Earth's Bio
Earth: The Biography – New Mini Series- Begins July 13 on NatGeo
Filmed on all seven continents and culled from more than 250 hours of spectacular footage, Earth: The Biography — a stunning three-night, five-hour high-definition television event two years in the making — provides viewers with a visual feast of the fantastic forces that shape our planet, impact the evolution of life and dictate Earth’s future. State-of-the-art cinematography, breathtaking aerial footage, time-lapse sequences, satellite imaging and insights from scientists and experts bring to life the history of our living Earth and its great forces as never before. Join our host and earth scientist Dr. Iain Stewart for an epic journey around the globe — from Ethiopia to Antarctica to the United States, and on every continent in between — as he explores the dynamic systems of our world.
Episodes:
“Earth: The Biography: Volcanoes”
Sunday, July 13, at 9:00 PM ET/PT
“Earth: The Biography: Ice”
Sunday, July 13, at 10:00 PM ET/PT
“Earth: The Biography: Atmosphere”
Monday, July 14, at 9:00 PM ET/PT
“Earth: The Biography: Oceans”
Monday, July 14, at 10:00 PM ET/PT
“Earth: The Biography: Rare Planet”
Tuesday, July 15, at 10:00 PM ET/PT
“Earth: The Biography: Volcanoes”
Sunday, July 13, at 9:00 PM ET/PT (World Premiere)
Volcanoes are one of nature’s most awesome and destructive forces — they can raise up great mountains and create new land, or they can level cities and destroy entire civilizations. In Earth: The Biography, journey to some of the most dramatic places on earth to experience the full power of volcanoes. Our adventure begins in Ethiopia, where host Dr. Iain Stewart rappels down 100 feet into the lava lake of the Erta Ale volcano — a bubbling, seething cauldron of molten lava — to experience the incredible heat that lies just beneath earth’s surface. As Iain observes, “What makes this lava lake more than just pure spectacle is that it’s a window that allows us to look deep into the earth, and it helps us to understand the forces that shape our planet.”
“Earth: The Biography: Ice”
Sunday, July 13, at 10:00 PM ET/PT (World Premiere)
Our icy adventure with host and earth scientist Dr. Iain Stewart begins in the European Alps, where he goes down an ice crevasse to physically show viewers how each year’s snowfall gradually develops into expansive, dynamic masses. And with satellite imaging, we discover hidden worlds that ice obscures from us — like Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, one of the largest lakes in the world, which has been isolated under sheets of ice for 15 million years. Then, with the help of CGI, we witness how ice can move with surprising speed and power to shape the earth’s topography, giving rise to features as diverse as Yosemite National Park and even New York’s Manhattan Island — both carved by inexorable glaciers moving over the landscape. Finally, journey to Greenland to see how the ice sheets and glaciers are melting at a phenomenal rate that is likely to accelerate over the coming years, fundamentally changing the world we know today.
he Earth: our planet and our home. The jewel of our solar system and perhaps even our galaxy, it’s an ever-changing world full of wonder and astonishing beauty. Over billions of years, natural forces – from volcanic eruptions to pounding seas – have been working together to maintain a world fit for complex life. Beginning on Sunday, July 13, 2008, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) presents Earth: The Biography – a stunning three-night, five-hour high-definition television event two years in the making.
Filmed on all seven continents and culled from more than 250 hours of spectacular footage, this series provides a visual feast as we witness the fantastic forces that shape our planet, impact the evolution of life and dictate the Earth’s future. State-of-the-art cinematography, breathtaking aerial footage, time-lapse sequences, satellite imaging, and insight from scientists and experts bring to life the history of our living Earth and its great forces as never before.
Join our host and earth scientist Dr. Iain Stewart for an epic journey around the globe – from Ethiopia to Antarctica to the United States, and on every continent in between – as he explores the dynamic systems of our world. Follow Iain to Ethiopia, where he rappels down into Erta Ale volcano’s molten lava lake. And travel to South Africa, where he launches into the stratosphere onboard one of the fastest fighter jets on the planet.
The miniseries event explores the Earth’s forces in five episodes: in Volcanoes, experience the scorching heat of the planet’s most destructive mountains; in Ice, feel the arctic freeze of Earth’s colossal glaciers; in Atmosphere, soar to dizzying heights to experience the dynamic layers of Earth’s outer limits; in Oceans, dive to the darkest depths of the mighty seas; and in Rare Planet, explore how these systems make the Earth one of a kind in our solar system, and how our remarkable planet may be facing its greatest challenge yet: the impact of humankind. The question is, are we irreparably damaging the Earth’s ability to support life? Or is our planet more resilient than we sometimes imagine?
The three-night television event begins with Volcanoes and Ice on Sunday at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by Atmosphere and Oceans on Monday at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT, and culminates on Tuesday with Rare Planet at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Volcanoes
Sunday, July 13, at 9 p.m. ET/PT
Volcanoes are one of nature’s most awesome and destructive forces, but they are also the life force and architect of our planet. They can raise up great mountains and create new land, or they can level cities and destroy entire civilizations. They provide a glimpse of the power of Earth’s internal heat source, without which it would have become a dead planet millions of years ago.
In this episode, Iain takes us on a journey to some of the most dramatic places on Earth to experience the full power of volcanoes. Our adventure begins in Ethiopia, where Iain rappels down 100 feet into the lava lake of Erta Ale volcano – a bubbling, seething cauldron of molten lava – to experience the incredible heat that lies just beneath Earth’s surface. As Iain observes, “What makes this lava lake more than just pure spectacle is that it’s a window that allows us to look deep into the Earth, and it helps us to understand the forces that shape our planet.”
