"Europe...an ancient continent." "Within it's borders lies an unrivalled richness of both natural and human wonders...." "At it's northern limit's," "Europe reaches in to the icy wastes of the high Arctic..." "To the south and west, it-s fringes have been shaped by the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean.." "Far to the east it is bounded by the primeval forests of Russia, rubbing shoulders with Asia." "These boundaries enclose an area just half the size of North America yet seven hundred and thirty million people make Europe their home." "lt-s hard to find a space unmarked by human occupation." "The Europe that we see today is the product of a long and complex history." "Thousands of years of settlement, invasions, revolutions and inventions have allowed us to re-order nature-s ancient patterns to suit our needs." "On a human timescale the story of the changing face of Europe seems immense, but there is an even more extraordinary story to be told.... ..one that stretches back half a billion years.... and tells of the events that have really shaped the continent." "Eight thousand years ago the skyscrapers of Frankfurt would have risen over endless... primeval wildwood..." "stretching from Lisbon to Leningrad." "Over the last two million years" "Europe had see-sawed between perishing cold and stifling heat." "During the ice Ages," "Amsterdam and London would have been smothered by huge glaciers and at other times they have looked more like" "Africa's Serengeti plains." "More than 50 million years ago, what is now Vienna and Paris would have been submerged beneath rich tropical seas." "And over 100 million years ago" "Florence and Oxford would have looked more like Jurassic Park." "Go back 200 million years and Europe rivalled the Sahara." "And 300 million years ago, the world-s first forests covered the continent." "Berlin would have been part of a tropical rainforest." "Edinburgh sit's astride ancient volcanoes which shook the Earth nearly half a billion years ago." "All of these great events helped to lay the foundations for the extraordinary continent we now call Europe." "The northern fringes of Europe are it's wildest country." "Scandinavia a land dominated by the elements." "ln summer it is bathed in the glow of midnight sun..." "And in winter by the ghostly shadows of the northern lights." "ln this coastal labyrinth of fjords and islands Europe's most ancient history lies hidden." "Norway's Lofoten islands seemingly lifeless." "But they're surrounded by the richest seas." "Here, Atlantic storms pound some of the most ancient rocks in the world.... they're nearly three billion years old..." "These granites formed long before the European continent even existed." "Here in Norway there area also clues to Europe's birth." "These fjords and mountains are part of an ancient range:" "the Caledonides, stretching from Iceland and Scotland, and up through Norway." "Mountains that today help define the continents western edge." "ln the east another ancient range" " the Urals- separates Europe from Asia." "Both these ranges are evidence of Europe's earliest formation... the result of a processes that began half a billion years ago." "Back then Europe was still in pieces." "Scandinavia was in the southern oceans..." "England and the Low Countries were near the Antarctic Circle... and most of the rest..." "sat near the South Pole." "All of these isolated fragments of crust were on the move." "Continental plates are dragged along by powerful flows of molten rock deep in the earth's mantle... some 80 kilometres underground." "They only move a few centimetres every year, but over millions of years the centimetres add up." "Like a giant jigsaw puzzle," "Europe was gradually assembled piece by piece." "Each impact created enormous crumple zones." "Rock was bent and buckled as if caught between the jaws of a vice and forced .... ....up into great mountain chains along the join." "They created Europe's backbone which in scale once rivalled the Himalayas." "The formation of these ancient mountains was the first act of European union." "Since then Europe has traveled half way across the globe." "300 million years ago it was straddling the equator." "ln this warm, wet climate the foothills of Europe's oldest mountain ranges now became the cradle of the world's first forests." "Paris would have been smothered in a lush tropical rainforest which stretched east across the entire continent." "This was no ordinary forest." "What looked like trees were in fact giant ferns, horse tails and club mosses... the fossils of which have been exquisitely preserved in this Scottish park." "They offer a glimpse of the botanic wonders that once filled Europe's ancient forests." "These club mosses grew a massive 30 metres tall." "Long