A five-part voyage of discovery into the elemental forces of nature that have shaped our planet and life itself. The series combines stunning natural history sequences, scenes of spectacular natural events around the world, computer animation, and motion control time-lapse to paint a portrait of the dynamic Earth and our place in it.
♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ - The sun and the Moon seem to dance with the Earth in their journey through the sky.
Their movements create powerful rhythms which influence all living things on the planet.
Creatures migrate, tides rise and fall, seasons change.
Entire civilizations are inspired to worship these monumental forces as gods.
Almost nothing is more beautiful than a sunset, or more compelling.
Here on Earth, the Sun and the Moon and their positions in the sky determine a great deal of who we are and how we live our lives.
We plant our crops, celebrate our holidays, make plans for the future based on time we mark by their passage.
In nature, the response is sweeping and elemental, as everything is driven to move, change, and grow.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music] [slow music] - [Narrator] Planet Earth is our home in space, but we are not alone.
Our lives are affected every day by our neighbors, the Moon and Sun.
Together, the Moon, Earth, and Sun perform a complex ballet which generates the rhythm of the seasons, months, and days.
As the Earth spins on its axis, day becomes night and night becomes day, but the length of each day depends on the time of year and our location on the Earth.
The first flight of a December dawn on the Rann of Kutch in India stirs a flock of 100,000 cranes.
[slow music continues] All life depends on the rhythm of the Sun.
[slow music continues] Dawn sweeps over the face of the Earth at 1,000 miles per hour.
[slow music continues] ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ - [Narrator] Two hours after sunrise in India, the day begins on the East African planes.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] On the equator, the length of daylight is fairly constant, 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] But as the Earth sweeps around the Sun, it creates the rhythm of the seasons.
Near the equator, there are two seasons, wet and dry.
In Africa, this pattern drives wildebeest in a great migration.
4,000 miles to the north, four hours later, a weak sun now rises over the marshlands of eastern England.
Thousands of shorebirds spend the winter on these marshlands escaping the bitter arctic cold, but here they live by the rhythm of the tides.
[slow music continues] In our cities, we are cocooned from the rhythms of nature.
Each one of us could witness 25,000 sunrises in our lifetimes, but we no longer appreciate the subtle changes in the year.
We live by artificial time.
Yet we can't ignore the changing seasons.
Our calendar is still tied to the year's cycle, and so are many of our festivals.
It's no coincidence that Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year.
This modern holiday is a relic of an ancient festival which marks something far older than Christianity, Midwinter.
We experience all the seasons because of one simple fact.
The Earth is tilted on its axis.
As the Earth journeys around the Sun, the northern hemisphere moves to a position facing away from the warmth of the Sun, plunging the north into winter.
On December 21st, the northern hemisphere is facing directly away from the Sun.
This is midwinter, the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.
[slow music] People have celebrated the turning points of the year for millennia.
These standing stones in Orkney, north of Scotland, function as a calendar to mark the passing of the year.
[slow music continues] There's also a place here that marks midwinter precisely, a burial mound.
It's built so that on the shortest day of the year, the light of the setting sun shines down the central chamber of the tomb and reaches the far wall.
[slow music continues] The winter solstice is a crucial turning point of the year.
From this point on, the days will grow longer and the Sun will grow in strength.
Far to the north of Scotland in the high Arctic, the Sun disappears for much longer than one night.
Around mid-winter, the Earth is tilted so that the North Pole is hidden from the Sun.
This long, bitterly cold arctic night lasts for weeks.
As the cold and dark close in, many creatures leave the Arctic for warmer places further south, but some, like the polar bear, seek out the comfort of a winter den deep beneath the snow.
But even in this everlasting winter night, when the Sun has gone away, there's still a light in the sky.
To the Inuit people of the north, the Sun is a goddess and the Moon a god, a mighty hunter who rules the winter.
The face of Igaluk, the Moon god, smolders with a pale cold light compared to his sister, the Sun.
It's said he chases her, trying to catch her, rape her, but she hides from him.
Igaluk controls the weather, sending snow and ice at his command.
[wind whistles] But the Moon doesn't rule only the winter sky of the north.
His influence is felt all over the world.
The Earth is held on its path around the Sun by gravity.
The same force keeps the Moon in its own orbit around the Earth, but as the Earth pulls on the Moon, so the Moon in turn pulls on the Earth.
