Original subtitles

We live on the most diverse planet in the solar system.

Its vast richness is revealed when we explore the variety...

...of our world's landscapes.

This is an adventure of discovery...

...to seven of the planet's most dramatic landscapes...

...and natural wonders.

Perhaps these are the greastest places.

Some five billion years ago, our solar system took form.

More than 200 million years ago.

Earth's supercontinent, Pangaea, began to separate.

New coastlines, continents, islands and mountain ranges...

...were formed in massive upheaval.

The greatest places began to take shape.

Greenland became the largest island in the world.

Africa became a separate continent.

The Okavango Delta and the Namib Desert Regions were formed.

Severed from Africa, South America was carved in part...

...by the rivers Amazon and Iguazu.

India collided with Asia...

...uplifting the great plateau of Tibet.

Madagascar separated from Africa...

...and became an island...

...one of the greatest places.

Set adrift by the forces of geology.

Madagascar became a time capsule...

...where, for 40 million years, life evolved in isolation.

This island ark carries life found nowhere else...

Living treasures of place...

...and time.

This is the kingdom of the lemur.

Madagascar is the only place on earth where lemurs are found.

On the mainland, the lemur's ancestors were out-competed...

...by later-evolving monkeys.

But left alone on Madagascar, these ancient primates thrived.

Here grow the most species of the upside-down tree...

Looking like its roots are in the air...

...the baobab.

This giant lives for a thousand years...

...on the island where nearly two-thirds...

...of the world's species of chameleons stalk their prey.

Of all the world's islands.

Madagascar has the most native species.

Here, where a cactus may grow as tall as a tree...

...the ring-tailed lemur has adapted from forest leaf eater...

...to connoisseur of cactus.

Millions of years of rain and wind...

...have exposed limestone pinnacles...

...silent reminders of the forces that shaped Madagascar...

...from the time it was torn from the bedrock of Africa.

Madagascar's isolation...

...allowed the lemurs to flourish and to diversify.

Numerous species exist, including the black lemur...

...whose males are jet black.

But the females of the species are rusty brown.

And the ring-tailed lemur, the most social.

And the shifak, called the ghost of the forest.

It's one of the few lemurs...

...that sometimes comes down from the trees.

With a tongue as long as its body, the chameleon dines.

The island ark of Madagascar...

...one of the greatest places.

Where India and Asia collided...

...the world's tallest mountains, the Himalayas...

...were uplifted with the highest plateau in the world, Tibet.

As large as Western Europe...

...the plateau is higher than the tallest peaks...

...of the Rocky Mountains.

Yet people have lived for thousands of years here...

...in the place they call the Chong-Tong...

...the Lonely Place.

The Buddhists of Tibet believe in the sacred connection...

...between people and the world of nature.

Prayers are written on flags...

...to be carried by the mountain wind.

Living as nomads, people conserve the land...

...by constantly moving to feed their yaks, sheep and goats.

Their very survival is closely bound to their animals.

People trade for barley...

...but their lives are sustained by the yak.

The yak carries all their belongings...

...and gives milk, butter and meat...

...almost everything they need...

...to survive.

In the land where temperatures can drop...

...80 degrees Fahrenheit in one day...

...yak hides even provide wool and shelter.

For an endangered people...

...who are among the last of the nomads...

...their shelter means survival and home.

Their prayers are written inside prayer wheels...

...to spin to the heavens.

As part of their connection to the land and their religion...

...pilgrims travel hundreds of miles...

...in walking meditation to monasteries and holy sites.

Some lakes in Tibet are considered holy...

...and are headwaters to Asian rivers that irrigate land...

...to feed a quarter of humanity.

Many pilgrimages end at great monasteries...

...monasteries that serve as centers of learning.

As an act of devotion.

Tibetans walk around holy sites as faithfully...

...as the earth moves around the sun.

All people are linked to the place they live...

...through their culture...

...but for all of us everywhere, the natural landscape...

...is what sustains the dance of life.

Tibet, the world's highest plaeau.

Across the world...

...flows one of the Earth's most powerful features...

...the river...

...and the greatest river of all is the Amazon.

It crosses more than two-thirds of the South American continent...

...and is joined by a thousand other rivers...

...as it brings a way of life to the people of the river.

Rivers everywhere are arteries of life...

...for great cities as well as small villages...

...bringing food, water to drink and to grow crops...

...and for transportation.

The Amazon River Basin is a vast landscape...

...of river and forest...

...almost as large as the continental United States...

...encompassing nine nations.

People here follow the ebb and flow of the river...

...learned in the journey of a lifetime.

In the Amazon, people are only one of millions of species...

...linked to the greatest watershed on Earth.

Beetles the size of a person's fist...

...miniature geckos...

