Episode Information

‘Planet California’ is a series about California’s wildlife and wild places, and the extreme forces which are now pushing them to a tipping point. Catastrophic wildfires, devastating droughts, extreme storms, more people and ocean warming all are threatening. How will California’s spectacular wilderness survive? Best-known for its beaches and Disneyland, California is also an island of biodiversity – the greatest in the Americas. Bounded by mountains, deserts and the Pacific Ocean, it is home to iconic wild places like Yosemite, and the Giant Redwood forests, but also to the endless dunes and uninhabited shores of Baja California. ‘Planet California’ looks at natural history in a new way. We employ new science, combined with stunning images and storytelling to look at the future for California’s wildlife in the face of growing threats. With the increasing intensity of the extreme forces it is facing – wildfires, drought, ocean warming and human encroachment – what is happening to California’s wildlife now, has implications to wildlife worldwide. That’s why it is ‘Planet California’.