A team of artists and activists exposes the hidden world of extinction with never-before-seen images that will change the way we see the planet. Two worlds drive extinction across the globe, potentially resulting in the loss of half of all species. The international wildlife black market at the expense of creatures that have survived on this planet for millions of years. And the other surrounds us, hiding in plain sight — a world that the oil and gas companies don’t want the rest of us to see. Using covert tactics and state-of-the-art technology, the Racing Extinction team exposes these two worlds in an inspiring affirmation to preserve life as we know it.

Beneath Yellowstone National Park, lies the biggest volcano on Earth. An eruption in the past was so big it plunged the earth into a volcanic winter that lasted years. A super-eruption would be more than millions of Hiroshima bombs going off all at once. It would be even worse than an asteroid impact: Entire cities lost beneath ash, people and animals crushed alive, power networks destroyed, sun dimmed across the globe, harvests failed, widespread famine. Could this nightmare really happen? We will use the latest scientific data to uncover the danger beneath us, as we see our planet like never before.

David Attenborough and the world-renowned scientist Johan Rockström examine Earth's biodiversity collapse. The film explains how humanity has pushed our planet beyond the boundaries that have kept it stable since the dawn of life, but also that this crisis can still be averted, thinking and acting with one unified purpose to ensure that Earth forever remains healthy and resilient.

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 150 million years, then suddenly they were gone. Their disappearance is one of the planet’s greatest mysteries – unimaginable, until now. The film proposes a minute-by-minute chronology of the Chicxulub impact and its effect on the dinosaurs and other animals around the world. A blow-by-blow account of the cataclysm that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, and forever changed the course of life on Earth.

A new force threatens our perfect planet. In the past, five mass extinction events were caused by cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. It was not the lava or ash that wiped out life, but an invisible gas released by volcanoes: carbon dioxide. Almost every part of modern life depends on energy created by burning fossil fuels, and this produces CO2 in huge amounts. Humans are changing our planet so rapidly, it’s affecting earth’s life support systems: our weather, our oceans and the living world. The greatest change to be made is in how we create energy, and the planet is brimming with natural power that can help us do just that. It’s these forces of nature - the wind, the sun, waves and geothermal energy - that hold the key to our future.
Through compelling animal-led stories and expert interviews, we discover how CO2 is destabilising our planet. We meet rescued orphaned elephants in Kenya, victims of ever worsening droughts, and join ocean patrols off the coast of Gabon fighting to save endangered sharks. In the Amazon, we witness wildlife teams saving animals in the shrinking forests, and in San Diego we enter a cryogenic zoo preserving the DNA of endangered species before they become extinct.

How is the universe put together? How is it built? And how does it actually work? How the Universe Works Series 8 shows the inner workings of our planet, the solar system, the galaxies and the universe itself.
In the first episode, if a massive asteroid collides with earth, it could end life on our planet as we know it. New discoveries and cutting-edge tech reveal just how close we are to apocalypse and what it would take for the world's leading space agencies to stop it.