Science of Survival • 2017 • episode "5/6" • Continent 7: Antarctica

105:41

This feature documentary tells the story of the story of the pioneers who founded Greenpeace and defined the modern green movement. In 1971 a brave group of young activists set sail from Vancouver in an old fishing boat. Their mission: to stop Nixon's atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, a tiny island off the west coast of Alaska. It was from these humble but courageous beginnings that the global organisation that we now know as Greenpeace was born. Chronicling the fascinating untold story behind the modern environmental movement and with access to dramatic footage that has not been seen for over 40 years, this gripping new film tells the story of eco-hero Robert Hunter and how he, alongside a group of like-minded and idealistic young friends in the '70s, would be instrumental in altering the way we now look at the world and our place within it. These campaigning pioneers captured their daring and sometimes jaw-dropping actions on a range of film cameras and Greenpeace granted acclaimed director Jerry Rothwell access to this vivid archive to make his thrilling, sometimes terrifying film. Greenpeace was born in 1971 when a ragtag group of journalists, hippies, and scientists living in Vancouver tried to stop a US atomic test. Fortunately, they were media savvy from the beginning, capturing their seat-of-their pants activist adventures on film. The youthful energy is palpable in action-packed scenes, including one in which activists confront a Russian whaling ship in a tiny Zodiac dingy. Soon, though, idealism comes up against reality, compromise, human nature, and the complexities of managing a growing organization. This insightful film is also a vibrant, moving reflection about the ongoing struggle to balance the political and the personal.

2015 • Environment

59:05

A look at how every one of the 20,000 islands was colonised by the Polynesians.

2/6 • South Pacific • Environment

51:00

In 2018, two volcanoes unleashed terror on their communities, but in very different ways. Fuego, the Volcano of Fire in Guatemala, sent boiling clouds of gas, ash, and rock down the volcano's slopes and into villages, killing hundreds. In Hawaii, Kilauea spewed out over four billion cubic feet of lava, razing estates, destroying roads, and changing the landscape. Using the latest scientific evidence, we explore what made the eruptions unique, why they were so hard to predict, and whether or not these two catastrophes were somehow connected.

2018 • Environment

53:07

Can emerging technology defeat global warming? The United States has invested tens of billions of dollars in clean energy projects as our leaders try to save our crumbling economy and our poisoned planet in one bold, green stroke. Are we finally on the brink of a green-energy "power surge," or is it all a case of too little, too late?

Environment

83:45

Lucy is born June 2, 2009, in the suburbs of Miami and is still alive in the year 2100. This is her story.

2009 • Environment

58:31

No season brings more surprises than an Alaskan summer. It lures hummingbirds up from the tropics, exposes deserts in the Arctic and relies on parachuting firefighters to tackle forest fires in its vast wilderness. Summer is a narrow window of plenty, when the land is bathed in 24-hour sunlight - but in this land of extremes, you can have too much of a good thing.

2/3 • Alaska: Earth's Frozen Kingdom • Environment