The Rules of Life • 2023 • episode "S1E1" • Life on Our Planet

Category: Nature | Subtitle:

Evolution. Competition. Mass extinction. Three fundamental rules have driven the rise and fall of life on Earth for over four billion years.

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Life on Our Planet • 2023 • 8 episodes •

The Rules of Life

Evolution. Competition. Mass extinction. Three fundamental rules have driven the rise and fall of life on Earth for over four billion years.

2023 • Nature

The First Frontier

For billions of years, land on Earth was uninhabitable. But in the seas, predation allowed species to thrive before — and after — two mass extinctions.

2023 • Nature

Invaders of the Land

Sprawling moss, towering trees, flying insects, limbed amphibians: Early species vied for domination as the land went from hostile to hospitable.

2023 • Nature

In Cold Blood

After Earth's third mass extinction, mammals' surviving ancestors ruled the supercontinent Pangea. But lizards soon ushered in the age of reptiles.

2023 • Nature

In the Shadow of Giants

The formation of continents with varied environments allowed for an explosion of biodiversity — and turbo-charged the evolution of mighty dinosaurs.

2023 • Nature

Out of the Ashes

The dinosaurs met their end with a cataclysmic asteroid impact. Rising from the ashes, birds reinvented themselves into a dynasty 10,000 species strong.

2023 • Nature

Inheriting the Earth

Emerging from the dinosaurs' shadows, mammals went from underdogs to global power, with game-changing adaptations that would conquer land, air and sea.

2023 • Nature

Age of Ice and Fire

As the Ice Age thawed, humans rose above the rest. But the possibility of a sixth mass extinction now looms: Has our ingenuity caused our downfall?

2023 • Nature

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Extinction: The Facts

With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases. Extinction is now happening up to 100 times faster than the natural evolutionary rate, but the issue is about more than the loss of individual species. Everything in the natural world is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, including us, and we are losing many of the benefits that nature provides to us. The loss of insects is threatening the pollination of crops, while the loss of biodiversity in the soil also threatens plants growth. Plants underpin many of the things that we need, and yet one in four is now threatened with extinction. Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth's land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket. Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event.

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Wonders of Nature

This special (9th) episode brings together highlights from the series, from hidden forests and turbulent coasts to vast, unexplored deserts.

S1E9 • Planet Earth III • 2023 • Nature