Then in Iceland, he scuba dives in the eerily beautiful pools and watery canyons that have formed as Europe and America are being slowly and continuously separated from each other by the power of plate tectonics. Finally, we soar off to New Zealand’s Rotorua volcanic hot springs, which typify the conditions where life most likely began on our planet.
Ice
Sunday, July 13, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Ice can be found in every corner of our planet – it dominates the world’s highest mountains and covers almost the entire continent of Antarctica. Ice can accumulate to monumental proportions, carve spectacular landscapes, create iconic scenery and inflict devastating catastrophes. It has even played an integral part in the course of human evolution, triggering global changes that affect the climate of the entire planet.
Our icy adventure with Iain begins in the European Alps, where he rappels down an ice crevasse to physically show viewers how each year’s snowfall gradually develops into expansive, dynamic masses. And with satellite imaging, we discover hidden worlds that ice obscures from us – like Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, one of the largest lakes in the world, which has been isolated under sheets of ice for 15 million years. Then, with the help of CGI, we witness how ice can move with surprising speed and power to shape the Earth’s topography, giving rise to features as diverse as Yosemite National Park and even New York’s Manhattan Island – both carved by inexorable glaciers moving over the landscape. Finally, journey to Greenland to see how the ice sheets and glaciers are melting at a phenomenal rate that is likely to accelerate over the coming years, fundamentally changing the world we know today.
Atmosphere
Monday, July 14, at 9 p.m. ET/PT
The atmosphere is Earth’s protective layer, cloaking us in a warm, oxygen-rich embrace and shielding us from the cold hostility of space. It acts as a natural greenhouse, keeping the Earth 51 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would otherwise be. Yet the atmosphere is also full of contradictions. It’s immensely powerful but at the same time highly sensitive. It’s destructive, yet it shelters us. It was created in part by the planet’s first organisms, and it continues to be essential for life on Earth.
In this episode, we travel with Iain to South Africa to launch into the stratosphere onboard one of the fastest aircraft on the planet – virtually a missile with wings – that was specially designed to operate at superhigh altitudes. Viewing spectacular aerial footage from 50,000 feet, we zoom through violent lightning storms to experience the dynamic power of our atmosphere firsthand. Then we’re off to understand the forces that created Arizona’s rock formation known as “the wave,” a series of giant curvaceous shapes that appear to have been carved by water … but in fact have been etched by wind blasting the rock over thousands of years. Finally, we make the long journey to Siberia, one of the coldest and most remote places on the planet. But hidden in this ice-covered ground is the potential for climate disaster: methane. Attempting to demonstrate how global warming could release methane on a massive scale, Iain nearly gets his eyebrows singed when he discharges and ignites methane gas bubbles trapped under a frozen lake.
Oceans
Monday, July 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Earth’s oceans help make our planet different from every other planet in the solar system. As far as we know, no other place is the right temperature for liquid water, the most essential ingredient for life to exist. The oceans are Earth’s primary stabilizing force, and their immense power helps to shape the appearance and behavior of the entire planet and everything living on it. And they are also the planet's great unknown – their deepest points have been visited less often than the surface of the moon.
This episode documents the epic story of our oceans and how they have thrived for nearly 4 billion years, helping to carve the coastlines, drive the climate and control the destiny of life itself. Our watery journey begins with Iain in Hawaii, as we get up close to some of the biggest waves on the planet. Filmed at high speed, Hawaii’s waves demonstrate the force of the sea and its ability to capture and transfer energy. Next we fly off to the Amazon River in Brazil, where we face one of the most dramatic tidal phenomena on the planet – a tidal bore, or single surging wave created when large tides in the Atlantic Ocean get funneled into mouths of rivers on just a couple of days each year. Time-lapse photography captures one of the biggest tidal bores in the world to demonstrate the battle between land and water. Finally, Iain takes us to the coast of England to discover how global systems of ocean currents are vital to life on Earth, as they distribute heat around the planet and drive the climate of our world. From the Gulf Stream to El Niño to hurricanes, it is the oceans that regulate our planet.
Rare Planet
Tuesday, July 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
It has taken 4.6 billion years for the Earth to evolve from a barren rock into the world we know today. In the finale of Earth: The Biography, explore the forces beyond our planet that have determined Earth’s destiny – forces of destruction and regeneration in the solar system that created the planet and still protect it. And now the remarkable planet is facing a new challenge: humankind. The question is, how will it survive?
In this episode, we head off to Mexico, where Iain scuba dives in giant caverns deep within the jungle known as “cenotes,” through flooded subterranean tunnels that – as new imaging from space shows us – were created by the very meteorite that scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and paved the way for the rise of mammals, and ultimately humans. Then we journey to outer space to discover that Jupiter is Earth’s protector, as its enormous gravity helps to shield us from destructive meteorites flying around our solar system. Finally, we visit one of the most ecologically vulnerable places on the planet – Madagascar, an island full of unique plants and animals that are threatened by the destruction of its rain forests. Humans are upsetting the delicate balance – the way the planet and its systems work together to keep Earth safe for life. But while it may take a million years, the Earth’s systems will recover. It is humans who are likely to be found vulnerable.
Earth: The Biography is produced by Wildvision for the National Geographic Channel.
Earth: The Biography hits stores on DVD and Blu-ray July 22, 2008 — one week after the premiere.
*Launching next week, Earth: The Biography Web site, www. natgeotv.com/earth
