Review: Hostile Planet puts climate change front and center

The new National Geographic series Hostile Planet is not for the faint of heart. In one of the show’s earliest sequences, the cameras follow a family of barnacle geese, a species that nests and hatches its eggs high on mountain cliffs. Because the geese cannot be fed in their nests, three newly hatched chicks, not yet able to fly, must descend a 400-foot pinnacle to get to their food. One chick is picked off by a predator. One misjudges a jump and dies on the rocks. Only the third manages to join its parents for its first meal.

The challenges of survival in the wild are the focus of this gorgeous, often harrowing documentary series. But predators and physics aren’t the animals’ only opponents in the fight for survival. Hostile Planet also looks at how climate change is forcing animals to change migration patterns, altering their habitats, and making it more difficult to find food. It’s both a visually arresting ode to our planet and a sobering look at species that are likely to be lost in the coming century if dramatic action is not taken. Yet the series misses an opportunity to drive home the impact of climate change because of its reluctance to offer specific details about how the world’s warming is affecting the species we see on-screen.

Each of the six episodes of Hostile Planet focuses on a habitat—for example, oceans or deserts. British television presenter and former survival instructor Bear Grylls narrates and appears on-screen at the beginning and end of every episode to walk viewers through the week’s environment. The team behind Hostile Planet has captured stunning footage of rarely seen species, including the first video of Arctic wolves taking down a musk ox in northern Canada. Even during the most stressful sequences, there’s an undeniable beauty to the cinematography.

Hostile Planet has a strong sense for the dramatic. In episode 6, “Polar,” a sequence in which a leopard seal sets its sights on a gentoo penguin rivals most action-movie chase scenes for heart-pounding excitement. Many viewers may find themselves watching from behind their fingers. The show is not excessively gory, but it also does not shy away from death—or the fact that baby animals are often the easiest prey. There are more than a few sequences in which adult animals try, and fail, to help their offspring evade predators.

The show also features some intense intraspecies battles. Two bull hippos fight for a prime spot in a muddy pool; the patriarch of a gelada monkey clan tries to fend off younger males looking to take his place; male bison compete for the right to mate with females. There’s a heavy emphasis on male–male competition—sometimes to the point of repetitiveness—but female animals are also fierce in defense of their resources. In one especially exciting sequence, a pair of male and female golden eagles engage in a vicious tussle over a valuable fox carcass. It’s beautiful and suspenseful, although the sword-fight sound effects in the review copies were not necessary.

Hostile Planet argues that those types of intraspecies competitions are likely to become more frequent as climate change makes environments more challenging. Territorial bull hippos, for example, prefer to be at least 200 feet from each other, but the dwindling supply of water during increasingly long dry seasons forces them closer together. A deadly battle between two groups of baboons is triggered by one group’s access to a precious pool of water. Polar bears’ hunting grounds are melting beneath their feet, forcing them to go longer without food—or to find ways to best more formidable prey, such as beluga whales. A heartbreaking time-lapse sequence shows what happens when a coral reef bleaches due to excessive heat.

Despite the frequent mentions of warming and climate change, Hostile Planet has a frustrating tendency to skimp on the data. We do hear an occasional number: By 2050, there could be one-third more lightning strikes in jungles; over the past 50 years, the average temperature in the south Arctic has risen by 5 °F. But more often, Grylls offers generalities such as “Droughts are getting worse.” How much worse? Worse in what ways? More specific information would have made more vivid the speed and potential consequences of climate change.

Furthermore, some of the numbers we hear don’t make much sense; for example, the claim that a grassland storm has the “equivalent energy of a hundred nuclear bombs” not only is unhelpful for the viewer, but also assumes that all nuclear weapons have the same yield. Adding more science to the series would have deepened the viewer’s understanding of the difficulties animals are facing around the globe.

Viewers interested in the species on-screen may also find themselves frustrated by a lack of information. A few species go entirely unnamed, like the type of crocodile a jaguar dramatically battles in episode 4, “Jungles.” Others are named only once, or late in a sequence. At one point I found myself googling “leopard vs. cheetah” so I would know which animal was on my screen stalking a Thomson’s gazelle fawn.

Hostile Planet is probably not a nature series you’ll want to watch with your kids. But it’s exciting, beautiful viewing for anyone passionate about the natural world, and viewers anxious about climate change will appreciate that the series puts our changing environment front and center. The series premieres 1 April at 9:00pm EDT on the National Geographic Channel.