On Thin Ice

A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolse

This documentary follows various migratory bird species on their long journeys from their summer homes to the equator and back, covering thousands of miles and navigating by the stars. These arduous treks are crucial for survival, seeking hospitable climates and food sources. Birds face numerous challenges, including crossing oceans and evading predators, illness, and injury. Although migrations are undertaken as a community, birds disperse into family units once they reach their destinations, and every continent is affected by these migrations, hosting migratory bird species at least part of the year.

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Polar bear Norm and his three Arctic lemming buddies are forced out into the world once their icy home begins melting and breaking apart. Landing in New York, Norm begins life anew as a performing corporate mascot, only to discover that his new employers are directly responsible for the destruction of his polar home.

Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud travel throughout Europe to film brown bears, wild horses, wolves and other animals in their natural habitat.

In the arctic, as Saiva is being born, a shaman declares that she is evil and will bring harm to all who become involved with her. Saiva is cast out of her tribe of herders and grows up to live a nomadic existence with Anja, a young woman she adopts as an infant. Then Loki, an injured and starving soldier, stumbles into their isolated lives. The women nurse him back to health, but treachery, violence and doom await them all.

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

The enchanting true-to-life tale of polar bear cubs and their mother on a 400-mile journey from their birth den in Svalbard to the pack ice surrounding the North Pole.

Set 70 million years ago in the Cretaceous period in North America, this animated docu/drama follows the journey of a young Edmontosaurus named Scar and his herd as they migrate south for the winter. This film depicts recent findings about Dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurs with feathers.

The beauty of the Arctic is breathtaking. For as long as we can remember, the Arctic has been associated with inhospitable cold. But the climate is changing, and with it the northern polar region, which begins beyond latitude 66.5 degrees north. Climate change is now happening four times faster north of the Arctic Circle than on the rest of the planet, making the future outlook dire. At the moment it is still possible for polar bears to raise their cubs, but hunting is becoming increasingly difficult on the drastically shrinking pack ice. The disappearance of the ice also affects the marine fauna. The wintry ice bridge between Canada and Greenland is threatened with collapse. The unstoppable melting of the permafrost, which has held the tundra together for thousands of years, is worrying. But the Arctic is still one of the wildest and loveliest regions on earth. A documentary visit to the Arctic - as long as it still exists.

The bleakness of Antarctica is a fallacy. The ice continent is full of life and offers a biodiversity of which only about two percent are known. Much of it is under water and could determine the future of human beings. When the northern lights cover the ice landscape in summer, the animals in the Antarctic are in a paradisiacal state. Whales blow their fountains in the sky, penguins fly like small rockets into the water, seals dive for crabs under the glittering ice floes. From the bay of the Ross Sea to the ice shelf, from the huge penguin colonies to steaming volcanoes, a life in rhythm with the ice. But the consequences of climate change are slowly becoming apparent here too. While some species are dying, others are spreading. They could bring new viruses and bacteria with them, and new dangers for humans too. The structure of nature has gotten off course. How many generations will still be able to experience the magic of Antarctica?

Filmed in Karasjok, Norway - 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, BBC Four rigs a traditional reindeer sleigh with a fixed camera for a magical journey across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Following the path of an ancient postal route, the ride captures the traditional world of the Sami people who are indigenous to northern Scandinavia and for whom reindeer herding remains a way of life. Deliberately unhurried, the rhythmic pace of the reindeer guides us along an epic two-hour trip that takes us over undulating snowy hills, through birch forests, across a frozen lake and past traditional Sami settlements.

Two Canadian experts in underwater filming, Mario Cyr and Jill Heinerth, join forces for the first time to record how Arctic wildlife is adapting to the dramatic effects of climate change.

The story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.

When National Geographic photographer James Balog asked, “How can one take a picture of climate change?” his attention was immediately drawn to ice. Soon he was asked to do a cover story on glaciers that became the most popular and well-read piece in the magazine during the last five years. But for Balog, that story marked the beginning of a much larger and longer-term project that would reach epic proportions.

