Desperate Hours

In this episode we contemplate—from a safe distance—the lethal majesty of volcanoes one of the planet's most destructive and spectacular natural forces. It is estimated there are up to 4000 volcanoes on the Earth and every year about 50 of them are active above sea level.

The earth really moves in this episode as we take in scenes and stories from some of the most devastating of all the natural cataclysms: the earthquake. With all its pent-up power nothing releases more sheer destructive energy than the grinding forces at work between the Earth's tectonic plates.

Things get personal in this episode as we really get under the skin to explore something that is a threat to all of us wherever we live: the epidemic and its global big brother the pandemic.

In this installment we turn up the heat to examine a natural phenomenon that is both a friend and a foe to humankind. We'll travel back in time to remind ourselves that dangerous and deadly fires are a fact of life as immutable as the wind the rain or the seasons.

You can run for cover but you can’t hide from the wild winds: hurricanes cyclones tornadoes twisters and typhoons. Whether these powerful wind storms form over land or water they leave devastation in their wake all across the globe.

Flash floods in Brazil the deluge that followed Hurricane Katrina and the overflow after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2015 are all to some extent natural phenomena. But is a changing climate making them not only more likely but their impact more severe?

Ours is a dangerous world where geological mishaps—avalanches landslides heat waves sinkholes and blizzards—can spell disaster almost as much as big cataclysms like earthquakes and tidal waves. While casualty counts might be lower geological disturbances still cause their fair share of misery.

Our focus for this chilling but fascinating episode is when humans are a serious danger to themselves through nuclear and industrial accidents. We'll look at the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters the Bhopal gas accident the Savar Plaza building collapse and the BP oil spill.

The long saga of death and misadventure at sea is as much a record of human folly as it is of nature’s fury. This episode charts a sobering course through the choppy seas of maritime disasters involving luxury liners routine ferry trips an oil tanker and modern piracy.

In this episode we slip the surly bonds of Earth to encounter disasters where the black box is the only storyteller. We will see that though many improvements in aviation technology have lessened the dangers of flying over the years the risks have not all been eliminated.

Disasters in the air and misfortunes at sea grab our attention but it’s not always necessary to leave dry land for a terrible transportation disaster to occur. Rail journeys and even just getting in your car can be fraught with catastrophe caused by the powers of nature and human folly alike.

Life on planet Earth is a fragile proposition with a complicated network of interconnected systems. As the human custodians of the planet this episode is a sobering survey of environmental disasters—such as deforestation and pollution on land in the sea and in the air—and their causes.

Let’s explore the worst of the worst. In this sobering yet thrilling final installment we'll revisit the fiercest natural catastrophes the most devastating accidents and the most destructive disasters caused by human folly across the planet.