before birds appeared on the planet, these carboniferous forests would have echoed to a very different dawn chorus." "Predatory dragonflies were common... and some were absolutely huge." "This one, called the Meganeura, was the size of a hawk, with a wingspan of over sixty centimetres." "The forest floor was a bugs world too... fossil footprints of a millipede show that it was nearly two metres long!" "Over eight hundred species of cockroach scurried through this ancient undergrowth." "And these were preyed on by other giants..." "like scorpions." "Some were over seventy centimeters long with a sting to match!" "These swampy forests were also roamed by the very first land vertebrates amphibians." "The carboniferous era was the play a pivotal role in European history." "it's 300 million year old legacy would eventually revolutionize the modern world." "This was a time of great tectonic activity." "As the land repeatedly subsided, seas flooded over these great coastal forests." "Ravaged by monsoon storms, fallen trees became buried by layers of sand, then mud." "Over millions of years, the build-up of sediment compressed this vegetation into this...coal." "It took a ten metre layer of fallen rainforest to make just a one meter seam of coal." "When you consider the depth of all the seams in all the coalfields worked in Europe" "from Britain through northern France and Germany," "Poland and Ukraine... the immense scale of the Carboniferous forests becomes clear." "Coal fuelled one of the greatest" "Transformations that Europe has ever seen." "it's presence all across the Continent was a vital component in making" "Europe the cradle of the industrial revolution... and ultimately turned.... ....it into the economic powerhouse it is today." "The ancient past can directly shape the present." "Europe is now the most urbanized and industrialized continent on the globe... largely thanks to it's position on the equator three hundred million years ago." "When these steaming forests were at their peak, other events were already in motion that would banish them forever." "Europe, still drifting north, had been rocked by another series of monumental collisions." "And the result of the tectonic pile-up was this... the super-continent Pangea." "Around 230 million year ago Europe was engulfed by a mass of land." "Now, far from the oceans, rain no longer fell." "Under an unforgiving sun, the lush, tropical rainforests disappeared... and the continent was swallowed up by sand." "The fossilized remains of these desert dunes now form much of the bedrock of Eastern Europe." "ln the depths of a Russian winter, it-s hard to imagine how hot and dry this place once was... let alone some of the creatures that roamed here." "Dinosaurs..." "a new order on the move..." "Parts of Pangea were periodically flooded by shallow seas." "But time and again this water evaporated... leaving layer upon layer of salt." "Today these massive deposit's lie buried deep beneath the Netherlands, Poland, northern England and the Austrian Alps." "And they've been mined for millennia." "Salt is a major ingredient for the chemical industry." "It's also used albeit controversially to deice Europe's roads in winter." "Thousands of tons a day." "This particular mine in Krakow in Poland is made up of over three hundred kilometres of tunnels." "It's so vast that miners have carved an entire underground cathedral out of the salt even the chandeliers!" "After tens of millions of years of baking under the desert sun," "Europe changed once again." "This is Jura in Easter France." "The slopes here are blessed with fertile, well-drained soils .perfect for vineyards." "And scattered among the vines are clues to the next waves of change that began to sweep Europe some two hundred million years ago...." "A fossil ammonite..." "a marine creature." "And mussels." "Even the ancient relatives of squid." "This area was once under the sea." "These waters teemed with life..." "as well as ammonites, marine reptiles called lchthyosaurs were common." "They fed on fish, breathed air and gave birth to life young." "They were the 'dolphins- of their time." "All these creatures swam where there are now thousands of vines." "And it is this region of France that has lent it's name to one of the most familiar periods in the Earth's history." "The Jurassic." "What had once been covered in dense forest... then by desert sands.... ...had now become a paradise of tropical seas and coral reefs." "But what was the catalyst for such dramatic change?" "The answer, once again, lies with the ever shifting continents." "Just as they can collide, they can also split apart." "And when this happened to Pangaea, water flooded into the gaps, creating new coastlines and oceans." "The newly liberated Europe still