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00:00A jagged maze of rock and ice.
00:21Where temperatures plunge to 40 below.
00:26And brutal blizzards dump 30 feet of snow.
00:33Winter in the Rockies is not for the faint hearted.
00:40But for one creature, it's the challenge he's built for.
00:49Where we see treacherous slopes.
00:52This wolverine sees a playground.
01:01His thick fur sheds snow like a winter jacket.
01:08His claws dig in like climbers crampons.
01:15He plows through the most punishing winters with just a carefree shake of his coat.
01:31But mountain solitude has its downsides.
01:40There are few other animals around, and for a hungry meat eater, that is a challenge.
01:52He tracks up to 20 miles in a day.
01:59Searching for a meal above and below the snow.
02:13But he needs to keep an eye on the skies too.
02:21Because the peaks above hold a deadly threat.
02:28After months of heavy snowfall, the mountain is about to unload.
02:39A deluge of frozen violence.
02:51Over 3 million cubic feet of snow and ice, thundering down its peaks at up to a hundred
03:02miles an hour.
03:27For pretty much any creature caught in its path, the roaring snow is the sound of death
03:35itself.
03:42But for this lucky wolverine, it's a dinner bell.
03:53He locks into a scent and sets to work.
04:13An avalanche may be bad news for an unlucky mountain goat, but it's just what a hungry
04:20wolverine has been counting on.
04:26Disaster for some, is salvation for him.
04:41Because life doesn't just need our planet's soft side, it also relies on its rage.
05:09The most destructive forces on Earth are the same forces that bring our planet to life.
05:18Volcanoes are great destroyers, but they also release vast amounts of steam.
05:29So much so that our oceans are now filled with water, once locked in the Earth's interior.
05:41Their lava cools to create new land, none more precious than volcanic islands.
05:56These remote archipelagos churn the ocean's currents, drawing up nutrient-rich waters
06:04from the deep, igniting an explosion of life, both above and below the waves.
06:24Volcanic islands form oases of life in the big blue, for those who know where to find them.
06:43This young hammerhead is on her maiden voyage, traveling hundreds of miles from her coastal
06:51nursery out into the vast Pacific.
07:00She might not know where she's heading, but she has a guide.
07:09Her strange snout bristles with receptors that can detect the magnetic signature of
07:16the volcanic seabed.
07:29Cooled lava signposts her way across the ocean.
07:42She only has to follow her nose and let instinct lead the way.
07:58Cocos Island, the peaks of an ancient volcano, rising 12,000 feet from the ocean floor.
08:10To her senses, it lights up like a magnetic beacon in the wilderness.
08:30After a 300-mile journey, she's earned a pit stop.
08:36So she sets her sights on one particular Cocos resident.
08:52But the shark isn't browsing the buffet.
08:57She's serving the snacks.
09:07Her first ocean voyage has left her riddled with parasites.
09:18Clouds of butterflyfish pick them off and clean up her infected scars.
09:29Their nibbles are like a mini-massage, keeping her calm while they feed and help her heal.
09:46And it's a timely service, because this volcanic wonderland isn't just a shark spa.
10:00Other travelers have been drawn to this special meeting place, forming a circling school hundreds
10:13of miles from the ocean floor, to keep them strong.
10:29Scientists suspect that this gathering is like the Hammerhead's summer ball, where
10:38they relax, socialize, and, if they're lucky, find a mate.
10:56As this debutante joins the dance, it could be the start of a new journey towards motherhood,
11:10a journey made possible by underwater volcanic trails millions of years in the making.
11:26Our oceans are still home to some of the planet's most violent natural phenomena.
11:35The sun's energy burns most fiercely in the tropics, where much of its heat is absorbed
11:44by the ocean.
11:49But these warming seas have a release valve.
11:56Transferring their energy into the sky, they vent their excess heat by feeding the most
12:05devastating storms on Earth, hurricanes.
12:18This growing monster will transform the lives of all those caught in its path.
12:34In a Miami park, one of America's most fiercely territorial creatures is marking his turf.
12:56An old lizard.
12:58Tough guy.
13:02His push-ups show off his strength, warning his rivals to keep off his tree.
13:15So he gets more food, and more females.
13:25But not everyone's getting the message.
13:35An intruder.
13:38With his eye on the tough guy's tree.
13:47Has he got the moves to muscle in?
13:55Not bad.
13:59The tough guy needs to show him who's boss.
14:04Behold.
14:08The ultimate lizard power move.
14:19Only two can play at that game.
14:27There's only one way to settle this.
14:49But while they do battle, the megastorm is closing in.
15:13They bolt for the treetops to escape the inevitable flood.
15:24As the storm makes landfall, and all lizards cling to high branches, lose their grip,
15:49and they lose everything.
15:54The tough guy's future hangs by a fingernail.