Compared to the Earth, the Moon is small.
It would just about fit under the North American continent.
It's also a quarter of a million miles away.
Yet its effect is strong enough to be felt every day.
It pulls on the waters of the oceans, creating the tides.
As the Earth spins beneath the Moon, sea levels rise and fall.
[birds cawing] Many creatures live their lives tied to this rhythm.
Regardless of whether it's day or night, shorebirds that spend the winter on coastal mud flats have to feed at low tide, when the mud flats are exposed.
The power of the Moon to move the huge mass of water in the oceans is most dramatic on these flat coastal lands.
[birds chirping] Here the tide comes in at the pace of a fast walk.
[birds chirping] The birds are forced to abandon the mud flats and head for higher ground.
Even though it's now daytime, they'll sleep and wait for the tide to go out again, their lives ruled by the Moon and the oceans.
As the tide falls again, on Herm, one of the English Channel Islands, the sand turns green.
Millions of tiny green flatworms emerge from the sand into shallow pools left by the retreating tide.
Their green color is due to algae living inside of them.
The algae uses the Sun's light to make their food.
The worms also depend on this food, so they have to come out at low tide to expose the algae to the Sun.
As the tide comes back in, they retreat into the sands once more.
The Channel Islands have some of the highest tides in the world, the water rising and falling over 40 feet.
The size of every tide depends on the phases of the Moon, which are due to the Moon's orbit around the Earth, one rotation every 28 days.
From our viewpoint on the Earth, the amount of the Moon's face lit by the Sun changes as it travels around us.
Every month, the Moon appears to grow as more of its face is lit by the Sun, swelling, waxing to become a full moon.
As the Moon continues on its journey, the amount lit by the Sun gradually decreases, waning until it seems to completely disappear.
At this time, the New Moon, the Sun and moon line up on the same side of the Earth.
When this happens, the Sun's pull on the Earth adds to the pull of the Moon.
The tug on the oceans is now stronger, creating a spring tide, a higher tide than usual.
[slow music] [seagulls crying] A few rivers in the world have estuaries shaped like funnels.
As the spring tide comes in, the water piles up on itself and surges up the river.
On the River Severn in England, the rising tide creates a wall of water that sweeps upstream.
[slow music continues] [singing in foreign language] For some creatures, these extra high ties are a signal that it is time to breed.
On the east coast of North America, horseshoe crabs make their way ashore on the spring tide.
These ancient creatures have been crawling out of the sea to lay their eggs for millions of years.
[waves crashing] [seagulls crying] The males cling to the females, ready to fertilize their eggs as they're laid in the sand.
250 million years ago, this was the best place to lay their eggs.
There was virtually no life on land, no predators to worry about, but much has changed since then.
[birds chirping] Now, millions of birds, sanderlings, red knots, ruddy turnstones descend on the beaches to partake of an egg feast.
[birds chirping] The horseshoe crabs continue to lay their eggs in the sand, and always on the spring tide.
The birds know exactly where and when to find them.
Most of the crabs make it back to the safety of the water, the males and females still locked together in their embrace.
[waves crashing] [birds chirping] The birds gorge themselves, fattening up on the oily eggs to fuel their migration.
In just a few days, they'll nearly double their body weight.
All winter they've been living and feeding on the rhythm of the tides, but as the days get longer, they become attuned to the rhythm of the seasons.
Soon they'll begin their long journey north to their summer breeding grounds.
[birds chirping] The effect of the lengthening days is felt everywhere.
All winter, forests have seemed dead and silent, but now with the first glimmer of spring, life begins to stir.
Before the leaves fill the trees, spring sunshine still reaches the forest floor.
Now the first spring flowers emerge.
[upbeat music] This is the time the ancient Celts called Imbolc, the time of the first ewe's milk.
They're celebrated with fires and dancing.
Winter had finally come to an end.
[upbeat music continues] As winter turns into spring, days get longer and nights shorter until they are exactly the same length.
This is the spring equinox.
On this day, every place on Earth has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark.
At the equinox, the Sun rises exactly due east.
Like many cultures the world over, the Mayan people of Central America saw the equinox as a turning point in the seasons.
The pyramid of Chichen Itza is designed to mark its arrival.
The pyramid is aligned so that on the day of the spring equinox, the setting sun casts a special shadow.
