Water plants create some of the most beautiful, bizarre and important habitats on earth. To hold on in torrents, plants use a kind of superglue. Some are armed with vicious weapons to fight titanic battles for space. Others form perfect spheres and escape from animal enemies by rolling. Where nutrients are washed away, plants turn into hunters of animals, laying traps and even counting to ensure their success. In this episode we explore those watery worlds with David Attenborough, from Croatia to Brazil, from Colombia to Thailand, the brilliantly coloured flowers smother lakes, and in one magical river in Brazil, the water bubbles like champagne as plants create the atmosphere itself.
Dive with David Attenborough into a world where a single life can last a thousand years. See things no eye has ever seen, and discover the dramatic, beautiful plant life of Earth. In the first episode, Sir David Attenborough shows how more kinds of plants are crammed together in the tropical rainforests than anywhere else on Earth. The result is astonishing beauty and intense competition - a plant battleground. New filming techniques allow us to enter the plants’ world and see it from their perspective and on their timescale. From fast-growing trees to flowers that mimic dead animals, this is a journey into a magical world that operates on a different timescale to our own.
This revealing film examines how human activity is setting off dangerous warming loops that are pushing the climate to a point of no return - and what we need to do to stop them. With captivating illustrations, stunning footage and interviews with leading climate scientists as well as support from Greta Thunberg and the Dalai Lama, 'Earth Emergency' adds the missing piece of the climate puzzle. Narrated by Richard Gere, the film examines four of the major warming feedback loops threatening our planet: Forests, Permafrost, Albedo and Atmosphere.
The documentary shows the daily activities performed by the local and international staff who lives and works inside the Bear Rescue Center situated in Tam Dao National park, Northern Vietnam. Interviews, original and archive footage are edited to explain life, tasks and achievements of this NGO managed by Animals Asia. In this natural sanctuary, moon bears and sun bears are rescued, treated, kept safe and nursed: they are now free from the suffering caused by the cruel tortures of bile farming and extraction process. Since thousands of years bear bile products are in use in traditional oriental medicine and even nowadays it generates around two billions dollars of illegal business. Animals Asia staff is not only assuring better living and relief for rescued bears but promotes educational awareness about the bile farming issues, employees and generates fare trades for a relevant number of people of this rural area of Vietnam.
Sir David Attenborough chooses his favorite recordings from the natural world --from the song of the largest lemur to the song of the humpback whale to the song of the lyrebird-- that have revolutionized our understanding of song. The science of song had been transformed by Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection: singing is dangerous as it reveals the singer’s location to predators, but it also offers the male a huge reward, the chance to attract a female and pass on genes to the next generation. Today, new science in the field of birdsong is transforming those long-held ideas. Scientists are discovering that, in fact, in the majority of all songbird species, females sing - and it is only now they are being properly heard. Through this revelation and others, we can understand that animal songs are marvellous examples of the spectacular survival strategies that species have developed.
Will Smith confronts his fear of nature on powerful white-water rapids in Iceland. "Over five expeditions, I've followed explorers into situations that were straight-up scary. It was worth it to discover the Earth's wonders. But your boy was tripping more than once. Because when I see wilderness, you know, nothing but nature, I get nervous because I don't understand it."
In this episode we explore those watery worlds with David Attenborough, from Croatia to Brazil, from Colombia to Thailand, the brilliantly coloured flowers smother lakes, and in one magical river in Brazil, the water bubbles like champagne as plants create the atmosphere itself.