorous <em><a href="https://botany.org/Carnivorous_Plants/Nepenthes.php">Nepenthes</a></em> and the rotten meat-stinking <em><a href="http://www.rafflesiaflower.com/">Rafflesia</a></em> – and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-found-evidence-of-early-humans-in-the-jungles-of-borneo-87336">rich human history</a> we are only just starting to understand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199908/original/file-20171219-27607-1vipb1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Nepenthes - or Pitcher Plant - growing on the slopes of Mt Kinabalu. A diverse range of species of these carnivorous plants are found in the different climatic zones on Kinabalu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Saunders</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When it comes to experiencing amazement and wonder, it’s hard to beat the pure thrill of encountering an orangutan in the wild. A long, hot, dusty minibus ride through endless palm plantations, noisy speedboat ride and mad scramble up the slippery banks of a crocodile-infested river brought rich reward: an audience with a giant, solitary male. To sit in quiet mutual contemplation within arms reach of this huge but gentle “person of the forest” was something I will never forget.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-new-species-of-orangutan-in-northern-sumatra-86843">How we discovered a new species of orangutan in northern Sumatra</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Orangutans are only found in Borneo and Sumatra, where their lowland forest habitat is being rapidly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/07/bornean-orangutan-declared-critically-endangered-as-forests-shrink">destroyed, degraded and fragmented</a> through illegal logging and burning. One of our closest living relatives was recently declared at “extremely high risk of extinction in the wild” by the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17975/0">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>. As a result, many young orangutans end up in orphanages like the <a href="https://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/about-us/sepilok-orangutan-rehabilitation-centre">Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199911/original/file-20171219-27591-1guzq4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young orangutan at Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Saunders</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Curiosity and unfenced danger</h2>
<p>Apart from being a great place for humans to see orangutans up close, rehabilitation centres are also helping us understand how curiosity contributes to problem solving. A recent study showed that normally solitary, cautious orangutans become more inquisitive if they spend more time with humans as youngsters. And this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/science/orangutans-intelligence-cognition.html">curiosity increased their cognitive abilities</a>, measured by their ability to open tricky boxes or use tools to access fruit or honey.</p>
<p>The threat to habitat in Borneo is laid bare in the forests along the Kinabatang River, an important corridor for many endangered species. In many places, the forest is reduced to a narrow strip stretching no more than a few hundred metres from the water, hemmed in tightly by palm oil plantations. But even there, it’s possible to see remarkable wildlife up close - sometimes too close.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199913/original/file-20171219-27547-eoaxij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Up close - too close - to a herd of Borneo pygmy elephants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Saunders</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One very enthusiastic guide, upon seeing the unmistakable fresh tracks of elephants crossing the river, had us jumping out of the boat through overhead-high elephant grass and straight into a clearing. The herd of 20 or so elephants quietly grazing there were suddenly infiltrated by some very excited humans. We made a hasty retreat, and it was sadly unsurprising news to hear a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/sydney-vet-gored-to-death-by-pygmy-elephant-20111207-1ojrv.html">young Australian vet was trampled to death</a> by the same herd a couple of years later.</p>
<p>In many ways, travelling in Borneo was reminiscent of childhood holidays in the 1970s and ‘80s. It’s a place of raw enthusiasm and unfenced danger, without safety harnesses or liability waivers. I first came to this realisation while scrambling up the rock faces near the summit of 4095m high <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1012/">Mt Kinabalu</a> in the early morning dark, with lightning cracking in the distance and without safety gear. A visit to the war memorial in Sandakan, where thousands of allied prisoners of war were <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/stolenyears/ww2/japan/sandakan">marched through the jungle to their deaths</a>, put a darker perspective on danger.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199914/original/file-20171219-27585-1njqul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stark moonscape of the tropical alpine zone approaching the 4095 m summit of Mt Kinabalu, with lowland forest in the distance below.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren Saunders</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-history-boom-has-busted-but-theres-hope-it-may-boom-again-70527">The Australian history boom has busted, but there's hope it may boom again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Life in the tropics</h2>
<p>Even among all this danger and excitement, the tropics dictate a languid daily rhythm. It’s so hot during the day that even the wildlife keeps a low profile – there’s not much else to do but laze in the shade, reading.</p>
<p>David Attenborough’s autobiography “<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/life-on-air-9781849900010">Life On Air</a>” was almost the perfect accompaniment for a trip to Borneo. Not only was Attenborough a huge influence on my life, reading his reflections on many of the same places I was visiting was a real thrill, and gave some unexpected historical context. It was sobering to read how much the place had changed from his time there in the 1950s, making some of his earliest TV documentaries.</p>
<p>I’ve become increasingly aware of a shift in my motivation for visiting unique natural wonders like Borneo or the Great Barrier Reef. The adventure and thrill of seeing so many unique creatures up close will always stand out, and they still invoke awe and curiosity. </p>
<p>But I travelled there in the past with no inkling that they might disappear. Now, these great natural wonders are under extreme threat from land clearing, climate change and other threats. There is added urgency and an overwhelming sense of sadness that I need to take my kids to see them before many are fundamentally changed, or disappear altogether.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Saunders is secretary of Science and Technology Australia.</span></em></p>
My holiday to Borneo in 2004 was more than just a chance to see incredible wildlife like orangutans and pygmy elephants. It helped crystallise for me the innate nature of scientific thinking.
