NOVA

Trees are living records of Earth’s climatic past. Play NOVA’s Polar Lab to learn how trees grow by simulating how they respond to different environments.

Trees have an environmental record etched into their very wood.

Why Trees Are Living Climate Records

The greenhouse effect keeps Earth warm. Play NOVA's Polar Lab to find out what too much CO2 in our atmosphere may mean for our planet.

Carbon dioxide acts like a heat-trapping blanket, warming our planet.

How Carbon Dioxide Warms Planet Earth

Residents of a small Alaskan island live on the front lines of climate change—and might have to change their way of life because of it.

See how one small town’s survival is threatened by climate change.

This Alaska Community is Losing Sea Ice to Climate Change

A lake in the Arctic has a lot to say about our planet's fluctuating temperatures over the last 34 million years. Play NOVA's Polar Lab to see how.

Lake mud from the Russian Arctic tells us that Earth's climate has oscillated in the past.

How Climate Has Shifted Over Millions of Years

Paleontologist Kirk Johnson shows a group of high schoolers that plant species in Virginia used to be right at home near the North Pole.

Learn more about a lush forest that once dominated the Arctic.

Plant Fossils Hint at Arctic's Swampy Past

Think you know what the Arctic looked like during the Eocene Epoch? Play NOVA’s Polar Lab to find out: You might be surprised by the plants and animals that used to call it home.

Drop yourself into a modern-day swamp, and that's what the ancient Arctic looked like.

Fifty Million Years Ago, the Arctic Was a Warm Swamp

This cave in Canada remains frozen every summer—and it's been frozen since the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago. What can this tell us about Earth's future climate?

This Canadian Cave Has Been Frozen Since the Last Ice Age

Jakobshavn is Greenland's biggest glacier. And over the past 20 years, it's receded dramatically. Play NOVA's Polar Lab to learn what's behind that change.

Warming ocean water is eating away at Greenland's glaciers from below.

What’s Causing Greenland’s Biggest Glacier to Melt?

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Following a trail of fossils found in all the wrong places–beech trees in Antarctica, redwoods and hippo-like mammals in the Arctic–NOVA uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-thick ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life.

Paleontologist Kirk Johnson explores the dynamic history—and future—of ice at the poles.

Polar Extremes

Polar Extremes Preview

When fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide, an invisible and odorless gas, into the atmosphere. What would happen if carbon emerged from our car tailpipes as a solid?

Together, all the cars on Earth would leave quite the pile of carbon behind—every day.

What if Carbon Left Your Tailpipe as Solid Chunks?

To illustrate how the coastline might look if Earth's climate continues to warm, paleontologist Kirk Johnson and geologist Maureen Raymo search for 3-million-year-old clams in a Virginia quarry miles offshore.

Scientists dig up ancient clams from the ocean 90 miles from the nearest beach.

What did the East Coast Look Like 3 Million Years Ago?

Carbon dioxide is an odorless, invisible gas. If we could see that carbon as a solid material on the ground, that might change our perspective on the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere. Play NOVA’s Polar Lab to see what effects all that CO2 is having on our planet’s poles.

What if carbon dioxide pollution were solid carbon chunks?

A Bird's-Eye View of Carbon Emissions

Bird's-Eye View of Carbon Emissions

Earth's climate has slowly fluctuated between cold and hot periods for millions of years. Today, humans are greatly accelerating that process.

How Humans Could Make Icehouse Earth into a Hothouse

Over its history, Earth has fluctuated between two climate states: Icehouses, with ice caps at at least one of the poles, and Hothouses, when there is no ice at the poles.

Learn more about our planet’s Hothouse and Icehouse climates.

How Earth’s Climate Changed Over the Past 500 Million Years

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In this two-hour special, renowned paleontologist Kirk Johnson takes us on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places—beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic—Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet’s climate today—and in the future? (Premiered February 5, 2020)

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New York University

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Chilean Antarctic Institute

Paleontologist Kirk Johnson explores the dynamic history—and future—of ice at the poles.

Planet Earth

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Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future. (Premiered February 2, 2022)

In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate.

Arctic Sinkholes

The top half of Jupiter in blue and green against a night sky

A composite image of Jupiter using images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.

Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.

NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022

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A transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (orange) replicating from the plasma membrane of an infected H9 T cell. Credit: NIAID, Flickr

Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?

Polar Extremes

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This Canadian Cave Has Been Frozen Since the Last Ice Age

Antarctic Extremes

The Polar Lab

How Climate Has Shifted Over Millions of Years

How Humans Could Make Icehouse Earth into a Hothouse

Why is this Antarctic Glacier “Bleeding?”

What is it Like to Live in Antarctica?

Antarctica: Journey to the Bottom of the Earth

How Antarctica’s Cutest Baby Seals Grow Up

Dispatches from Antarctica: A Windy, Alien Terrain

Dispatches from Antarctica: Pupping Season for Weddell Seals

How polar bear guards protect the largest Arctic expedition ever

Scientists find warm water beneath Antarctica’s most at-risk glacier

Polar Extremes

Dispatches from Antarctica: Part 1

Dispatches from Antarctica: Camp Bonney

What if Carbon Left Your Tailpipe as Solid Chunks?

Dispatches from Antarctica: Part 2

Dispatches from Antarctica: Forever Changed by the Ice

Plant Fossils Hint at Arctic's Swampy Past

Why Trees Are Living Climate Records

What did the East Coast Look Like 3 Million Years Ago?

How Carbon Dioxide Warms Planet Earth

A Bird's-Eye View of Carbon Emissions

Polar Lab

This Alaska Community is Losing Sea Ice to Climate Change

What’s Causing Greenland’s Biggest Glacier to Melt?

Fifty Million Years Ago, the Arctic Was a Warm Swamp

How Earth’s Climate Changed Over the Past 500 Million Years

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Explore More

This Canadian Cave Has Been Frozen Since the Last Ice Age

Antarctic Extremes

The Polar Lab

How Climate Has Shifted Over Millions of Years

How Humans Could Make Icehouse Earth into a Hothouse

Why is this Antarctic Glacier “Bleeding?”

What is it Like to Live in Antarctica?

Antarctica: Journey to the Bottom of the Earth

How Antarctica’s Cutest Baby Seals Grow Up

Dispatches from Antarctica: A Windy, Alien Terrain

Dispatches from Antarctica: Pupping Season for Weddell Seals

How polar bear guards protect the largest Arctic expedition ever

Scientists find warm water beneath Antarctica’s most at-risk glacier

Polar Extremes

Dispatches from Antarctica: Part 1

Dispatches from Antarctica: Camp Bonney

What if Carbon Left Your Tailpipe as Solid Chunks?

Dispatches from Antarctica: Part 2

Dispatches from Antarctica: Forever Changed by the Ice

Plant Fossils Hint at Arctic's Swampy Past

Why Trees Are Living Climate Records

What did the East Coast Look Like 3 Million Years Ago?

How Carbon Dioxide Warms Planet Earth

A Bird's-Eye View of Carbon Emissions

Polar Lab

This Alaska Community is Losing Sea Ice to Climate Change

What’s Causing Greenland’s Biggest Glacier to Melt?

Fifty Million Years Ago, the Arctic Was a Warm Swamp

How Earth’s Climate Changed Over the Past 500 Million Years