Professor Iain Stewart travels to geologically
significant locations around the world such as the Sahara desert, the
West African coast, a crystal cave in Mexico, sink holes in the Iranian
desert, Iceland, the Indian monsoon and a salt glacier to examine how
geological forces have played a role in the rise and fall of various
civilisations.
The various episodes look at such phenomena as volcanoes
and earthquakes and the forces of the wind and how these natural forces
and events have affected the development of commerce and trade.
Professor Iain Stewart examines the distribution of water and the use of
irrigation as well as and fire, oil, and the industrial revolution. Some
of the commentary such as why fault lines cause earthquakes is fairly
straight forward, however, some of the segments are unexpected and
visually stunning such as the crystal caves in Mexico and the living
bridge in the Himalayas.
Video
The Blu Ray images are superb. Not only are the depth and
clarity of the images impressive, the content of the images are also, at
times, quite breathtaking. Not much more needs to be said other than
this is definitely worth a viewing.
Audio
The soundtrack to this documentary is mainly dialogue as
Professor Iain Stewart plays a geological version of a Sir David
Attenborough. All other aspects of the soundtrack only add further
dimensions to the imagery without detracting from it. The clarity of the
soundtrack is excellent.
Summary
‘How Earth Made Us’ is a documentary in a five part
series on a double Blu Ray disc. It explains to the viewer how the three
physical phenomena of geology, geography and climate converge to
influence the distribution of human habitation on Earth. It uses an
approach not unlike that used by sir David Attenborough but the core
theme is that of geology rather that zoology. It is both entertaining
and informative and it connects some of the dots to the distribution of
human populations throughout history that a lot of people may not have
connected. As such, this documentary is a very useful educational tool
for viewing audiences.
