As Sir David Attenborough turns 100, I find myself thinking back to a dinner in Colombia nearly half a century ago.
I was a high school student then. David had come to Colombia to film in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, with the Arhuaco and Kogi peoples. I met him at a dinner at a friend’s house during that visit.
The Kogi call themselves the Elder Brothers, and they refer to the rest of us as the Younger Brothers. Their message was simple and profound: we have to learn how to care for the Earth.
I did not know it at the time, but that dinner with David helped set me on the path to becoming a biologist.
It is hard to think of another person who has done more to help people appreciate nature. For many, a rainforest canopy, a coral reef, a bird-of-paradise, a whale, or a chimpanzee first came alive through his eyes and his voice. He made distant places feel close. He made unfamiliar species feel remarkable and known. He helped generations understand that nature is not something apart from us. It is our home.
The last time we met was at COP26 in Glasgow. He was still using that remarkable voice to remind leaders that climate and nature belong in the same conversation. We will not solve the climate crisis if we continue to exploit and destroy the biodiversity that makes all life on Earth possible.
I think about that often in our work at the Bezos Earth Fund. The work of protecting what remains of the natural world, restoring degraded lands, supporting Indigenous peoples and local communities, and investing in nature-based solutions is, in many ways, an effort to act on the lesson David has spent his life teaching: we must see and understand the living planet clearly, and then we must protect it.
I often think about the people who came before me, the mentors and pioneers who shaped the field of conservation and helped many of us find our own path. Sir David Attenborough is one of those rare figures. He changed the way the world looks at nature. He also changed the lives of countless young people, including mine.
Happy 100th birthday, Sir David. Thank you for the wonder, the wisdom, and the reminder that we still have so much worth protecting.