As the afternoon sunlight strikes the edge of the pyramid, the shadow of a serpent moves down the sacred steps.
The serpent is an ancient symbol of fertility.
For the Maya, it brought the life giving power of the sky, sunlight and rain, to the Earth.
[insects chirping] Once the spring equinox has passed, the days will start to get longer than the nights.
Now the trees themselves wake from their sleep.
This transformation is most dramatic along the ridges and valleys of the Appalachian mountains.
The warmth and light from the spring sun is just what the trees have been waiting for.
[birds chirping] The forest turns into a riot of green, but all this greenery serves one purpose.
Each leaf, each plant is making food from the energy of the Sun by the process of photosynthesis.
This complex process sustains virtually all life on Earth.
A spectacular array of wildflowers carpets the forest floor.
It's as if the Earth is overflowing with life and energy as it wakes from a winter's sleep.
[slow music] In Europe, the blossoms of May mark the end of spring and the start of summer.
This profusion of life is celebrated on Mayday, a relic of the ancient Celtic Fire Festival of Beltane.
The blatant fertility all around is reflected in the tradition of erecting the maypole.
[slow music continues] Mayday, the 1st of May, is the first day of summer, but further north, summer comes much later.
In late May, in Manitoba, Canada, the Sun is just beginning to melt the last of the snow.
The warm rays of the Sun draw out perhaps the most ancient fertility symbol of them all, snakes.
These reptiles have been associated with the reawakening earth goddess for thousands of years.
They slide silently from the underworld, from the depths of the Earth herself.
In the snake pits of Manitoba, thousands of garter snakes gather together to perform their own fertility rituals.
Most of these snakes are males, the first to emerge from hibernation.
The snakes haven't eaten all winter, but their drive to mate and to find a female is much stronger than their hunger.
When a female does appear, she's completely surrounded by eager suitors.
Summer arrives last in the Arctic.
The long night is nearly over.
[wind whistles] For the Inuit people, the Sun must be welcomed.
In order not to offend her, all the lamps are extinguished.
An old Inuit song says, "There is only one great thing to live to see, the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world."
The Sun has come home.
As the Sun brings her light and warmth to the frozen land, she sets the water free by melting the ice.
[upbeat music] Far to the south, the call of the Arctic summer is heard.
[upbeat music continues] Geese that have spent the winter on Isla off Scotland fly north once more.
[upbeat music continues] They will return to the sites they left last year to raise a new family.
[upbeat music continues] It's a journey of 1,500 miles, but they won't rest until they make it back home.
[upbeat music continues] [singing in foreign language] ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Oh, hey, oh, hey, oh, oh, oh ♪ [singing in foreign language] [upbeat music continues] - [Narrator] And the Arctic is ready for them.
[upbeat music continues] The snow has melted and there's plenty of rich fertile grass, a feast for the exhausted hungry travelers.
For the few brief months of summer, the Arctic bursts into life.
Flowering plants must bloom and set seed in a matter of weeks before the snow returns.
There's a sense of urgency in the air.
There's no time to waste.
[birds chirping] After a long winter in a cramped den, polar bears find time to relax in the long summer days.
[polar bear roars] The summer warmth is also the signal for millions of insects to take to the air.
This is Lake MÑvatn in Iceland, the Lake of Midges.
[insects buzzing] Long daylight hours and almost infinite supplies of food make the difficult trip here worthwhile for thousands of birds.
[geese honking] Once the chicks hatch, they grow quickly on the bounty of insect and plant life.
The young birds must be strong enough to fly south when the summer ends.
[birds peeping] On Midsummer Day, the Arctic earns its name, the land of the midnight sun.
Today on the Arctic Circle, the Sun doesn't set.
It just touches the horizon.
[slow music] ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ [slow music continues] - [Narrator] Midsummer Day is a turning point of the year.
The Arctic is bathed in continuous light, white nights, and everywhere in the northern hemisphere, this is the longest day.
♪ Oh, oh ♪ - [Narrator] The huge ancient stones of Stonehenge were aligned so that at sunrise on the longest day, the rising sun appears from behind a special stone, the Heel Stone.
♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ - [Narrator] Stonehenge is at least 5,000 years old, built by a people who have disappeared into the mists of time.
♪ Oh, oh ♪ - [Narrator] Yet even then, they could predict the changing seasons and they honored the life giving power of the Sun.