Darren Saunders, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86834
2017-11-09T23:50:29Z
2017-11-09T23:50:29Z
Brian Cox is a world record holding ‘rockstar scientist’. Here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193874/original/file-20171109-14205-1cjcodf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2038%2C990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is it his physics, his hair or something else? Brian Cox pulls record audiences around the world. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ntnu-trondheim/35279319641/in/photolist-VKvJBK-UHqehK-m6AhLv-UHqbsB-a6iuvd-achxo4-7TwAag-7TwAzH-7TwAon-NK1Bio-9psgn7-gik3iU-riNBj9-VWX95K-7L64Kg-9BmXh-nZvnZh-nwNrSn-7L64fp-Y7aqN6-pVCjgF-8LBXPU-gjANsB-VWX8ZK-gye99G-VWX8P4-aCJ6Jg-VGUWSZ-4Pukad-Y7aqZt-7VDLyQ-6RzGUp-Y7arj6-VGf3xq-7MvpEq-6To92f-5TkwG9-gmHhEp-fn4Rt2-dVjfSJ-5DEeJe-pY59Pm-5co2uv-eefJ8X-eUbZWp-bvxhpp-7nT7cw-VmKhTE-8i382D-dobrvp">ntnu-trondheim/flickr </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The phrase “sold out stadium shows” is not often synonymous with science. Unless of course you are Professor Brian Cox. </p>
<p>Currently touring Australia, he is the holder of the Guinness World Record for the “<a href="http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/5/professor-brian-cox-beaks-own-record-for-science-tour-ticket-sales-470801">Most tickets sold for a science tour</a>”.</p>
<p>This is not a record to scoff at, particularly when you look at the details: one physicist filling the 8,700 seats of Wembley Arena in London.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alan-alda-on-the-art-of-science-communication-i-want-to-tell-you-a-story-55769">Alan Alda on the art of science communication: 'I want to tell you a story'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What is it about Brian Cox that makes people part with their money and go along to hear him speak? Is it his topic? The fact he <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)">used to be in a band</a>? Is it his hair?</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at the characteristics of a rock star scientist. Because you never know; maybe you could be one too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193902/original/file-20171109-14177-26cnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opting for a long style at times, Brian Cox sure does have good hair.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crazybob/2755035844/in/photolist-5cshb1-7VDLyQ-dobHTC-irjmMU-gyfyM9-dobzKr-pLKJao-aNGVie-gmGAuW-5HYTfH-aUn2Ev-hjAZ26-hyDAhC-bnZyfZ-9sSW7B-achxo4-e7LCCZ-VWWX4g-ibqLyj-doc2Xu-72WzUU-8i38mT-hyCZud-gydGJT-8PhWWA-VWX8wk-X6477M-dobf3r-dob5KZ-dhipBt-9nMmrn-9nMmnx-9TwxSr-9Nmczt-8UqspM-bsW6Ey-9w1vuf-9q2QcQ-9NmeiP-9NoMrY-9JorDY-9vXu1H-geZ2eg-b3UphK-7yRXoZ-9Nmncr-8UuSNY-9NoRu9-74uo1h-geZDUP">crazybob/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Battle of the sciences</h2>
<p>Perhaps being a rock star scientist is all about physics. There is a long list of well known physicist communicators: <a href="http://www.briangreene.org/">Brian Greene</a>, <a href="http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/">Neil deGrasse Tyson</a>, <a href="https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall">Lisa Randall</a>, <a href="http://www.astrokatie.com/">Katie Mack</a> just to name a few.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193880/original/file-20171109-14182-owjqro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Physicist Katie Mack has more than 194,000 followers on twitter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/AstroKatie?lang=en">@AstroKatie</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But then equally (or more - depending upon opinion) successful communicators come from other disciplines. </p>
<p><a href="http://drkarl.com/">Dr Karl</a> began in physics but then studied biomedical engineering and medicine. <a href="https://www.adamspencer.com.au/">Adam Spencer</a> is a mathematician. <a href="https://billnye.com/">Bill Nye</a> is a mechanical engineer. <a href="http://www.janegoodall.org/">Jane Goodall</a> is a primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist.</p>
<p>Arguably the most inspiring science communicator, <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/david-attenborough/">David Attenborough</a>, has a degree in the natural sciences. </p>
<p>Sorry physics, seems it is not about you. </p>
<p>And – no offence intended – none of the other communicators listed are known for being in a rock band or having great hair either. </p>
<p>There seems to be some kind of ‘X factor’ which makes these people great communicators. If we can identify the qualities of these science communication stars, can we find - or create - the Next Big Thing?</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/GifBillNye122415MindBlown.gif"></p>
<h2>Telling a good story</h2>
