David Attenborough, television and environmental destruction | Letters

Readers take Attenborough to task for ignoring the human impact on the natural world

I 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.