BBC’s 3 part series Supersized Earth is a real eye opener, showing us how man has changed the earth in just one generation.
Image: BBC
The first episode ‘A Place To Live’ starts with presenter Dallas Campbell climbing out of the top of Burj Khalifa in Dubai; at 829m,the world’s tallest building. The view was amazing, and maybe a bit scary for some!
Lincoln Cathedral is the first building that’s looked at in depth, and was thought to be the world’s highest at 80 metres (160 including the 80 metre spire) from 1300 until 1549. It’d incredible to think just how far things have come since then!
Watching Dallas joining the team of window cleaners responsible for cleaning the Burj Khalifa was breathtaking, especially when you see that all they use is a good old bucket and sponge!
Mexico City and the surrounding area is massive city compared to the likes of London and Dallas gets to help Julio, a very brave man go diving in toxic sewage to unblock the city’s struggling sewers. It’s staggering to hear that only two people are responsible for clearing the sewers servicing 21.2 million people. I can’t see many people wanting to apply to increase that! The new sewer currently being built at a cost of billions of dollars looks like it’d be the inside of a spaceship. It’s a shame the only thing that will be going through it is waste.
The rate at which the world is growing and cities are expanding is scary, especially after seeing a photographers’ album of Shanghai in China since 1990. A whole city with over 23 million people has sprung up in just a few decades, with one company even offering ‘flat pack’ buildings, claiming to be able to build a 30 storey building in under 3 weeks.
Most people associate cable-cars with ski resorts, but Rio in Brazil has invested in an urban cable-car system to help the inhabitants of the slums connect with the rest of the city. An ingenious idea and an unusual thing to see!
The programme is full of technical stuff and facts for the geeks amongst us, but is equally interesting for those who aren’t technically minded and is worth watching even just for the views from the top of some of the buildings. Seeing the difference between our planet’s cities from futuristic Tokyo to the slums of Rio really opens your eyes to how different places can be.
The BBC is well known for its documentaries and certainly didn’t disappoint with ‘A Place To Live’; hopefully the rest of the series will maintain the high standard that it started with.
Watch episode one on iPlayer here.
Supersized Earth is on BBC One, Wednesdays at 8:00pm
I think I recall Dallas saying on Twitter that the series won’t be released on DVD, but I’m not 100% sure.
I thought this series was awesome and would like to know if it’s going to be available on DVD.
Really enjoyed the series – and yest it is a good point to spark off discussions with my Geography A level students – only wish I could have a copy of it to use again next year as it will no longer be available on iplayer.
The varying impacts and effects of man’s footprint can be covered in detail elsewhere and throughout the BBC programming schedule but I was content to find a programme which focused on achievements not entirely known. Rarely, do we find entertainment content which doesn’t bang on about the negative ‘hand-in-hand’ consequences of actions which should be under scrutiny. The building of the bridges of China have decimated communities and exploited workers in the extreme, yet, refreshingly, content was focussed on the sheer magnitude of the work done. Nothing is right, rarely is anything honest and correct and the degenerative impacts must be examined but can we be spared just one programme where viewing becomes a fireworks equivalent – Oh’ing and Ah’ing for one hour in the evening. By the way, Kevin MacDonald is correct – this is a useful platform in which to explore the impacts of mans achievements.
Sorry to say Dallas Campbell is my new TV hero. Wow what an absolutely brilliant series. Can we have more of this please. This is where I want my money going not some dancing shows that go on all winter or seems like all year. Looking forward to seeing more of Dallas great presenter. Thanks to all involved
Where was the information on the fish stocks of the world and the alternative growth of things fishy that is being made around the would thanks to aquaculture. Read the blogs of Peter Wibaux@theindiaroad.com to gain a better insite into the alternative fishing industry. He has been showing the world for the past 20 years how to grow and harvest fish stocks. Invite him on to show a professional alternative.
Maxine
I agree Babs, very much an opportunity missed. It seems as if the earth is being portrayed as some giant fun fair or theme park where nothing really matters. A new take on geological features and geographical issues perhaps but the agricultural content in particular in the last episode was frightening. As for the big red off button, Stephen Bury, my negative comments about the program were not about my own personal entertainment and I wdon’t think the program has the right educational content for anyone because it’s neither critical nor serious enough about man’s impact on the earth.
Thanks Col you’ve taken the words right out of my mouth. I waited and waited for some sort of critical examination about the impact of what we were being shown, but waited in vain. Very disappointing. An opportunity missed.
I loved watching this programme because as a teacher it was a refreshing new take on many geological and geographical issues. I thought the presentation style was like Prof. Iain Stewarts rather than David Attenbrough – but it was still educational and engaging! If my licence fees are ‘invested’ on this – I am happy. Considering TOWIE, I am a Celebrity, X factor etc ….each to their own – use the big red off button if you want to!
I do not like this program at all and find it incredibly depressing. The whole feel of the program seems to be “look how great we humans are” and offers no critisism about how we are changing the planet. The program is not very helpful at all in making people aware of the fact that we need to be looking after the planet and all who live on it (not just humans) better.
I don’t think the impact is the point of the series. I felt the series was merely meant as a chronicle of what has been done/achieved and was a jumping off point for discussions about what the impact of this development will be.
He really is intellectually immature. The slow pace of the presentation is hardly improved by running the programme at twice the speed. Photography superb, the 14 year old presenter dull.
The post by Col saved me so much. Totally unbelievable the lack of examination of effect of these enterprises. Like some schoolboy that thinks superman is real. Is there some nepotism operating here as there is no journalistic credibility.
I just cannot believe that the BBC can present a series of programmes that involve no critical thinking. The presenter looks like an immature school boy who is just so awestuck he has difficulty understanding what he is seeing. take for example to plastic sea in Spain where tomatoes and other veg are grown using hydroponics. He says nothing of the mountains of waste generated by the growing medium not anything about the tonnes of chemical fertilizers used. Did he not think that forcing plants to grow in a arid barren desert is unnatural? Does he, or the programme makers, care about the environmental impact of such vast operations? And to say that this shows that we have controlled nature is just simplistic in the extreme! These programmes look more propaganda films than serious attempts to understand what we are doing to planet Earth.