<p>What each of the communicators listed above have in common is their ability to tell a story. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/114/31/8127.long">recent opinion piece</a> in a science journal challenged scientists to borrow strategies from the arts and humanities and use the power of the narrative. Better yet, employ techniques that create an emotional response in the audience. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stories-of-sex-stars-and-sharks-amongst-the-best-australian-science-writing-in-2017-86949">Stories of sex, stars and sharks amongst the best Australian science writing in 2017</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/gravitational-waves-discovered-top-scientists-respond-53956">two top science stories in 2016</a> were the discovery of <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-last-weve-found-gravitational-waves-from-a-collapsing-pair-of-neutron-stars-85528">gravitational waves</a>, and links between the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-microcephaly-and-what-is-its-relationship-to-zika-virus-54049">Zika virus and brain abnormalities at birth</a>.</p>
<p>The confirmation of gravitational waves is a story spanning decades of hard work, disappointment, setbacks and eventual elation. The triumph of human exertions. In contrast, Zika evokes fear and the desire to protect oneself and others. </p>
<p>For most people, gravitational waves and Zika will have little to no relevance or impact on their everyday lives. However, the stories created an opportunity to engage audiences through the emotional responses they evoked. </p>
<p>Another example is Meerkat Manor. This <a href="http://www.meerkatmanor.co.uk/how-it-all-started.htm">furry soap opera</a>, which captured imaginations for four seasons, was televised in 160 countries and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070830052224/http://www.oxfordscientificfilms.tv/NewsDetails.aspx?niid=1580&d=2">nominated for two Primetime Emmys</a>. The death of Flower, the Whiskers tribe matriarch, created an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/arts/television/10bell.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">outpouring of tributes</a> including numerous YouTube montages set to music.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X_eVEW_Y02o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meerkat Manor told a story of a community of meerkats - and TV viewers loved it.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Flower was the star of the show, it was the narrative surrounding her that propelled her to icon status. </p>
<p>A successful story meets the needs of its audience. Knowing who you are talking to is <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2015/08/21/science-communication-know-your-audience/">fundamental to good communication</a>.</p>
<h2>Focus on your audience</h2>
<p>Researcher Bobby Cerini interviewed prominent science communicators from around the world, including some of those listed above. She found <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/110692/1/Cerini%20Thesis%202016.pdf">common themes</a> in how these “scientific superstars” approach their public communication. </p>
<p>They focus on who they are talking to, what language their audience will understand, and what they will find most interesting or inspiring. The most compelling communicators are the ones who can take you on a journey, making the intangible tangible and the complex comprehensible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bored-reading-science-lets-change-how-scientists-write-81688">Bored reading science? Let's change how scientists write</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The popular Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution UK are based on this approach. They were <a href="http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/history">introduced by Michael Faraday in 1825</a> as a means of engaging a younger audience with “spectacular demonstrations”. </p>
<p>By capturing the imagination, highly visible scientists can become sources of inspiration and role models, <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/is-the-importance-of-female-role-models-in-science-overstated-1.3008212">irrespective of gender, race or creed</a>. </p>
<h2>Scientists as celebrities</h2>
<p>As the media landscape has changed, so too has <a href="https://www.csicop.org/si/show/a_brief_history_of_scientific_celebrity">the role of visible scientists</a>. Many use their prominence to promote public understanding and engagement with the sciences, like Brian Greene, who <a href="http://www.briangreene.org/world-science-festival/">co-founded the World Science Festival</a>. </p>
<p>So are these celebrity scientists born naturally gifted storytellers who can effortlessly translate their work to meet the needs of multiple audiences? Or do they achieve their status by putting themselves out there, learning from their experiences and simply practising? </p>
<p>Perhaps they recognise the power and potential of communicating their science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/alan-alda-on-the-art-of-science-communication-i-want-to-tell-you-a-story-55769">best expressed by Alan Alda</a>, who said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my opinion, communication is not something you add onto science like icing on a cake. It’s the cake itself, it’s of the essence of science.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Want to be a scientific super star? Tell stories, meet your audiences’ needs, and be yourself.</p>
<p>And maybe join a band. Just in case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merryn McKinnon works for the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University.</span></em></p>
Packed venues, rock star status. What makes some scientists so damned marketable?
