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Documentary
There's nothing else like it. Chris Packham reveals the epic, four-billion-year story of our home - from its dramatic creation to the arrival of human life... and whatever's next.
Chris Packham explores one of the darkest periods in Earth’s history: the worst mass extinction the planet has ever seen, when as much as 90% of all species died 252 million years ago. This extraordinary moment in Earth’s history took life to the brink, wreaking havoc and destruction on an unprecedented scale. But, somehow, life found a way to bounce back, and a new geological era ushered in the age of the dinosaurs.
Earth’s terrifying journey into the deep freeze starts with fire, not ice. 800 million years ago, long before the age of the dinosaurs, before there was even animal life, the giant supercontinent Rodinia breaks up. Earth’s vast powerful tectonic forces rip the land apart, kicking off a series of events that results in huge amounts of carbon dioxide being sucked from the atmosphere and sending global temperatures plummeting.
Chris Packham tells the miraculous story of how plant life turned Earth from a barren rock into a vibrant green world - a four-billion year saga of extraordinary highs and lows that almost wiped out all life on the planet. Beginning as a water world without land masses, a giant asteroid bombardment triggered Earth's plate tectonics, leading to huge fungi, soil and giant swamp forests. But the early plants locked so much carbon dioxide that global temperatures suddenly plunged.
When Earth first formed from clouds of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago, it was - like so many other lifeless worlds in the universe - devoid of an atmosphere, an inhospitable rock floating in the black void of space. But as the young planet is pummelled by asteroids, a period of extraordinary upheaval begins.
Today, Earth is a human world, home to eight billion people and counting. Humans now have a greater effect in shaping Earth’s surface than many natural processes. Chris Packham explores how dramatic twists in Earth’s story enabled humans to go from being part of nature to controlling it and what can be learnt from this epic tale before it’s too late.
Self
Biologist and naturalist Dan O'Neill embarks on a groundbreaking mission to protect one of the world's most elusive creatures—the snow leopard. Set against the stunning backdrop of Kyrgyzstan's rugged mountains, this two-part adventure follows Dan as he works to build a new research center dedicated to studying these majestic cats.
Ronan Donovan, our expert guide and National Geographic photographer, takes the audience on an intimate exploration of the Arctic during the endless day of the summer months, giving insight to the unexpected abundance of the 'Garden of the Arctic' in Wolf Valley as he attempts to embed with a wolf family pack.
Geologist Iain Stewart explain in three stages of natural history the crucial interaction of our very planet's physiology and its unique wildlife. Biological evolution is largely driven bu adaptation to conditions such as climate, soil and irrigation, but biotopes were also shaped by wildlife changing earth's surface and climate significantly, even disregarding human activity.