lay in the sub topics and the seas surrounding it were warm, shallow and clear..." "..ideal for corals." "Fossilised reefs show these seas flooded all across" "Europe and remained there for seventy million years." "ln these warm waters, more of Europe's foundations were laid down." "Corals, shells and lime rich mud were slowly deposited on to the sea floor." "Millions of years of deposition and compression resulted in this." "Limestone." "Limestone literally grew in the sea but was shaped by rain." "Rainwater dissolves limestone, drip by drip, grain by grain..." "A very simple chemical reaction has sculpted some of Europe's most breath taking scenery.... ....and limestone is also perfectly suited to be carved by the hand of man." "This rock and it's derivatives like marble provide wonderful building material." "The legacy of the Jurassic seas are some of" "Europe's most stunning and celebrated man made and natural monuments." "The dreaming spires of Oxford are built almost entirely from Jurassic limestone." "Local masons often iced this architectural cake with flights of fancy from gods to gargoyles." "And when this rock was quarried, it also revealed traces of real monsters." "The bones of huge dinosaurs." "A hundred and seventy million years ago" "Oxford was a real life Jurassic Park." "Dinosaur fossils have been found throughout Europe." "ln Rioja in Spain, the traces they've left are not only bones..." "Hundreds of dinosaur tracks have been discovered in this mountainous region.... ....some revealing an ancient struggle between predator and prey." "A deadly drama from the age of the dinosaurs frozen forever in a layer of rock!" "As reptiles conquered the skies above ancient Europe, dramatic changes were affecting the western shores." "Pangaea continued to disintegrate;" "Europe was tearing it self away from what is now north America." "This separation gave birth to one of the world's great oceans the Atlantic." "As this ocean grew, pterosaurs were not the only creatures exploring the air.... ....and the most evidence for that is found here at Solnhofen in Bavaria." "This tiny community is famous for the unique qualities of the local rock." "The limestone quarried here is extremely fine grained and can be worked into thin and very light slabs." "They make perfect roof tiles." "But these tiles occasionally reveal something extraordinary.... perfect snapshots from a hundred and fifty million years ago." "Back then Solnhofen was part of a very still and salty tropical lagoon." "No scavengers could survive in the toxic waters- and anything that died was left undisturbed." "One casualty in particular has made Solnhofen world famous..." "..Archaeopteryx." "Although it had the head and pelvis of a reptile, the long forelimbs suggest something altogether different.... they are covered in feathers.... this was part reptile, part bird." "Archaeopteryx marks one of the major turning points in evolutionary history." "From these beginnings, emerged the nine thousand species of birds that fill the skies today." "The next great even that Europe experienced took place a hundred million years ago." "The clues lie hidden in the famous chalk cliffs of southern England." "Chalk is composed of the shells and skeletons of ancient marine plankton..." "microscopic creatures.... trillions and trillions of them." "As they died they slowly sank, setting in layers on the ocean floor." "Through time they formed these cliffs ... in an ocean that was up to 300 metres deeper that what we see today." "Just imagine how London might have looked back then." "All this flooding was triggered by rising sea floors and a warming climate..." "causing the ice caps to melt." "A cataclysm that resulted in much of the continent disappearing." "But it wasn't these rising seas that spelled the end for the dinosaurs... it was an event that happened thirty million years later.... and half a world away." "A giant meteorite crashed into the Gulf of Mexico..." "The destructive power equaled five billion Hiroshima bombs." "Shock waves swept across the Atlantic." "All across Europe, life struggled to hold on." "The extinction of the dinosaurs created opportunities for new forms of life evidence of which can be found on the Baltic coast of Poland." "These fishermen are after a catch that could change their lives .they're not after fish or crabs, but something far more precious, washed up from the seabed." "One lucky dip could net a small fortune and open a window back more than fifty million years into Europe's past." "This is amber....it doesn't look much, until it's polished." "Then it can reveal all kinds of treasures." "It is the fossilized resin of ancient pine trees." "And trapped within it are perfectly preserved souvenirs;" "each fragment helping to build a picture