5 British Nature Specials For Earth Day

Earth Day originated in the 1960s as those who jumped on the climate change bandwagon tried to draw attention to how humans affected the environment. In 1969, Wisconsin environmental activist Sen. Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea to hold a nationwide ecological teach-in on April 22, 1970, known as "Earth Day." With calls for global action louder than ever and climate change becoming all too real as the weather goes haywire across the globe, the result has been a broadening of the awareness campaign, leading to 2023's first-ever "Earth Week."

With Earth Day extended to a whole week, it now also encompasses April 20, which marijuana decriminalization activists have promoted as a celebration of cannabis culture since the legalization movement began taking off in 2016. The two days of action coming within 48 hours of each other has proved too much temptation for streaming services, with several Earth Day-oriented nature documentaries suddenly debuting on April 19th and 20th. Whether or not this is just well-timed happenstance or a deliberate decision doesn't matter. The result is the same: many documentary series celebrating the Earth for us to enjoy.

And no one does nature documentaries better than Sir David Attenborough, the original TV naturalist who has spent a lifetime capturing this planet's remarkable wonders on film and narrating them for those of us at home. However, this list is not just Attenborough specials (you can find that here), though one can see his influence on them.