...venomous caterpillars...

...and spiders that walk on water.

Located within a few degrees latitude of the equator...

...the Amazon basin receives nearly direct sun all year.

Heat from the morning sun evaporates moisture...

...and causes humid air to rise.

By late morning, it condenses into clouds.

Cloud droplets gather mass and then fall as rain.

The daily rhythm of the rain replenishes the river.

Moving with the currents are floating meadows...

...a seasonal mass of plants and debris...

...islands of life.

Some meadows become part of the landscape...

...and support even trees...

...and the most colouful life in this lush environment.

Where the powerful river exposes clay banks...

...macaws and parrots fly in for a meal.

They eat the clay as an antidote to toxic seeds in their diet...

...and for its life-sustaining minerals.

Great rivers flow across the planet...

...and the Amazon is the greatest.

Rivers everywhere meet disruptions to their flow.

When they flow across a boundary of hard and softer rock...

...there can be great disruptions.

The world's greatest waterfall is Iguazu...

...four times wider than Niagara.

South of the Amazon basin...

...at the border of Brazil and Argentina.

Lava once flowed from ancient volcanoes.

When the hard lava ends, less-resistant rock has eroded.

Here, the Iguazu River plunges into more than 200 waterfalls.

Along the southwest coast of Africa...

...the Namib is a desert in motion.

Across this 80 million-year-old desert...

...prevailing winds build...

...the earth's tallest sand dunes...

...dunes over a thousand feet tall...

...that migrate a grain of sand at a time.

Of all the deserts...

...the Namib contains the greatest variety of life:

Beetles that collect moisture on their backs...

...at the top of the dunes.

Adders that store water between their scales.

And venomous scorpions.

The Namib is even graced with large mammals...

...like the gemsbok.

Everywhere on earth...

...the interaction of the same basic elements...

Land, air, water and life...

...has created landscapes of dramatic diversity.

The Namib is one of the world's five west coast deserts...

...that stretch to a cold sea.

As warm wind passes over cold water, fog forms...

...bringing life-giving moisture that never falls as rain.

But the fog of Namib also brings death...

...scattering bones along the treacherous Skeleton Coast.

A cold southern current from Antarctica...

...and the warmer Atlantic Ocean mix to create a fertile sea...

...and bring abundant life.

At this ocean oasis, fur seals feed all year...

...and warm themselves from the frigid water...

...at the edge of the hot desert.

The Namib...

...desert of the great dunes.

At the Arctic Circle, the largest island in the world...

...lies covered by a permanent landscape of ice.

Beneath the enormous weight of the Greenland ice cap...

...the world's oldest landscape has sunk below sea level.

At the sea, glaciers calve into icebergs...

...floating mountains of ice...

...that are five times more massive under water than above water.

Only the narrow ice-free coast supports life.

Here, the musk ox is cloaked in one of nature's warmest coats...

...even in summer's bloom.

Greenland's storyteller, the drum dancer...

...celdbrates the thousands of years...

...people have survived at this icy edge.

This is life near the coldest limit of human existence.

Survival here is dependent on people inventing what they need...

...like the harpoon, the dogsled and the kayak.

Even at 40 degrees below zero...

...people have successfully adapted.

Greenland a cold extreme of earth's diversity.

In Botswana, southern Africa...

...the Okavango River Delta is Africa's greatest oasis.

Flowing from the north, the Okavango River...

...has carried millions of tons of sand and debris...

...to create one of the largest inland river deltas...

...in the world.

It forms a maze of land and water.

This river never flows to the sea.

Instead, it spreads across the Kalahari Desert...

...and the desert blooms with life.

This massive, landlocked river delta...

...depends on water hundreds of miles away...

...that travels half the year to reach the dry, lower delta.

Everywhere, water restores life.

In this Eden of Okavango...

...as in all places...

...diversity of life is linked to the land, air and water...

...and the patterns of landscape they form.

Every thing is interrelated.

Even the wild dogs of Okavango are linked together from birth.

Only one male and female mate to produce a litter of pups...

...the entire pack will raise.

In dynamic equilibrium, one generation follows another.

In the Okavango, and everywhere...

...the procession of life is a reflection of the landscape.

Only on this planet have elemental processes combined...

...to create so many great places, inanimate features of land...

...which make possible the drama of life.

In the unending partnership of predator and prey...

...one life gives way to many others.

Here, in the cradle of Africa, and everywhere...

...we are both witness and participant...

...in the Earth's most intricate patterns...

...of the land and life.

This rich variety of landscapes is found only on one planet.

To explore these greatest places...

...is to recognize our common bond...

...that we share a miraculous home...

...the most diverse planet in the solar system...

...perhaps the most diverse in the universe.

Earth...

...the greatest place of all.