of an ancient world." "This resin has also trapped something that marks a great turning point in evolution." "Hair. it's presence indicates the rise of a new dynasty in Europe;" "the mammals." "These sub-tropical forests were home to a huge variety of these creatures, from kangaroo like carnivores and tapirs, to anteaters and even miniature horses." "Fifty million years ago the mammals were evolving at an astonishing rate." "From just one site at Messel in Germany, dozens of different species of fossil mammal have been unearthed." "Today, their more recognisable descendants occupy virtually every niche right across Europe." "As Europe's new fauna took centre stage, the continent it'self was undergoing another decisive step towards completion." "Signs of this can be found here on the western fringe of the continent.... along the remote cliffs and islands of Ireland and north west Scotland." "These spectacular coasts are built of compacted volcanic ash and lava." "They are the visible remains of ancient eruptions that cover thousands of square kilometres.... .....and mark the growing pains of a young ocean." "Sixty million years ago," "North America and Greenland finally split apart from Europe." "As the continental plates separated, the North Atlantic was born." "It's a process that's far from over." "Now five thousand kilometres wide, this ocean is still expanding.... at the speed that our fingernails grow." "This is happening all along the mid Atlantic ridge." "Eruptions here are immense." "Volcanoes rise up from the abyss." "Iceland is just the tip of one such volcano." "it's violent volcanic history is written all across the island." "New eruptions happen all the time, adding new territory to this isolated European outpost." "These are some of Europe's youngest rocks the events here in Iceland reflect the violent processes that have helped build Europe over the last five hundred million years." "Despite their violence and unpredictability, volcanic foundations do have advantages." "The Icelanders put all these hot rocks to good use." "A bore hole sunk deep into the ground taps into all this heat and uses it to power much of the island." "And a by-product of this natural central heating is this.... the Blue Lagoon..." "the biggest hot tub in the world!" "As the North Atlantic grew," "Europe's north west coast was taking shape." "But in the south the continent was still missing some key ingredients." "Sixty million years ago the Alps didn't exist and the Mediterranean coastline looked very different." "One last push was needed to mould the continent, and it came from a neighbour to the south" " Africa." "The African Plate has been drifting north over millions of years." "And where it pushes against the European plate, huge folds of rock have been forced up and over one another into great mountain ranges." "Europe's southern mountains..." "the Pyrenees," "Carpathians and the Alps all rose from this collision." "Pieces of primeval ocean floor have been lifted thousands of metres up into the sky." "The Alps are still rising as Africa continues to push north." "The volcanoes of southern Europe are vivid reminders of the great tectonic forces lurking beneath our feet." "Vesuvius in southern Italy is a sleeping giant." "Nearly two thousand years ago a huge eruption buried Pompeii." "Today the city of Naples lies sprawled across it's lower slopes." "Who knows when another nudge from Africa will set it off again?" "It isn't just Europe's southern mountains that owe their existence to the advancing African plate.... so too does the Mediterranean sea." "This sea is one of the defining boundaries of the continent." "With it's spectacular coastline and clear blue waters it is one of Europe's great natural treasures." "Much of the Mediterranean's extraordinary history hinges on the narrow seaway at it's western end." "At the Rock of Gibraltar only 14 kilometres now separate Europe from Africa." "About six million years ago, the northward push of Africa, combined with a drop in sea level, crated a vast dam, cutting off the Mediterranean from the Atlantic." "As the sun beat down, something like four thousand cubic kilometres of water evaporated from the Mediterranean's surface every year." "And with no Atlantic water to replenish it, the Mediterranean dried out." "ln just a thousand years, it became a desert basin of salt pans and caustic lakes." "The rivers that once fed the Mediterranean cut deeper and deeper into the rock, chasing the dropping shoreline and forming a labyrinth of dramatic gorges." "Just a few million years ago," "France's Rhone valley must have looked more like the Grand Canyon." "So intense was the heat in the basin that these waterfalls evaporated before they even reached the old sea floor." "For tens of