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ - [Narrator] Long after the builders of Stonehenge had disappeared, the Celts also honored the Sun at this time of year by building huge fires to add to her strength.
[slow music continues] It was a time when life was at its most virile, the highest point in the year's cycle, a time of plenty.
[slow music continues] ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah ♪ - [Narrator] Eight hours after the midsummer sun rises over Stonehenge, it brings the morning light to the deserts of the American Southwest.
For the people of the desert, the Sun was the most powerful deity in their lives.
The ancient civilization of the Anasazi also built monuments to measure the passage of the year.
In great underground chambers, kivas, they held their religious ceremonies.
At the kiva known as Casa Rinconada, the rising midsummer sun shines through a particular window to illuminate a special location.
For these desert farmers, it was vital to know the time of the year, when to plant crops, when to expect rain.
Even today, the descendants of the Anasazi, the Pueblo Indians, stopped planting crops after Midsummer's Day.
In the tropics, the variation in the seasons is different from other places.
[slow music] [singing in foreign language] Moving bands of rain create a complex pattern of wet and dry seasons.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] In East Africa, rain means a crop of fresh grass.
Herds of wildebeest spend most of their lives in a great circular migration following the rains that will bring the grass to life.
[slow music continues] [singing in foreign language] They cross dangerous rivers, letting nothing stand in their way.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] More than have a million animals travel together, a great wave of wildebeest that knows exactly where it's going, to the northern plains.
[singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] [wildebeest lowing] When they arrive, the summer rains have already fallen and the grass is green and lush.
This is why they have traveled all this way.
[wildebeest lowing] Around the world, the energy of the Sun has also been transformed into a growing bounty.
Now, as summer passes and the days grow shorter, the ripening crops are ready for the harvest.
[plants rustling] Eventually on the autumn equinox, September 21st, the days and nights are equal in length once again.
Winter is on its way, and the days will now get shorter than the nights.
The sun is starting to lose her strength.
The spirit of the corn must be kept safe throughout the winter, so she's held in a cage, a corn dolly until next spring.
Summer turns to autumn, and the forests are once again transformed, this time to a blaze of red and gold.
[slow guitar music] The trees absorb the valuable green material from their leaves.
It's actually the waste left behind that gives the autumn leaves their color.
Nature's yearly painting of the trees is most spectacular in the forests of New England.
As the dying leaves return to the earth, they provide nourishment for the trees by fertilizing the soil below.
[slow guitar music continues] [overlapping chattering] In winter, ancient cultures offered strength to the dying sun by lighting huge bonfires.
[fire crackles] [overlapping chattering] [audience cheers] A ghost of the great Celtic Fire Festival of Samhain is still alive today in the English village of Ottery St. Mary following an ancient custom.
Burning tar barrels are carried around the village square.
[overlapping chattering] At Samhain, the veil between the physical world and the spirit world becomes thin.
[overlapping chattering] Samhain evolved into Halloween, but all around England, the ancient fire festival is still celebrated with fireworks and bonfires on Bonfire Night.
[fire crackles] [overlapping chattering] The fires of Samhain live on, a tradition too strong to fade away.
And the approach of winter draws families of whooper swans back to the south.
They must leave before the cold and dark of the Arctic night tightens its grip.
The young cygnets follow their parents, learning the route they'll have to travel on their own when they return next summer.
Driven by the shortening daylight, their journey seems relentless, but they know where they're going, always south, always together.
These great journeys are as much a part of the pulse of the seasons as the Earth's journey around the Sun.
They take a short rest before completing the final stretch.
[swans cooing] [slow guitar music] They still have a long way to go.
[swan honks] ♪ Ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ [singing in foreign language] - [Narrator] They join thousands of other swans who have already flown south for the winter.
[slow music continues] ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ [singing in foreign language] [slow music continues] - [Narrator] Winter is a time when everything waits, when the Earth withdraws her energy, a time of rest and renewal.
The cycle of the year is complete.
But we don't have to suffer the tyranny of winter.
We have learned to build shelters to keep us safe and warm, and we've mastered the most volatile of the elements, fire.
[slow music] [fire crackles] Once our ancestors could control fire, they could bring the warmth of the Sun down to Earth.
They could banish the cold and dark forever, and now we meet the rhythms of the year on our own terms.
[slow orchestral music] [slow music]