16:09And his rivals struggling, too.
16:27The champ has kept his grip, and his territory.
16:40In this battle, only the strongest survive.
16:48But it's a fragile victory.
16:55Today, man-made climate change is making hurricanes stronger, and more frequent.
17:13Faced with this growing rage, these lizards' bodies are changing.
17:19Remarkably, over just a few generations, they've evolved larger toe pads to help them keep
17:27a stronger grip.
17:35Where a warming climate will leave these creatures, we don't yet know.
17:43But we do know that it is pushing our weather to even greater extremes.
17:51While some places drown, others scorch, growing deserts are changing the face of entire continents.
18:05All life must adapt, or die.
18:16West Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.
18:24The wet season has grown erratic and unpredictable.
18:31Daytime highs of 110 degrees transform this thorny scrub into an open-air oven.
18:44Wildfires rip through the landscape, leaving blackened skeletons in their wake.
19:05But one group won't give up on their old home.
19:21This baby is growing fast.
19:30So she's always hungry.
19:35And if anyone can find food in this wilderness, it's her clever family.
19:45There's a knack to extracting the seeds from a woolly kapok fruit, even if they are a little
19:53dry.
20:03To survive here, she must use that big brain of hers.
20:16She learns by example.
20:23A promising student, but still working on the basics.
20:35Knowledge and skills passed down through generations have helped these survivors cling on, even
20:44in this desiccated landscape.
20:50But the one thing they can't do without is safe drinking water, and the most important
20:59lesson is where to find it.
21:15And the riverbed is bone dry.
21:30They may know where the best fruit still grows, but even her family can't magic water out
21:37of the ground.
21:42But grandma has roamed these plains for 40 dry seasons.
21:51If anyone can lead them out of this, it's her.
22:01And the family falls in behind.
22:11Their home is drying out.
22:18Habitat loss and poaching have seen this species decline by 80% in the last 30 years.
22:28But today's survivors need to be smarter and more adaptable than ever.
22:49Grandma leads the troop to a waterhole that hasn't failed her yet.
23:07But even this reliable oasis has dried to a stagnant pool.
23:16The water is undrinkable.
23:47Grandma digs a hole near the edge of the pool.
23:54It starts to fill.
23:58Water filtered clean by the sand.
24:08The family joins in.
24:19Grandma's wisdom has saved them.
24:24One baby has learned another crucial lesson for her future.
24:43As this part of Africa dries out, it has consequences for life far beyond, even on
24:56the other side of the planet.
25:00As deserts grow, they can pump ever more dust and sand into the atmosphere, where high-altitude
25:11winds carry it into weather systems that spread across the globe.
25:20Towards the poles, it settles on glaciers and ice caps, dulling their sheen, absorbing
25:30more solar radiation, and warming up their icy surroundings.
25:48The world's largest land predator has spent a hungry summer foraging along the shoreline.
26:03Now the season is changing.
26:06He checks out the sea ice.
26:12He can only reach the seals he'd rather prey on when it freezes hard enough to support
26:18him.
26:22But this autumn is warm, and the sea ice is late.
26:33And he's not the only one hungry for the chance to hunt.
26:41Hundreds of polar bears gather on Canada's northern shores to wait for the freeze-up.
26:52For a curious adolescent, it's an irresistible chance to test his strength.
27:08Neither of these thousand-pound heavyweights could land a fatal blow if they were fighting
27:16for real.
27:22Sparring kills some time, but he's still hungry.
27:35There's only one place left where he might find something to eat.
27:45He turns his back on the sea and heads the other way, inland, towards the forest.
28:03Who knows what he might find here?
28:10Wolves, pack hunters.
28:29They rule the northern forests, patrolling their thousand-square-mile territory every
28:40day, in search of food and intruders.
29:06Wolves and polar bears do not usually cross paths.
29:12But today, encounters are on the rise.
29:19A lone wolf is no match for a bear.
29:25But the pack is closing in.
29:34Who's top dog now?
30:04There's easier pickings to be had elsewhere.
30:14By standing his ground, this intrepid bear wins the day.
30:25Forced to spend more time away from the sea ice, polar bears must figure out their place
30:32in a strange new world.
30:41His gamble in wolf territory has paid off this time.
30:49An abandoned moose carcass.
30:53Enough food to keep him going until the sea freezes again.
31:03But not all creatures have the skills to keep up with their fast-changing world.
31:15Climate change is creating ever more extreme conditions, breaking fundamental connections
31:23in the webs of life.
31:28And it's causing havoc in ways that you'd least expect.
31:43Deep in the heart of the Sierra Nevada forest, this pine tree is under siege.
31:57Its foe, a western pine beetle.
32:07This tiny assassin searches for a weakness.
32:14To drill in and lay her eggs.
