Obama explores nature without abusing the sermon

It can be argued that Barack Obama was a great president, but not that he is a great communicator.

Since he left the White House he has been involved in audiovisual production, with notable documentaries such as

.

The latest is a nature series:

five episodes on Netflix that visit wildlife in great protected areas on the planet.

The narration is from Obama himself, but he doesn't dominate the shot because the images are powerful in themselves.

The ambition is noticeable: without reaching the height of the

and

by David Attenborough —nobody arrives—, it is clear that the former president has a first-class team, including some collaborator of the English naturalist.

The opening chapter raised fears that Obama would expand in his sermons on the value of the environment and the fight against the climate crisis, but in the following he sticks to his role of giving voice to what animals are doing in their habitats, which is already fascinating in itself.

And that two deliveries link Obama with his origins: the one shot in Kenya, where his father was born, and the one in Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood with his mother.

The other two parks that he visits in this series of episodes are in Monterey Bay (California) and Chilean Patagonia.

The original thing is that the cameras do not pursue scenes of predation, which we have seen a lot, but of animal cooperation.

And it is astonishing to learn of sophisticated communication, not just between individuals in a herd—apes skilled with tools, sympathetic elephants—but between species.

That the hippopotamus opens its mouth in the water so that the fish can clean its teeth and in turn feed, that is trust;

that an exotic bird, the hornbilled hornbill, associates with dwarf mongooses that seek food for it in exchange for its aerial surveillance;

that some Japanese macaques enjoy throwing fruit at deer.

Science has already disproved the myth of the only intelligent species.

This from Obama is a cure for humility for the conceited

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