Expedition Volcano – In the very heart of Africa, nestled deep within the lush green rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, lies one of the most awe-inspiring yet dangerous volcanoes on planet Earth – the magnificent Mount Nyiragongo. This extraordinary volcano towers over the landscape at over 11,000 feet and contains a massive, seething cauldron of molten lava – […]
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Voyage of the Continents episode 1: The history of Oceania is the history of the Earth as a whole. Along with scientists, we track the information recorded in its relief, from the first forms of life on Earth, to their destruction and rebirth. Welded to Antarctica for millions of years, Australia is today a deserted landscape that enjoys extraordinary stability.
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Islands of Evolution episode 3 – Madeira: In the final episode, Richard Fortey travels to Madeira to examine what happens to a volcanic island as it nears the end of its life cycle and starts sinking back into the sea. Here, in the island’s laurisilva forest, he examines the remains of an ancient forest that once carpeted all of Europe,
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Islands of Evolution episode 2 – Madagascar: Professor Richard Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar – an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the
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Islands of Evolution episode 1 – Hawaii: Richard Fortey investigates why islands are laboratories of evolution. On Hawaii he finds honeycreeper birds, carnivorous caterpillars and silversword plants. In the first episode, Fortey is on Hawaii to investigate how life colonises a newly born island. According to some estimates, Hawaii has been successfully colonised by only one new species every 35,000
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Making Scotland’s Landscape episode 5: During the Industrial Revolution, Scottish scientists and engineers helped unwittingly set off a chain of events that today we know as climate change – a process that is transforming our atmosphere and warming our planet. Professor Iain Stewart looks at how Scotland is on the verge of another revolution: the transformation of a carbon economy
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Making Scotland’s Landscape episode 4: As ‘natural’ icons, Scotland’s rivers and lochs represent how the nation imagines itself. However as Professor Iain Stewart discovers, the only thing that happens naturally is rain. As soon as it hits the ground, it is ours and we do with it what we will. Today there are scarcely any rivers or natural large bodies
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Making Scotland’s Landscape episode 3: Professor Stewart reveals how hearts and not heads have ruled the least understood landscape of them all – the sea. The public’s emotions have played a key role in the fate of Scotland’s maritime creatures and the upshot has been a form of lottery. While some species like seals and sea birds have been protected,
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Making Scotland’s Landscape episode 2: For centuries, the beauty and drama of Scotland’s landscape has been regarded by most visitors as natural. But in 1950, an eminent ecologist concluded the Highlands had been devastated. Once it was rich and diverse he said, but humans had destroyed it and in the process created what he described as a wet desert. Professor
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Making Scotland’s Landscape episode 1: Professor Iain Stewart presents a landmark five-part series in which he reveals how Scotland’s unique and beautiful landscape has been shaped over the centuries. In this first programme, he uncovers how, over thousands of years, the actions of mankind and the climate nearly led to the downfall of Scotland’s trees and forests.
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The Island episode 3: Everything we know about life comes from the rocks, and the island of Ireland is a treasure trove of ancient life. We meet the fossil experts and dinosaur hunters uncovering the secrets of our past, and in County Kerry, we reveal the world’s most reliable evidence of the first creature ever to emerge from the sea
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The Island – Water episode 2: With the rocks that make up the island of Ireland now in place, this is the story of the island’s intricate and intimate relationship with water and ice. At Killary Fjord, the immense bulldozing power of the glaciers which eroded and shaped the island through millenia-long cycles of formidable ice ages can be seen.
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