thousands of years a natural dam between present day" "Morocco and the Rock of Gibraltar held the waters of the Atlantic at bay." "The Mediterranean basin remained an almost lifeless expanse of salt, sand and parched earth." "But as Africa pushed and pulled at Europe's southern boundary, the pressures on the crust became unbearable." "Rising tides weakened the land bridge and then the Atlantic burst it's way over the precipice..." "So began the most gigantic flood ever." "At it's peak, enormous waterfalls a thousand time grander than Niagara thundered into the basin." "More than one hundred cubic kilometres of water gushed past Gibraltar every day." "Despite this enormous flood, the Mediterranean took more than a century to refill." "But what is more amazing is that this process of drying and flooding has happened not just once, but possibly ten times." "With this flooding, five and a half million years ago," "Europe's southern borders had now taken shape." "The final act in the genesis of the continent." "A chain of incredible events has shaped" "Europe during it's long and dynamic history." "It's a history that's written across the face of this unique continent." "A story that began billions of years ago south of the equator and which charts an incredible journey across the face of the globe." "The diversity of Europe's landscapes today reflect the changing conditions encountered along the way." "Each has left a unique fingerprint on this small but incredibly complex continent." "For eons the birth of Europe had been driven by geological events, but now a new and different force was destined to shape the land." "Two million years ago," "Europe's climate spiraled out of control." "Temperatures plummeted." "Consumed by glaciers, the continent would now be plunged into one of the most extreme eras in it's history." "The great ice Ages were on their way." "Europe 3 billion years ago..." "Born of violence and upheaval..." "Scoured by wind-blasted deserts..." "Swallowed by the oceans..." "And cloaked in tropical swamps..." "These sweeping changes laid the foundations for the most diverse of Continents." "But then, some two and a half million years ago, this virgin world faced a fresh assault." "Triggered by the most unusual combination of cosmic and global events," "Europe was now confronted by a radical change in climate." "The landscape was transformed beyond recognition locked in a tomb of ice." "These were the ice Ages, a raw and challenging time." "This onslaught of climatic change had a profound impact on the land." "How did this new era of extremes shape the Europe we know today?" "The Alps - the very heart of Europe." "Millions of visitors come here every year to enjoy the exhilaration of winter a glimpse of a time when much of Europe was gripped in the big freeze." "Remnants of the ice Ages are found right across the continent, but this is the most spectacular The Matterhorn- an iconic pyramid of rock jutting almost 4,500 metres into the sky." "Travel back through time, over a period of just twenty thousand years, and the landscape was very different indeed." "An island in a sea of ice." "Only its tip would have been visible." "Back then, conditions in the" "Alps and in northern Europe were extremely harsh." "Relentless icy storms swept the land." "Temperatures plunged to well below minus 50 degrees Celsius." "What triggered this climatic onslaught?" "As the Earth goes about its orbit, its pathway periodically shifts taking it closer to... or further away from..." "the sun." "As well as this - in a rhythm of its own- the Earth's axis tilts." "About two and a half million years ago these factors combined to cause cooling in Europe's higher latitudes." "Summers became shorter and winters more severe." "But cold alone does not constitute an ice Age." "This chill was dramatically intensified by a range of other events... one of which happened thousands of kilometres away on the far side of the Atlantic." "As North and South America began to join, they blocked the flow of water from the Atlantic to the Pacific, diverting a warm, tropical current back towards Europe:" "The Gulf Stream was born." "And with it came masses of moisture-laden air." "When these clouds reached the colder atmosphere of northern Europe, they delivered enormous quantities of snow." "As temperatures plummeted, survival became increasingly hard." "A whole new cast of cold-adapted animals moved in... rather like today's Musk oxen...with their shaggy, windproof coats and stocky frames." "ln the ever-shortening summers, animals like reindeer too would have eked out a living on lichens and mosses." "But as temperatures dropped below minus 40 degrees" "Celsius even these hardy creatures would have been forced south to warmer climes." "Year after