32:24If she succeeds, her hungry larvae will destroy the tree from the inside.
32:34But this isn't just a tree.
32:38It's a battle-ready fortress.
32:42Behind its barricades flow hidden supply lines.
32:49A hundred gallons of rainwater pump from its roots to its crown every day.
32:58And this water powers another line of defense.
33:05Resin.
33:07It flows to the breach and repels the invader.
33:15She's programmed to keep drilling, and a bit of liquid won't stop her.
33:23But the tree's resin has another trick.
33:30As it dries, it hardens.
33:41Stopping even the most determined beetles in their tracks.
33:54But the pines can't always mount such a powerful defense.
34:00A changing climate is seeing Pacific weather patterns shift to the north.
34:07Storms that once rained on these Californian forests now hit the Canadian coast.
34:16In recent years, these trees received just two-thirds of the usual rainfall.
34:26And without enough water to keep their resin flowing, the balance of power has tipped in
34:36the beetles' favor.
34:39They breach the defenses.
34:44And their larvae tunnel through the tree's supply lines, cutting off the water it needs
34:53to survive.
34:59It's the tree's last stand.
35:05And the silent scream.
35:09The forest is dying.
35:13All it takes is a single spark.
35:31A million acres burning at 2,000 degrees for months on end.
35:40In some places, more than 80% of the dead trees fueling these fires is ponderosa pine
35:48killed by beetles.
35:56But even as burning forests paint the San Francisco skies orange, the trees have a glimmer
36:08of hope.
36:14They're starting a slow exodus northwards to safety, some at a rate of a mile every
36:23three years.
36:27Pine trees now grow in latitudes once too cold for them to survive.
36:36As the tree line moves north, it opens up opportunities for others to follow, which
36:45could have surprising consequences for us all.
36:59This pair of intrepid beavers are following the march of the trees, pioneering further
37:06north than any other beaver before them.
37:18As far as the Alaskan tundra.
37:24But this new neighborhood now provides everything they need to get busy.
37:40They must build their brand new lodge and dam by tooth and by paw.
38:00In just a few short months, these meadows will be locked in the frozen grip of an Arctic
38:06winter.
38:14To survive this far north, their dam needs careful construction.
38:21Hold back too much water and it could drown their lodge.
38:28Too little and their pond will freeze solid, trapping them inside.
38:36With a delicate balance of precision engineering and furious gnawing.
38:45And only the elements will decide if they've got it right.
38:57Winter.
39:00Has their lodge prevailed?
39:06Or have they built their own icy tomb?
39:36They've pulled it off.
39:41A perfectly crafted home, fit for a new frontier.
40:01Only when spring arrives do we see that their dam has had another effect.
40:13Our beavers have turned their pond into a lake.
40:22It absorbs the spring sun, heating up the frozen ground beneath.
40:30As the soil thaws, more streams flow and more trees can take root.
40:39A gold rush of building material for more beavers moving up from the south.
40:50Turning this virgin land into a bustling frontier community.
41:20But this budding utopia isn't everything it seems.
41:42Alaska's frozen bog land holds a dark secret.
41:49As it thaws, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas with the power to tip our climate out
42:02of balance.
42:10It traps up to 80 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide, speeding up the thawing
42:18of underground ice, which can release still more methane in a vicious cycle of ever-increasing
42:30temperatures.
42:3290% of this excess heat feeds back into our oceans, fueling more hurricanes and, in some
42:48places, something far more insidious.
42:54The legs of an abandoned oil rig provide the perfect anchor point for this tiny polyp.
43:03From its prime location, it scopes out new spots to deposit a clone.
43:24In a warming ocean, it doesn't take long for a single polyp to create a clone army.
43:36But that is just the first step in their relentless expansion.
43:51After a few short weeks, the clones start to transform, losing their tentacles and remodeling
44:03their bodies into tiny towers.
44:31Each clone becomes a production line, a conveyor belt of babies.
44:59A warm and overfished ocean has fewer predators, so these babies can survive in record numbers.
45:14They grow to adulthood in just a few weeks, becoming jellyfish.
45:33Without a shell or a skeleton, they can endure, even as a changing climate makes our oceans
45:41ever more acidic, the planet's ultimate survivors.
45:59And these simple, gelatinous creatures will eventually produce more polyps, each with
46:06the power to create its own army of clones, millions strong.
46:22Our changing oceans are now bearing witness to what some scientists call the rise of slime.
46:36Clones of jelly, legions of rodents, swarms of insects, all warnings that nature's network
46:50is at breaking point.
46:56We are all starting to feel the knock-on effects.
47:06But there are still ways to nurse our sick planet back to health.
47:16We share our home with extraordinary species whose struggles to feed their families, save
47:28their children, and protect their homes can help nature's network to recover.
47:39Our living world's most powerful healers, they hold our future in their hands.