Avoiding Apocalypse - Season 1

More than ever, humanity is dependent on fossil fuels, with world consumption of petroleum, natural gas, and coal rising a little every year. Inevitably, reserves are going to give out, and humanity isn't ready. But scientists are already working to find substitutes, such as power plants in space and on the ground, thermal energy from oceans, generators on giant kites, fuel from algae, fusion energy, underwater windmills, and wave generators.

Can our planet provide water to an unlimited number of human beings? Signs of resource depletion are already numerous. Potable water is becoming increasingly scarce. The biggest culprit? Agriculture, which has to feed the seven billion people that inhabit the planet.

The world's population has surpassed 7 billion today and will reach nine-billion individuals by 2050. But can the planet supply food for an unlimited number of people? With signs that resources and natural spaces are running low, scientists are working on solutions to avoid human catastrophes; including hard core solutions such as genetic modifications - super Rice, Enviropig, fish of the future – and natural solutions including high protein insects, organic farming, vertical farms and a return to traditional values to ensure that everybody has enough to eat for years, decades and centuries to come.

Life on earth depends on a frightening contest of circumstances. It is so accidental that scientists wonder how it could have come about. Before the onset of the human era, thousands of other species had reigned on Earth. But the planet's history abounds with major cataclysms: super volcanoes, asteroid impacts, cosmic explosions, glaciations... The living world has often had to start all over from scratch, and extinct species made way for Earth's new masters. Humankind, as civilized and technically advanced as it may be, is at the mercy of the same phenomena.