David Attenborough travels to the end of the earth, taking viewers on an extraordinary journey across the polar regions of our planet.

Through unprecedented access we showcase the spectacle that is Wild Russia. From east to west, via mountains, volcanoes, deserts, lakes and Arctic ice, this breathtaking six-part series uses stunning cinematography to chart the dazzling natural wonders of this vast country.

Bruce Parry presents this five-part documentary series set in the spectacular wilderness of the Arctic, where he explores the dramatic changes its people are experiencing

From the Taiga to the Tundra to the Arctic Ocean, this series immerses the viewer in the nature of the northern extremities of Europe, beyond the Arctic Circle and into a land of ice and fire. Wildest Arctic captures the awesome cinematic range of the Arctic region, from the creaks, crashes of vast glaciers, to the howls of the wildest wolves and the haunting remoteness of this true wilderness.

A half-hour documentary series set in a unique Arctic town with true northern exposure that provides a front-row seat for some of the closest human-bear encounters ever seen on television.

Yellowstone is one of the most remarkable places on the planet. It’s home to North America’s most iconic wildlife, including grizzly bears, wolves, great grey owls, beavers and bison. Every year they must survive extreme weather as the thaw transforms this mountain wilderness from freezer to furnace.

A chilling anthology series featuring stories of people in terrifying situations inspired by true historical events.

Experience our planet's natural beauty and examine how climate change impacts all living creatures in this ambitious documentary of spectacular scope.

Witness the epic nature of Wild Scandinavia: orca, puffins and eagles rule the fjords; wolves and lynx patrol magical forests; polar bears and musk ox survive arctic extremes. Basejumpers and reindeer herders also embrace the wilderness.

Millions of years ago, incredible forces ripped apart the Earth’s crust creating seven extraordinary continents. This documentary series reveals how each distinct continent has shaped the unique animal life found there.

The Volga is a myth, a unique river of superlatives and the natural lifeline of Russia. With a length of more than 3,500 kilometers, it is the most powerful and water-rich river in Europe. Their catchment area is larger than France, Spain and Portugal combined. While all the other great rivers on earth flow into an ocean, the Volga fills its own sea, the largest inland lake on earth, the Caspian Sea. On the way there it flows through rustic forest areas, through wide steppes and dry semi-deserts, each of which is home to a unique wildlife. In three years of filming and on countless expeditions, the Altayfilm team and their Russian colleagues managed to capture the fascinating stream in grandiose pictures and to fully portray it for the first time. Opulent pictures and breathtaking aerial photographs alternate with animal behavior that has rarely been documented before, told with fine humor and a special lightness.

From the Arctic Islands being forged by volcanoes, and the punishing frozen landscape of the tundra, to the vast snow forests of the Taiga, this series captures the planet's toughest creatures, in it's most spectacular habitats.

Across the globe, strange happenings, borne out of the oceans, are mystifying and imperiling the world’s population. A group of scientists undertakes a terrifying mission to the depths of the Arctic Ocean to confront a deadly intelligent life force bent on human extinction.

Ade Adepitan travels to the frontline of climate change. He discovers how life is being affected even now and scours the globe for potential solutions.

As the Arctic changes faster than ever, a team of polar bear guides prepares for an epic journey; a first-ever attempt to follow the bears on the sea ice of Hudson Bay. In this high-stakes high-reward venture, they will document the secret world of bears, a mysterious and disappearing realm that is the bears key to survival. Life on the ice is a critical time for these bears. It also remains undocumented, deemed too dangerous for humans to follow, hinted at only through aerial reconnaissance and satellite collar research. The team, armed with traditional ecological knowledge and the latest 4K camera technology, will witness never- before-seen seal hunting strategies and document rapid adaptations to climate change, including whale predation and open-water hunting.