In reality you are actually in a giant planetarium. Behind the Curve, Mike Sargent, flat-earther, Netflix 2018
Flat-Earth theory is actually getting pretty popular. ibid. WCIA television news report
The South Pole is like a 200-foot wall of ice straight up Game of Thrones style. ibid. Mike Sargent
There’s now Flat-Earth dating sites popping up. ibid.
The greatest science fiction story ever told. ibid.
Everybody’s gonna get old and die. The Sopranos s4e8: Mergers & Acquisitions, Tony to Pauli, HBO 2002
This is our planet. Planet Earth. It’s a planet I’m literally on right now. And unless you’re watching this on a long-haul fight, or while falling off a building, the chances are, you are too. This is the incredible story of how humankind transformed our world from being a load of pointless nature like this, to modern things like this. Cunk on Earth 1/5: In the Beginnings, BBC 2022
And I’ll be asking questions: ‘Who are you?’ to leading academics … ‘Why do they say it’s a mystery how the pyramids were built, when it’s obviously just big bricks and a triangle?’ ibid.
Early cave artists started out painting whatever was close to hand. Like their hands. Then they branched out into stories … ibid.
This was the first time in history life could be described as cozy. People lived in proper houses, which soon grew to become cities. ibid.
Who invented civilisation? ibid. Cunk to Jim al-Khalili. ibid.
With numbers going as high but no higher at 700, people needed something to help them count. That’s where this came in. It’s called a bacchus … Our ancestors could count how many possessions they owned. It was a short step from this to the invention of money. ibid.
The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with dead people, weren’t they? … So how did they mummify people? Take me take through the process. ibid. Cunk
An even more impressive empire was appearing: Greece: The country, not the musical, was where the birth of civilisation was born. The ancient Greeks invented lots of things we still have today, like medicine and olives. And lots of things that have died out like democracy and pillars. ibid.
These Greek pioneers changed the way we think. ibid.
Meanwhile, ancient Greece was being spread across the globe by this man: Alexander the Great. ibid.
And the reason Wikipedia knows a lot about the Romans is because what happened in Pompeii. Pompeii was so advanced it had its own volcano, which is Latin for ‘angry hill.’ For years the volcano and humans had lived in harmony … ibid.
We’ll be looking at two of the most important books in history: the Bible and the Koran. And finally answering the question, Which is best? ibid.
Man has come an incredible distance. Cunk on Earth s1e2: Faith/Off
When Christ was born he had a magic flaming circle on his head. ibid.
The Romans had found God almost overnight. bid.
The Dark Ages were a tragedy for human progress.
ibid.
The missionaries were known for their position. ibid.
Humankind was about to undergo Renaissance. Cunk on Earth s1e3: The Renaissance Will Not Be Televised
During the Renaissance, Florence produced artists who for the first time in history were competent enough to create paintings worth looking at. ibid.
The American revolution sent shockwaves around the world. ibid.
This week it’s the rise of the machines. Here on Earth. Cunk on Earth s1e4: Rise of the Machines
Water needed to up its game. ibid.
Now fighting with Native Americans could be conducted at high speed and with accompanying buffet-car service. ibid.
How come Americans have the right to kill anyone they want with a gun? ibid.
Slavery was abolished and replaced with simple racial prejudice. ibid.
He was forced to go to a theatre to watch a play. ibid.
So you couldn’t blow a whole orchestra?
Orville & Wilbur Wright brothers mounted the first successful legal challenge against the law of gravity. ibid.
Why don’t bicycles have toilets? ibid. Cunk to Jim al-Khalili
My aunt Carol realigns other people’s chakras. ibid.
Reading was redundant at last. The written word’s century’s-long era of tyranny was coming to an end. ibid.
Next time we see how a cold war between east and west paved the way for rock-n-roll which paved the way for counter-cultural hippies … ibid.
Russia: a vast land to the east … It’s been there all along. Cunk on Earth s1e5: War(s) of the World(s)
To this day women have been denied entry to the moon. With the moon landings man had achieved greatness. ibid.
Nature: The more we learn about it, the more we realise how important it is. Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor. But are home to a quarter of all marine life. And life in the ocean provides more oxygen than even the rainforests. Environments like this are precious. Restoring the Earth: The Age of Nature s1e1: Awakenings, BBC 2023
In 1946 an atomic bomb was detonated on the Pacific island of Bikini Atoll. Over the next 12 years 22 more nuclear tests like this were carried out … Nature was not the priority. ibid.
How we live with Nature now will determine our future. ibid.
‘The potential that Nature has for recovery if left alone.’ ibid. diver at Bikini Atoll
The rate of recovery is extraordinary. ibid.
Across the world people are studying eco-systems and looking for connections giving us a deeper understanding of nature. Restoring the Earth: The Age of Nature II: Understanding
Climate Change: impacting our planet faster than ever before. This is a global problem that needs a global solution. Restoring the Earth: The Age of Nature III
How we live with Nature will determine our future: a new age is upon us – the Age of Nature. ibid.
It’s hard to describe how still it is on a glacier surrounded by a fresh blanket on snow. A Year on Planet Earth I: Winter, ITV 2023
Svalbard, Arctic Circle: By late October most animals have already fled south … The northern hemisphere is tilted as far away from the sun as it can. ibid.
But the beginning of March we in the north are turning towards the north. And winter snow begins to melt. A Year on Planet Earth II: Spring
East Africa: The Great Migration won’t return until summer. ibid.
The sun … fuels extraordinary change. And transforms the lives of all it shines upon. Now as we enter our summer we begin to feel its full force. A Year on Planet Earth III: Summer
Autumn is the season of change … [and] change brings opportunity. A Year on Planet Earth IV: Autumn
It’s mid-September and the deciduous forests of North America are staging the season’s most iconic spectacle. This blaze of colour is the last hurrah triggered by a drop in temperature … The forest is preparing to hibernate. So too are its residents. ibid.
We are entranced by the beauty of our planet … All of this is so fleeting. For the last four and a half billion years our Earth has been a constantly changing ball of rock, transforming itself over and over again. It’s more fragile than we like to acknowledge. Chris Packham, Earth I: Inferno, BBC 2023
Five pivotal moments in Earth’s history. Moments of drama, of crisis, and of rebirth. Events that shaped the planet we live on. ibid.
Not only to arise but to flourish and endure. But in fact it’s death that is the only true inevitability. ibid.
Extinction helped create our rich living world. But our planet walks a tightrope. If extinction goes unchecked, the complex web of life crumbles. ibid.