Sir David Attenborough has published his last book – A Life on Our Planet [My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future]
Quote:
‘This is the true tragedy of our time – the spiralling decline of our planet’s biodiversity. For life to truly thrive on this planet, there must be immense biodiversity. Only when billions of different individual organisms make the most of every resource and opportunity they encounter, and millions of species lead lives that interlock so that they sustain each other, can the planet run efficiently. The greater the biodiversity, the more secure will be all life on Earth, including ourselves. Yes, the way we humans are now living on Earth is sending biodiversity into a decline.’
At the beginning of some of the chapters he gives us some stark statistics in relation to the decline of ‘Planet Earth’
| Year | World Population | Carbon in Atmosphere | Remaining Wilderness |
| 1954 | 2.7 billion | 310 parts per million | 64% |
| 1968 | 3.5 billion | 323 parts per million | 59% |
| 1971 | 3.7 billion | 326 parts per million | 58% |
| 1978 | 4.3 billion | 335 parts per million | 55% |
| 1989 | 5.1 billion | 353 parts per million | 49% |
| 1997 | 5.9 billion | 360 parts per million | 46% |
| 2011 | 7.0 billion | 391 parts per million | 39% |
| 2020 | 7.8 billion | 415 parts per million | 35% |
| 2023 | 8.062 billion | 420 parts per million | 23% |
