This five part series will show how the forces of nature - weather, ocean currents, solar energy and volcanoes – drive, shape and support Earth’s great diversity of life. In doing so, it will reveal how animals are perfectly adapted to whatever the environment throws at them.
Without volcanoes life on earth would never have begun.
They are responsible for both our breathable atmosphere and our oceans. Mineral rich ash from regular eruptions fertilise the land. They are the architects of the planet; over 80% of the earth’s surface is the result of magma rising from its molten interior - providing a platform for life.
Life on our planet is solar powered.
Every single part of Earth’s surface gets 4,380 hours of sunlight a year, but in different strengths depending on where you are: a variation that drives much of the natural world.
Water is vital for all life.
Our perfect planet has this precious resource in abundance – yet most of it exists as sea water, too salty for terrestrial life to use. In fact of all the water on earth, just 3% exists as freshwater, and almost all of that is locked up as ice or hidden in underground aquifers.
Oceans are the largest ecosystem on Earth.
They cover two thirds of our world’s surface and producing around half the world’s oxygen. They’re home to as much as 80% of all life on Earth and over three billion people rely on them as an important source of protein
Our home, a blue glowing beacon of life, hangs alone in the cosmos.
The only living world we know of. Life on our planet is shaped by the Earth’s natural forces, but there is a new force, one so powerful, it is upsetting the balance of life on Earth and threatening our perfect planet – that force is us.
Intimate stories and surprising truths about nature, science and the human experience in a podcast the size of the planet.
