At the very end of East Africa's Great Rift Valley, there's a 'land that time forgot'--the rolling grasslands of the Luangwa Valley. Seemingly untouched plains teem with Africa's most iconic animals. Some are unique to this place, others are critically endangered elsewhere. Here, prey exist in remarkable balance, each taking advantage of the secret at the heart of this Eden, the mighty Luangwa River and its dramatic annual transformation from dusty inferno to emerald paradise.
600 miles off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean there are 120 tropical islands that erupted from the deep ocean floor more than 10 million years ago. Journey from the lava ramparts to its fiery heart, we'll discover how the Galapagos archipelago became one of the most important areas of biodiversity in the world. Those swept here by storms and currents survived million to one odds to find untouched islands free from competition. These hardy pioneers evolved in remarkable ways in what's known as Nature's Greatest Experiment. Home to bizarre specialists and unexpected giants, the most precious collection of island creatures on Earth.
At the far tip of South America, lies a magical realm that seems frozen in time. Known as 'the end of the world', this is Patagonia. Vast glaciers shaped it into an Eden like no other. Adaptable and resilient creatures evolved unique survival strategies to flourish across its remarkable habitats. From precipitous mountain citadels and icy desert plateaus windswept steppe uplands through remote, primal forests to a mosaic of glacial valleys. To thrive here is to be as extreme as the land itself.
In Southeast Alaska, there's an ice-bound Eden that harbors possibly the richest temperate rainforests of all. Where the coastal mountains meet the Pacific, lays the Alexander Archipelago, a remote island chain running for almost 300 miles along the Alaskan Panhandle. This frozen frontier is one of the last great wildernesses of North America. And a stronghold for the country's highest diversity of megafauna, feasting on the abundance of fleeting summers to make it through relentless winters.
The last chapter explains how the 2010s became another lost decade in the fight against climate change – as the move to natural gas delayed a transition to more renewable sources of energy. Engineer Tony Ingraffea, in the 1980s, helped develop a new technique for extracting gas and oil from shale rock, which ultimately became known as 'Fracking'. It was to unleash vast new reserves of fossil fuels and was promoted as a cleaner energy source. But Ingraffea explains how he later came to regret his work when he realized that gas could be even worse for climate change than coal and oil. Dar-Lon Chang, a former ExxonMobil engineer, speaks for the first time on camera alleging that as the company increased its natural gas operations, it was not sufficiently monitoring methane leaks that were contributing to climate change. Now, after a year of unprecedented wildfires, drought and other climate-related disasters, multiple lawsuits are being brought in US courts in efforts to hold Big Oil legally accountable for the climate crisis.
Following their identification, the Tsarnaev brothers killed an MIT policeman, then kidnapped a man in his car. They had a shootout with the police in nearby Watertown, during which two officers were severely injured (one of whom, Dennis Simmonds, died a year later). Tamerlan was shot several times, and his brother Dzhokhar ran him over while escaping in the stolen car. Tamerlan died soon after. An unprecedented manhunt for Dzhokhar ensued, with thousands of law enforcement officers searching a 20-block area of Watertown. Residents of Watertown and surrounding communities were asked to stay indoors, and the transportation system and most businesses and public places closed. After a Watertown resident discovered him hiding in a boat in his backyard, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is cornered into an intense standoff. As officials navigate remaining questions and suspicions, the city emerges Boston Strong.
Here, prey exist in remarkable balance, each taking advantage of the secret at the heart of this Eden, the mighty Luangwa River and its dramatic annual transformation from dusty inferno to emerald paradise.