A young mother's mysterious death and her son's subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman's true identity and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all. It's late at night in Oklahoma City, in April of 1990. Two or three guys are in a truck driving along the road and they see some kind of debris. And then they see off to the side, there's a body. It appears to be a young woman, a blonde-haired woman and they call an ambulance. She's rushed to the hospital, and her husband, Clarence, eventually shows up. He says her name is Tonya Hughes, that she's a stripper in Tulsa, and that they have a young son named Michael. And he's much older and he's just kind of this weird guy. So, the doctors, as they continue to examine her, they see old bruises and old injuries. There's something wrong with this picture. Ultimately, she passes away. The girls Tonya danced with want to find her family. So they call this woman and they tell her that her daughter died. And she says, 'What are you talking about? My daughter died 20 years ago, she was only 18 months old.' They realize that who they just buried was not Tonya Hughes, so now they're asking, 'What happened?'.
Sir David Attenborough journeys to both Polar Regions to investigate what rising temperatures will mean for the people and wildlife that live there and for the rest of the planet. David starts out at the North Pole, standing on sea ice several metres thick, but which scientists predict could be Open Ocean within the next few decades. The Arctic has been warming at twice the global average, so David heads out with a Norwegian team to see what this means for polar bears. He comes face-to-face with a tranquilised female, and discovers that mothers and cubs are going hungry as the sea ice on which they hunt disappears. In Canada, Inuit hunters have seen with their own eyes what scientists have seen from space; the Arctic Ocean has lost 30% of its summer ice cover over the last 30 years. For some, the melting sea ice will allow access to trillions of dollars worth of oil, gas and minerals. For the rest of us, it means the planet will get warmer, as sea ice is important to reflect back the sun's energy. Next David travels to see what's happening to the ice on land: in Greenland, we follow intrepid ice scientists as they study giant waterfalls of meltwater, which are accelerating iceberg calving events, and ultimately leading to a rise in global sea level. Temperatures have also risen in the Antarctic - David returns to glaciers photographed by the Shackleton expedition and reveals a dramatic retreat over the past century. It's not just the ice that is changing - ice-loving adelie penguins are disappearing, and more temperate gentoo penguins are moving in. Finally, we see the first ever images of the largest recent natural event on our planet - the break up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, an ice sheet the size of Jamaica, which shattered into hundreds of icebergs in 2009.
Earth may seem like the most hospitable planet in the solar system. But look again. Startling new discoveries reveal the blue planet has been plagued by more chaos and destruction than scientists once imagined. Stand on the Earth billions of years ago as a primitive planet called Theia slams into it. Shiver as our entire globe is frozen over like a gigantic snowball. Feel the heat as mammoth volcanoes scorch the landscape and darken the sky. From a cosmic gamma ray burst frying away the ozone layer to an Everest-size asteroid slamming into the ocean, we'll reveal new information about how these unparalleled events drove life to the brink of total extinction. Out of this continuous devastation, how has our planet--and life--got to where it is today? Are the worst days behind us--or lurking in the distant future?
Moving on to Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago, we witness the beginnings of mankind via a group of australopithecus - a type of ape which, like us, walks upright on two legs. But unlike us, these early members of the human family weren't predators, they were prey. Things get worse for the group as they are hunted by a sabre-tooth cat called dinofelis and fall victim to other dangers such as malaria, rival australopithecus and a rampaging 14-tonne deinotherium.
The deep is perhaps the most hostile environment on earth, at least to us - a world of crushing pressure, brutal cold and utter darkness. We have barely begun to explore it, and yet it is the largest living space on the planet. Scientists already think that there is more life in the deep than anywhere else on earth. This episode takes us on an epic journey into the unknown, a realm that feels almost like science fiction. We discover alien worlds, bizarre creatures and extraordinary new behaviours never seen before. We encounter savage hordes of Humboldt squid hunting lanternfish in the depths and coral gardens flourishing in absolute darkness, with more species of coral to be found in the deep than on shallow tropical reefs. Narrated by David Attenborough.
Located beneath Russia's Ural Mountains, Orda Cave is legendary among divers for its unique beauty. The cave's waters are clearest in winter, when the land above lies frozen. With temperatures approaching minus 40 degrees, NHK attempts to film the cave for the first time ever using 4K cameras. Scientists give them insight into the cave's origins, enabling the crew to uncover the miraculous story of how the cave was naturally formed 300 million years ago by climate change and a shifting landscape.
It's late at night in Oklahoma City, in April of 1990. Two or three guys are in a truck driving along the road and they see some kind of debris. And then they see off to the side, there's a body. It appears to be a young woman, a blonde-haired woman and they call an ambulance. She's rushed to the hospital, and her husband, Clarence, eventually shows up. He says her name is Tonya Hughes, that she's a stripper in Tulsa, and that they have a young son named Michael. And he's much older and he's just kind of this weird guy. So, the doctors, as they continue to examine her, they see old bruises and old injuries. There's something wrong with this picture. Ultimately, she passes away. The girls Tonya danced with want to find her family. So they call this woman and they tell her that her daughter died. And she says, 'What are you talking about? My daughter died 20 years ago, she was only 18 months old.' They realize that who they just buried was not Tonya Hughes, so now they're asking, 'What happened?'.