Merryn McKinnon, Lecturer, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/69957
2016-12-09T16:24:50Z
2016-12-09T16:24:50Z
Planet Earth II: why most animals can’t hack city living
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149450/original/image-20161209-31352-1fxy53t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC NHU/Fredi Devas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The grand finale of the BBC’s Planet Earth II showcased the ingenious strategies that some animals use to thrive in urban environments. Though impressive, these species are in the minority. As the number of people living in cities around the world continues to rise, we should really be turning our attention to those animals that find city living too hard to handle.</p>
<p>Urbanisation represents the most extreme form of habitat loss for most plants and animals. As towns and cities grow, human beings live together in higher densities, and natural habitat is removed and replaced with hard, impermeable structures such as roads and buildings. Harmful pollution increases, as does the noise from industry and traffic, the amount of artificial lighting and the number of introduced predators such as cats. </p>
<p>As remaining pockets of natural or semi-natural habitat (such as remnant native habitat or man-made parks) become more isolated, city-dwelling animals are prevented from venturing out to look for food, resting places or mates, or may risk dying in the attempt. All together, these changes make cities impossible places for many species to live in. </p>
<h2>Life in the urban jungle</h2>
<p>Typically, we find a lower variety of plants and animals in more built-up areas; and this applies to all groups of wildlife. In <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1780/20133330.short">a recent global study</a>, researchers estimated that cities accommodate only 8% of the bird species and 25% of the plants that would have lived in those areas prior to urban development. As a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/ocr_gateway_pre_2011/environment/0_ecology_organisms4.shtml">vertebrate’s</a> territory becomes more urban, it’s also more likely to be <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">threatened with extinction</a>. In fact, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320708001432">it’s estimated that</a> urban development is responsible for the listing of 420 vertebrate species around the planet as threatened. </p>
<p>It’s the generalist, opportunistic species such as foxes and rats – and, as we see on the programme, some monkeys – which can adapt to a wide variety of environmental conditions. By contrast, creatures that require large areas to source enough food, have specialist habitats or dietary requirements, or those with narrow geographic ranges tend to fare poorly during urban development. </p>
<p>In 2011, the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org">Center for Biological Diversity</a> released a list of ten US species facing extinction as a result of human population growth. Several of these have been directly affected by urban development; including the Florida panther and the Mississippi gopher frog, and the Lange’s metalmark butterfly. There are only 150 of these butterflies left in the world, living in a small coastal refuge in California which, incidentally, is also home to the last natural populations of a number of wildflower species including the Antioch Dunes evening primrose and Contra Costa wallflower.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149455/original/image-20161209-31405-4hr05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bat nap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/124758008@N06/14659611027/sizes/l">FBG_Paris/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bats are another group of animals that frequently lose out from urbanisation. This is partly because many species are reliant on forests for their food and roosting spots. Yet even bats which we often see in cities can find it difficult to cope with the most built-up areas. </p>
<p>For example, the common pipistrelle is widespread throughout Europe – it can often be spotted roosting in buildings and flying around urban parks. But <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714004479">research at the University of Stirling</a>, using citizen science as part of the Bat Conservation Trust’s National Bat Monitoring Programme, found that this bat was far less likely to be recorded in densely built-up areas, compared to less built-up ones. </p>
<h2>Growing greener cities</h2>
<p>About half the world’s human population currently live in urban areas, which cover about 3% of the earth’s land surface. Both of these figures <a href="http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2005/story03-07-05.html">are increasing rapidly</a>. At the same time, urban areas are likely to spread fastest in some of the most biologically diverse areas of the world, including parts of Africa and Asia, which will place <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/40/16083">even more species at risk</a>. For example, one of the areas predicted to undergo the fastest levels of urban development is Africa’s Eastern Afromontane, home to an astonishing array of plants and animals that do not exist anywhere else. Several species of giraffe, which were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38240760">recently listed as threatened</a>, are also found in this area. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149452/original/image-20161209-31370-h40suz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Strategic greenery: Singapore’s solar trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/babomike/7911423326/sizes/l">BaboMike/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Losing a species to extinction is not just a tragedy for the animal kingdom. Humans rely on biological diversity for a huge array of “services”, which they provide us with; whether directly for food or timber, or indirectly, through nutrient cycling, pollination and the provision of clean water and air. </p>
<p>Yet the situation is not entirely hopeless. There are many courses of action we can take, as individuals on a local level, and as a society by developing sustainable strategies for urban planning. Many studies show that maintaining and expanding green spaces in cities (including gardens) assists with wildlife conservation and enhances human health and well-being. And green roofs and walls can provide habitats for wildlife and reduce the impact of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-are-cities-warmer-than-the-countryside-53160">urban heat island</a>, as well as absorbing rainwater and improving building insulation. </p>
<p>While it’s incredible to see hyenas living in harmony with humans, falcons soaring between skyscrapers and monkeys leaping through the urban jungle, we must also spare a thought for those species which can’t handle city living. As urban environments continue to expand and develop around the world, it’s worth remembering this: if we can make cities more habitable for wildlife, then we humans will benefit too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Park is a Trustee of the Bat Conservation Trust. </span></em></p>
Some animals love living in the urban jungle – but they are a small minority, compared to those we risk losing to urbanisation.
