David Attenborough, television and environmental destruction | Letters

Readers take Attenborough to task for ignoring the human impact on the natural worldI strongly agree with George's Monbiot's comments regarding David Attenborough's latest BBC series, Dynasties (Attenborough has betrayed the living world that he loves, 7 November). Why have most of his wonderful programmes been blind to the tsunami of environmental destruction we have unleashed? Some years ago I confronted Alastair Fothergill, series producer of many of Attenborough's programmes, at a public meeting: "The Earth is in distress: why do you ignore human impacts?" His response: "Our audience does not want to be disturbed." What about the mess that future generations will be left with? In the 1980s I worked at Channel 4 for Fragile Earth, which broadcast some 20 environmental documentaries a year. But as soon as Michael Grade took over as CEO in 1988, he sacked the commissioning editor - advertisers did not like disturbing programmes. And so the global devastation continues largely unreported in TV documentaries. Continue reading...