How Earth Made Us
Miniseries
Our planet has amazing power, and yet that's rarely mentioned in our history books. This series tells the story of how the Earth has influenced human history, from the dawn of civilisation to the modern industrial age. It reveals for the first time on television how geology, geography and climate have been a far more powerful influence on the human story than has previously been acknowledged. A combination of epic story telling, visually stunning camerawork, extraordinary locations and passionate presenting combine to form a highly original version of human history.
Where to Watch Miniseries
5 Episodes
- Deep Earth
E1Deep EarthIain visits an extraordinary crystal cave in Mexico, drops down a hole in the Iranian desert and crawls through seven-thousand-year-old tunnels in Israel. His exploration reveals that throughout history, our ancestors were strangely drawn to fault lines, areas which connect the surface with the deep interior of the planet. These fault lines gave access to important resources, but also brought with them great danger. - Water
E2WaterWater, at least the small potable fraction of the huge planetary supply, is vital for wildlife. It's availability largely determines human population too, even more since the invention of agriculture, which also gave rise to ingenious methods to gather and use it such as irrigation and deep wells. Furthermore water is important for navigation, climatic phenomena and disasters. - Wind
E3WindWinds play a major role for life, mainly as a key factor in weather and climate, but also by transporting seeds, dust etcetera. Especially in the sailing age, winds were primordial for nautical transport and navigation, enabling exploration, migration, colonization, trade routes etcetera. Wind can either supply fertile loss, as in central China, or take the destructive form of storms. - Fire
E4FireIn this epsiode man's relationship with fire is explored. We begin by embarking on an extraordinary encounter with this terrifying force of nature - a walk right through the heart of a raging fire. Fire has long been our main source of energy and we show how this meant that the planet played a crucial role in Britain's industrial revolution, whilst holding China's development back. - Human Planet
E5Human PlanetProfessor Iain Stewart continues his epic exploration of how the planet has shaped human history. Iain explores the most recently established force, humans. It's easy to think of the human impact on the planet as a negative one, but as he discovers, this isn't always the case. It is clear that humans have unprecedented control over many of the planet's geological cycles; the question is, how will the human race use this power?