Kirsty Park, Professor in Conservation Ecology, University of Stirling
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60215
2016-06-01T15:00:39Z
2016-06-01T15:00:39Z
What dragonflies say about our ignorance of the natural world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124491/original/image-20160530-7700-w1bb54.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This massive dragonfly, the Swordbearer Emperor _Anax gladiator_, is named for the blade-like spike at its tail tip.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the 8.7 million species of animals, plants and fungi thought to live on Earth, we have only named <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21886479">1.2 million</a>: 86% of the natural world is uncharted. </p>
<p>For most people, both this incredible richness and our ignorance are hard to fathom. Imagine that each of the 6.5 million species thought to live on land – the rest is marine – had an equal share of it. Each species’ plot – also that of the human species – would cover an area only one-quarter the size of Manhattan. Expressed this way, we as humans have not just far overstepped our bounds, but mapped only the equivalent of Europe, India and China, which make up about 14% of global land surface. </p>
<p>What’s worse, the habits and status of only 80,000 species are known well enough to really assess our impact on them. Of those, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">29% risk extinction</a>. So, returning to the metaphor, the species that we’re actually familiar with equal only the combined area of Spain, France and Turkey. And if 29% of all species died out, that would equate to the entire New World voided of life. </p>
<p>In other words: while we’ve had an apocalyptic impact on the biosphere already, it has been charted as well today as the globe was in Columbus’s day. This matters because knowing other species can provide a moral counterweight to life’s runaway exploitation: intact biodiversity is the undeniable proof that humans can inhabit Earth without destroying it. </p>
<p>That’s why naming species is important. Names harness the power of recognition. They acknowledge the other exists. They introduce familiarity. As someone once exclaimed to me, “you don’t notice species until you know they can have a name!” </p>
<p>In an era of extinction, there are no greater priorities than to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arr2k7dwzSU">uncover our millions of cohabitants</a> and to <a href="http://jrsbiodiversity.org/grant/stellenbosch_dragonflies/">share our knowledge</a> of these species. This can be done through research, <a href="https://freshwaterblog.net/2015/06/01/discovering-the-dragonflies-and-damselflies-of-eastern-africa/">books</a>, websites, Red Lists of threatened species, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/africanfreshwater">field courses</a>, teaching materials and other media. But while every human relies on this knowledge, even if only by reaping the benefits of agriculture and medicine, few see its advance as their primary responsibility.</p>
<p>Few animals can raise that moral awareness of biodiversity better than dragonflies, literally rising from healthy freshwaters in colour and splendour.</p>
<h2>Breaking the anonymity trap</h2>
<p>Most of what is unknown is not just unseen, but not even being looked for.</p>
<p>There are 6,000 named dragonfly and damselfly species worldwide. These charismatic aquatic insects are regarded as well-known. But last December we published <a href="https://science.naturalis.nl/media/medialibrary/2015/12/60NewDragonflies_fullsize2.pdf">60 new species</a> in one article. This added one species to every 12 known ones in Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Known from only one site near Cape Town, the endangered damselfly <em>Spesbona angusta</em> needs all the ‘Good Hope’ (<em>Spes Bona</em> in Latin) it can get.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course these species existed already, but were not noticed and documented before. Most unknown species may seem indistinct or concealed, requiring meticulous lab-work to uncover, but the 60 were found in accessible places all over Africa and are often recognisable even from a photo.</p>
<p>This May, English nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough was given a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDnPUXTcdc&feature=youtu.be">new dragonfly species</a> from Madagascar for his 90th birthday. In the <a href="http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.19870!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/533172a.pdf">scientific journal <em>Nature</em></a> I explain that both the dragonfly and Attenborough’s legacy stand for a selfless and unconditional love of nature.</p>
<p>I am often asked what the “use” of dragonflies is. They are not studied because they are not proxies of human psyche and society like ants and apes. They are not feared and persecuted like mosquitoes and snakes. They do not feed people like fish, nor pollinate crops like bees.</p>
<p>Rather, the beauty and sensitivity of these creatures – and so many others – stand for the state and needs of nature before our own. Like the instant sense of insignificance when counting stars, biodiversity stretches our perspective on life. Each species is a world parallel to our own, evoking a sense of being among equals.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name</h2>
<p>If species embody sustainability and names give them faces, those tags best be memorable. The sparklewing damselfly <em>Umma gumma</em>, named for the rock band Pink Floyd’s album “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/ummagumma-mw0000191310">Ummagumma</a>” (slang for making love), is <a href="http://www.esf.edu/top10/">a special favourite.</a> The longleg dragonflies <em>Notogomphus kimpavita</em> and <em>N. gorilla</em> were named for the patron saint and conservation flagship of their Angolan and Ugandan regions respectively.</p>
<p>But who is out discovering species and introducing them to mankind? Nature is held hostage by humanity’s growing demands and so conservationists barely have time to find out who they really work for. Environmental consultancy is captive to the market. Many biologists have retreated into the lab. Without funds for discovery and disclosure, even natural history museums are giving up.</p>
<p>Only nine of our 60 new dragonflies were found while one of us worked for a university or museum. The other 33 were found while doing consultancy and 18 were found by a teacher. Much of the best biodiversity research and outreach now comes from devoted amateurs and academics working in their free time, showing how close biodiversity is to the human heart.</p>
<p>In a society governed by money, charity is what we do for others for free. But just as we cannot expect volunteers to protect the environment or eradicate poverty alone, we cannot continue life’s elementary and enlightening exploration without support. Nature needs more explorers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra receives funding from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation, USA.</span></em></p>
There are 6,000 named dragonfly species worldwide but recently 60 new species were found showing how much more we can learn.
Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Honorary research associate Naturalis Biodiversity Center and, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58949
2016-05-05T13:44:30Z
2016-05-05T13:44:30Z
Sir David Attenborough: the mesmerising storyteller of the natural world
<p>As a child in the 1970s and 1980s Sir David Attenborough’s series were my most eagerly-awaited TV programmes. At school my friends and I discussed <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135095/">Life on Earth</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r95v7">The Trials of Life</a> the way kids today discuss soap operas. We marvelled at the images, but we were hooked by the stories. </p>
<p>The art of a brilliant wildlife documentary is in the storytelling, and Attenborough is the supreme narrator. When I was a child, his wildlife documentaries had more than 20m British viewers, figures Simon Cowell can only dream of. His shows were broadcast in the USSR and China, even during the cold war. At the time, he may have been the most recognised person in the world.</p>
<p>Of course, as a young undergraduate biologist he was my idol. I remember once filling in a competition form that asked which living person would you most to like have dinner with. I answered Sir David. I didn’t win that competition, but I did have dinner with him many years later, when I worked on the filming of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bfyvp">Life of Mammals</a> in Brazil. The three days I spent with Sir David showed him to be a humble, empathetic and educated person.</p>
<p>The overriding memory I have is of him sitting reading scientific papers in a deckchair, in the field, waiting to film. Mistakenly I believed that the great Sir David Attenborough had research assistants who wrote his script and provided him with information. But then he is not really a presenter acting on camera, but rather a wildlife enthusiast sharing his authentic wonderment with the viewing public.</p>
<p>In modern, celebrity-driven TV, image is everything. Presenters parade in front of the cameras like gaudy peacocks: all show and no substance. They may not be reading from a teleprompter, but the lack of spontaneity in their words makes many of them sound as sincere as a second-hand car salesman. Then there is Sir David, he looks unremarkable, like everyone’s favourite old uncle or grandfather, but his talent is extraordinary.</p>
<p>It is easy to tell a story about the rock stars of the animal world: tigers, polar bears or giant pandas. But what makes Sir David a great storyteller is his ability to make the humble British dormouse as interesting as a mountain gorilla. It may not come and sit on him, but it nonetheless has a life less ordinary. Conveying the magic in the lives of apparently mundane creatures is a rare gift. But not one without precedent in UK television. Think about Britain’s most famous soap operas: Coronation Street and Eastenders – they succeed by using storylines that show the fascinating lives of ordinary people.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/692fiaoJWy8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A younger, posher Attenborough finds an orangutan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I suspect the global appeal of wildlife TV is that all humans share with animals the struggles to find shelter, food, a mate and to rear their offspring. In documentaries of the animal world we see that our everyday existence is worthy of attention, even if we are only celebrities in the eyes of those who know the tale of our existence. Thus, the chronicling of animal lives is very much like the soap opera of our own existence. But animal lives are more timeless, free from fashion, which as I tell my students means Sir David’s back catalogue will always be interesting unlike old episodes of soap operas.</p>
<p>If it were not for Sir David’s mesmeric storytelling I would probably have become an accountant. I am sure that people from all walks of life around our planet will join me in wishing him a very a happy birthday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Young worked with Sir David Attenborough on the BBC series Life Of Mammals. He teaches an MA course on wildlife documentary production.</span></em></p>
If it weren’t for Sir David’s enchanting work, this wildlife professor would probably be an accountant.
Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58204
2016-04-24T10:41:31Z
2016-04-24T10:41:31Z
David Attenborough says the Great Barrier Reef is in ‘grave danger’ – it’s time to step up
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119918/original/image-20160423-5457-16b5rkq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sir David on the Great Barrier Reef. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Attenborough © Serengeti Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over three weeks, Australians have been taken on an incredible journey through the biology, beauty and wonder of the <a href="http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/david-attenboroughs-great-barrier-reef/ZW0220A001S00">Great Barrier Reef</a>, guided by Sir David Attenborough. </p>
<p>As individuals who have had the privilege of working on the Reef for much of our lives, the wonderful storytelling, exquisite photography and stunning production of the Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough has been inspiring. It’s a great reminder of how lucky we are to have this wonder of nature right on our doorstep.</p>
<p>Particularly special has been the wonderful black-and-white footage of Sir David’s first visit to the Reef in 1957, a trip down memory lane. His attachment and fascination with the Reef are hard to dismiss. </p>
<p>However, as the curtain closes on this wonderful series, Sir David concludes that the Reef that he visited nearly 60 years ago is very different from today. </p>
<p>Research backs up this personal experience. The Australian Institute of Marine Science has shown that the Great Barrier Reef has <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/44/17995.short">lost around 50% of its coral cover between 1985 and 2012</a>. </p>
<h2>A reef in peril</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>The Great Barrier Reef is in grave danger. The twin perils brought by climate change – an increase in the temperature of the ocean and in its acidity – threaten its very existence. – Sir David Attenborough</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As this television series has aired in Australia, an underwater heatwave has caused coral bleaching on <a href="http://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/only-7-of-the-great-barrier-reef-has-avoided-coral-bleaching">93% of the reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef</a>. Up to 50% of corals in the worst-affected regions may die as a result of this bleaching. </p>
<p>We should not be too surprised. <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=MF99078">Reef scientists</a> have been warning about this for decades. In 1998, the warmest year on record at the time, the world lost around 16% of its coral reefs in the first global-scale mass coral bleaching event.</p>
<p>Before the current bleaching, the reef bleached severely in 1998 and 2002, with a substantial bleaching event in 2006 around the Keppel Islands. Outside these events, there has been moderate mass bleaching on the reef since the early 1980s (particularly 1983 and 1987), although never to the extent and intensity that we are witnessing today.</p>
<h2>Rising sea temperatures</h2>
