Sir David Attenborough, who turned 99 on Wednesday, is no stranger to the wild and the unusual. This birthday greeting is a plea from the desolate landscape of higher education and for the planet he loves — save the social sciences and humanities! Help them to learn and communicate about our beautiful planet.

Attenborough’s work brings to us the interconnectedness and the delicate balance of Life on Earth. These television series, books, lectures and documentary films reveal our Planet Earth, igniting in us a spirit of oneness with nature, a sense of awe and humility, and a combination of deep respect, love and valour. They amplify our need to know how different we are as a species. Our exosomatic urges of accumulation and control that build our social systems contradict and steadily destroy the endosomatic needs and expressions of diverse life forms, the dynamic earth systems that shape and co-evolve within this Living Planet. Those like Attenborough concerned about and communicating on nature, environment, wildlife to the public, are a rare breed within our species. Knowledge and the act of knowing is central to all life on this earth. Cultivating that knowledge is, therefore, is not just a necessity for survival but also for the larger wellbeing, sustainability, diversity and justice for all. Through this birthday greeting we acknowledge and celebrate the social sciences and humanities that are somewhat unappreciated today in the modern university system.

All living beings know freshwater systems. In the paternal guard........

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