Earth Champion David Attenborough Bestowed Lifetime Achievement Award

For the year 2022, Sir David Attenborough is the recipient of the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award. The 95-year-old was selected for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration. Recipients are selected by the executive director of UNEP, who also confers the award.

Earth Champions Lifetime Achievement Award-2022 conferred to Sir David Attenborough and the award was previously won by environmental justice advocate Robert Bullard (2020), environment and indigenous rights defender Joan Carling (2018) and plant biologist José Sarukhán Kermez (2016).

The year 2022 marked the fifty years since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment - the first international meeting on the environment - was held in 1972 in Sweden.

Mr.Attenborough is considered the world’s best-known natural history broadcaster as he has penned and presented some of the most influential documentaries on the state of the planet.

He is well known for his innovative educational television programs. One of his famous documentaries is ‘The Green Planet and the plastic ocean’. Other important works include Life on Earth (1979), Living planet (1984), the trials of life (1990).

He was awarded the following awards - Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (2019), Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator (2019), Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2017), International Cosmos Prize (1998) Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science from UNESCO (1981).

In 2018, to honor Mr.Attenborough, a new species - ‘fan-throated lizard’ discovered from coastal Kerala was named Sitana Attenborough. He is the person with the highest honorary degrees (32) from British universities.

   Important points for the exam:

• The Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award-2022 was conferred to Sir David Attenborough for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration.
• This award is the highest honour given by the United Nations in the field of environment.
• The award recipient was selected by the executive director of UNEP. He is considered as the world’s best-known natural history broadcaster.
• He is well known for his innovative educational television programs. One of his famous documentarie is ‘The Green Planet and the plastic ocean’.

   Facts to know:

• Champions of the Earth award was given for the first time in 2005.
• Categories of the award: Lifetime Achievement Award, Science and Innovation, Policy Leadership, Entrepreneurial Vision, Inspiration and Action, Environmental conservation.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established in 1972.
• Headquarters of UNEP: Nairobi, Kenya.