Dynamic Planet

For the Blackfeet Tribe, bringing back buffalo will revitalize the landscape, making it more resistant to climate change.

As our Earth’s climate changes, the once-stable natural systems that we rely upon are being thrown into chaos. Insect plagues are destroying farmlands, extreme weather events and floods are hitting land with increased frequency, and normality for our planet is constantly being re-defined.

The ground is made up of both ice and frozen soil called permafrost. As the permafrost thaws, the ground sinks and floods. The ice traps gases bubbling up from the decomposing permafrost. Methane traps 30 times more heat in the atmosphere than C02. As the world gets hotter, the permafrost melts faster – releasing ever-greater quantities of this dangerous greenhouse gas.

Leopard seals are the only seals that prey on other seal species although fur seals have rarely been on the menu before. These leopard seals should be living in sea ice, hunting other ice-dwelling seals but they have switched to a new food source.

Sea turtles are sacred in the Comcáac indigenous culture in northern Mexico. Comcáac Turtle Guardians search for sea turtle nests and do all they can to protect them. Sea turtles help safeguard the overall health and resilience of marine environments. And by keeping the reefs healthy they ensure a bountiful supply of fish for the Comcaac people.

Coral Reefs make up less than 1% of the ocean but support a quarter of all marine life and provide food, income and protection from storms for around one billion people worldwide. Each coral specimen collected will be taken ashore to live in a specially-designed facility where it can be protected for the future.

Earth’s oceans are crucial for life. They cover 70% of our planet, remove vast amounts of carbon and heat from the atmosphere, and provide much of our food. But as the world warms, oceans are changing, with far-reaching consequences for the life they contain and the people that rely upon them.

Members of the Yurok tribe conduct controlled burning in California to prevent dangerous wildfires and keep their traditions alive.

Elite athlete Dimitris Theodorikakos trains in Athens at night to avoid the punishing daytime heat of summer, as he reflects on the game changing reality of a hotter climate in the home of the modern Olympics.

Peace Project Manager Shannon Diener receives a call informing her that someone has been chased by an elephant. She rushes to defuse the situation and offers up an unusual solution to a problem that is getting worse as the area becomes hotter and drier.

Our planet is heating twice the rate as it was four decades ago, and in some places the warming is happening even faster. Global heating is having an impact across the world, from causing record heatwaves and forest fires to droughts and increased migration and conflict.

As the planet warms up, the ice at all three poles — the Arctic, Antarctic and the Himalayas — is melting fast with wide-ranging consequences. The remarkable people living and working in these places reveal how science, nature, and traditional knowledge can prepare us for a fast-changing future.