<p>The current bleaching event has drawn widespread media coverage. One of the arguments we have seen raised is that coral bleaching is natural – and that the reef will bounce back as it always has, or even <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/climate-change-adaptation-designer-reefs-1.15073">adapt to warming seas</a>.</p>
<p>It is true that certain coral species, and even certain individual colonies within the same species, do perform <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2001.00203.x/full">better than others</a> when stressed by warmer-than-normal sea temperatures. However, the extent of these differences is only 1-2°C. Given that even moderate climate change projections involve temperatures 2-3°C higher than today, these differences offer little comfort for reefs like the Great Barrier Reef in a warmer world. </p>
<p>The observation that corals grow in warm areas of the globe is a demonstration that corals can and do adapt to local temperatures. However, the time frames involved are hundreds of years, not a single decade. Current rates of warming are much faster than anything for tens of millions of years, which makes the prospect of evolution keeping pace with a changing ocean even more improbable. </p>
<p>Mass bleaching is a new phenomenon that was <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5927692&fileId=S0376892900012248">first reported in the early 1980s</a>. Before this, there are no reports of corals bleaching <em>en masse</em> across any coral reef or ocean region. </p>
<p>Experts are in agreement that mass coral bleaching and death on the Great Barrier Reef is driven by climate change resulting from human activities (mainly burning fossil fuels). This is the conclusion at the heart of the latest <a href="https://ipcc-wg2.gov/publications/ocean/">consensus of the United Nations scientific report</a>. </p>
<p>Rising sea temperatures coupled with strong El Niños are unfortunately pushing corals to their thermal tolerance limits and beyond. It only takes a temperature <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF99078">increase of 1-2°C to disrupt</a> the special relationship between corals and tiny marine algae that live inside their tissue, resulting in bleached corals. </p>
<p>In fact, as CO₂ concentrations rise, sea temperatures will continue to climb – increasing the likelihood that mass coral bleaching events will become more frequent and more destructive. <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6283/338.abstract">Recent research</a> has shown that near-future increases in local temperature of as little as 0.5°C may lead to significant degradation of the Great Barrier Reef. </p>
<p>Rising temperatures are not the only climate threat. Cyclones are predicted to become <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7051/abs/nature03906.html">stronger</a> (if less frequent) in a warmer world. Since 2005 there have been eight cyclones on the reef of category 3 or above – more than previous decades. We would argue this is evidence that these predictions are already coming true and form part of our current reality. </p>
<p>Heat stress is not just affecting corals on the Great Barrier Reef either. We are seeing reports of bleaching across all of Australia’s coral real estate (Coral Sea, Torres Strait, Kimberley, North West Shelf), the South Pacific and the central and western Indian Ocean. </p>
<p>It is likely only a matter of time before we start to see reports of bleaching from <a href="https://theconversation.com/coral-bleaching-comes-to-the-great-barrier-reef-as-record-breaking-global-temperatures-continue-56570">other coral reefs around the world</a>. We are indeed dealing with changing times and a global issue.</p>
<h2>It’s not too late to act</h2>
<p>It’s not too late to act – but we will need very deep and significant action to occur within three to five years or face a collapse of ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.</p>
<p>Climate change is just one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/great-barrier-reef-threats-series">threats facing the Great Barrier Reef</a>. Fortunately, it is not too late to give the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZefWhGmI_KU&list=PLrPCCOilfKQFYRbGGmGnu82CREchiZSyC&index=13">reef a fighting chance</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZefWhGmI_KU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ove Hoegh-Guldberg on the future of the reef.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it does require strong, immediate and decisive action from our political leaders. </p>
<p>In the lead-up to the federal election, we believe that four major steps are required by our leaders to ensure a future for the Reef:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Mitigate:</strong> we need to – as per the Paris Agreement – keep average global surface temperature increases to below 2.0°C, and hopefully 1.5°C in the long term. This means we must adopt a pathway that will bring our greenhouse gas emissions to zero over the next few decades. Our leaders must live up to the global agreement that they committed to in <a href="https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf">Paris at COP21</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest:</strong> we need to ultimately close our coal mines and stop searching for more fossil fuels. The experts tell us that we must leave <a href="https://theconversation.com/unburnable-carbon-why-we-need-to-leave-fossil-fuels-in-the-ground-40467">80% of known fossil fuels in the ground</a>. Let’s invest in coral, renewables and the planet, and not in coal, emissions and ecosystem collapse. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Strengthen:</strong> we need an urgent and concerted effort to reduce other non-climate change threats to build the resilience of the reef so it can better withstand the impacts of climate change over the coming years. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Integrate:</strong> Australian and Queensland governments have begun a process to address declining reef health through the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/consultations/8b8f5023-3cfb-4310-bc51-1136aa5d875a/files/reef-2050-long-term-sustainaiblity-plan.pdf">Reef 2050 Long-term Sustainability Plan</a>. This plan has a strong focus on coastal water quality. The 2050 Reef Plan and its resourcing will need to consider climate change – especially given that it is likely to make achieving the objectives of the plan even more challenging and impossible (if no action). Otherwise we run the risk of ending up with a great plan for improving water quality by 2050 but no Great Barrier Reef.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We hope that Sir David Attenborough will help inspire Australians to demand action from their political leaders to ensure that this natural wonder of the world continues to inspire, employ, educate and generate income for generations to come.</p>
<p>It seems fitting to end with Sir David’s closing words with a call to our political leaders and fellow Australians:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do we really care so little about the earth upon which we live that we don’t wish to protect one of its greatest wonders from the consequences of our behaviours?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After all, it is our Great Barrier Reef – let’s keep it great. </p>
<p>Or at least let’s fight to keep it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Hoegh-Guldberg undertakes research on coral reef ecosystems and their response to rapid environmental change, which is supported primarily by the Australian Research Council (Canberra), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Washington, D.C.), Catlin Group (London), and Great Barrier Reef Foundation (Brisbane). He is married to Dr Sophie Dove but did not receive salary for writing this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyrone Ridgway does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Sir David Attenborough has issued a call the save the Great Barrier Reef.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Director, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland
Tyrone Ridgway, Healthy Oceans Program Manager, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33209
2014-10-23T18:57:48Z
2014-10-23T18:57:48Z
New BBC series reveals more about the wise old elephant, but many mysteries remain
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62656/original/nrtfqxhv-1414079052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who you callin' big ears?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-133689230/stock-photo-background-elephant.html?src=lZ8m0ofkwLcyiINccvO7gg-1-0">Lara Zanarini</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The life story of any animal involves daily struggles and triumphs, twists and turns – and each individual has its own unique narrative.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p026vg04">new Life Story series</a> from the BBC Natural History Unit shows in intimate detail both familiar and rarely seen examples of such life-determining events. Breath-taking footage provides viewers with the highest quality images ever seen of animals experiencing the challenges involved in making their way through life towards the ultimate achievement, leaving offspring. That, as narrator David Attenborough puts it, is “the next best thing to immortality”.</p>
<p>We were the Open University consultants to the series, which covers everything from bower birds and cheetahs to weaver ants and elephants. While it helped us to appreciate just how much television can now allow viewers to experience the daily lives and struggles of wild animals, we all still know very little about the basic biology and survival needs of many of the animals we share the planet with. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62418/original/pq7kd62q-1413925981.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Robinson and Vicky Taylor: advisers on Life Story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMG</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Often it is the most recognisable animals that people actually know the least about, which is where David and I come in. We’re educational experts, as well as biologists specialising in reproduction and how animals use sound. </p>
<h2>Elephants</h2>
<p>African elephants feature in Life Story but there are now thought to be two, not one living species of these (the bush elephant and the forest elephant). The series follows a family group of bush elephants in south Kenya. It tells the story of a new mother who is supported by the older more experienced mothers, but has to keep up with the herd as they travel. </p>
<p>There is a fascinating moment where they pass elephant bones and take the time to pause, exploring them with their trunks. The fact that they stop despite their need to keep moving, probably for food or water, and that the bones are important enough to stop and explore provides an insight into the intimate behaviour of these creatures. </p>
<p>There is also a third species that does not appear in the series: the Asian elephant. Unlike African elephants, which are mostly wild, people have since the third millennium BCE attempted to “domesticate” these slightly smaller animals. But it has always been hard to get them to breed in captivity, which sets them precariously apart from truly domesticated species such as dogs, chickens, sheep and cows that generally reproduce so well that they outnumber their wild counterparts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62645/original/42py7qdn-1414071124.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’ve been trying to domesticate the noble elephant with mixed success for quite a while.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-176169035/stock-photo-ayutthaya-thailand-december-tourists-on-an-elefant-ride-around-the-park-on-december.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Igor Plotnikov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elephants are large, long-lived, travel far – and females have strong social bonds. These complications help to explain why captive Asian elephants have never become truly domesticated and their populations are endangered. Research <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291098-2361%281998%2917:4%3C311::AID-ZOO5%3E3.0.CO;2-C/abstract">conducted back in 1998</a> confirmed that captive Asian elephants breed less successfully than those with access to wild populations in a comparison with semi-captive environments including a logging camp in Myanmar. </p>
<p>Since then, managers have been slightly more successful at breeding these elephants in captivity. But this may be down to developments in artificial insemination and sperm preservation rather than any increases in our knowledge about the complicated reproductive biology of elephants, their social behaviour or management needs.</p>
<h2>Communicating through sound</h2>
<p>Elephants are known to communicate with each other through smell, sight and touch, but their ability to use sound in different ways is particularly interesting. They produce rumbling sounds through the folds in their larynx. These rumbles are structurally very varied, which means that all sorts of social information could be exchanged. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1WLMVX_Y2Pk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The sounds are very low-frequency and travel well through air. Elephants have been observed to respond to sounds from another elephant 2.5 km away. We know quite a lot about the characteristics of the sounds, but their precise role in the social structure of different elephant groups is still not well understood. This takes us back to Life Story and the elephants stopping to explore the remains of a fellow traveller: is this because of curiosity, or a deeper social meaning?</p>
<p>The long gestation period of the programme (four years in the making) surpassed that of even the Asian elephant (up to 22 months). When you work with such animals, you get used to things taking a long time.</p>
<p>And trainee researchers need to learn how to study for long periods to be able to extract new findings from observations. Students get a taste of this by studying elephant behaviours and interactions they are unlikely to have seen before, that take place during an intimate glimpse of how these magnificent animals go about their daily business within their own life stories for up to four hours on specially recorded footage from Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire. </p>
<p>Soon after the elephant study filming was completed, Damini, a 20-year-old female successfully produced a <a href="http://www.woburnsafari.co.uk/news/">healthy female calf</a>. This followed artificial insemination with sperm from Raja, the resident male, in another success at breeding Asian elephants in captivity. As in the new BBC series, another life story begins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The life story of any animal involves daily struggles and triumphs, twists and turns – and each individual has its own unique narrative. The new Life Story series from the BBC Natural History Unit shows…
Vicky Taylor, Lecturer in Biology, The Open University
David Robinson, Honorary Associate in the Department of Environment, Earth and Ecosystems, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.