year, snow built upon snow, compacting into solid ice, engulfing the continent." "Even the sea began to freeze." "The expanse of ice acted like a giant mirror, reflecting the sun's warmth back into space." "Colossal ice sheets up to two thousand metres thick spread across the continent covering Siberia," "Scandinavia and Scotland." "We now know how far south the ice sheet reached, thanks to evidence found in some surprising places." "During the construction of the London Underground in the late 19th century, scientists unearthed unusual sediment patterns in the very centre of London." "They revealed that the edge of the northern ice sheet was more or less here - at the Finchley Road tube station." "Just imagine how London might have looked about half a million years ago when the ice Ages were at their most extreme." "Other glacial deposits indicate that the edge of the ice spanned the European continent touching on Amsterdam and also Berlin..." "A freeze-up of this scale will change the whole shape of a continent." "This is the North Sea, off the coast of Holland." "Although this may seem a normal fishing trip, these Dutch trawler men aren't after sole or plaice." "They're actually scientists on an unusual mission, in search of a far more intriguing catch." "Among the piles of starfish, crabs and driftwood they find the long-submerged remains of a far larger animal." "When bones like these were first hauled out more than a century ago, they were presented to a local doctor for identification." "He declared them to be clear evidence of Noah's flood." "Whatever your belief about Noah, the doctor was right about the flood because these are the bones of land animals... massive ones at that..." "woolly mammoths." "What are they doing in the middle of the North Sea?" "During the ice Ages the sea level was around 100 metres lower than today." "Back then the North Sea was all dry land... its water locked up in the ice sheets to the north and in mountain glaciers." "These Mammoth bones tell us something else, too:" "Not all of Europe was buried in ice." "The North Sea was one vast green valley- a tundra." "Standing 3 metres tall and wrapped in dense fur, woolly mammoths were well adapted to life on these cold, grassy plains, which they shared with relatives of today's Saiga antelopes." "Their over-sized noses help to warm the chilly air as they inhale, and to preserve precious moisture as they breathe out." "Saigas came to Eurasia from" "North America across the Bering Straits, an important land bridge when sea levels were lower." "And with them came Przewalski's horses- the ancestors of our modern horse." "As the climate kept changing, the edge of the ice sheets shifted, and so did entire eco-systems." "But the most surprising ice age immigrants came from the South." "Here in London during the 1830's, builders constructing Nelson's column in" "Trafalgar Square made some extraordinary discoveries." "They unearthed the bones of some very un-ice age and indeed un-European animals:" "hippos, rhinos, hyenas, and even lions." "Around 120,000 years ago," "Western Europe must have looked more like East Africa." "Over the past 2 ?" "million years, the climate has sea-sawed from subtropical to arctic and back again." "These warm "interglacial periods".... lasting as long as 100,000 years ... have allowed plenty of time for new waves of life to establish themselves on the continent... before being driven back again by the next cold spell." "This thermal pulsing was rapid and extreme, with at least 20 different climatic cycles." "Right now we're enjoying one of the warmer periods in between." "It's a sobering thought that this extreme climatic change has not been an exception, but the rule." "The last major glacial period began 1 15,000 years ago." "It was to have an immense impact in shaping the continent we know today." "Back then, much of the land would have been inhospitable." "Natural shelters were highly prized." "One ice age creature totally depended on these caves: the cave bear." "ln an ice age winter, deep caves were vital for hibernating bears." "But their peace- and indeed their future- was about to be shattered by others who also sought refuge here." "Neanderthals - ice age specialists like the cave bear." "They braved the continent's harshest climate ever." "For over 150,000 years," "Neanderthals remained Europe's top predators." "But now a new force was on the move... a force destined to have a profound impact on the continent." "Modern humans - our ancestors." "Some 40,000 years ago Homo sapiens began to advance into Asia and Europe from their homelands in Africa... living a nomadic existence..." "following the migratory herds." "For these inventive and adaptable hunters, this new land, in spite of its harsh climate, offered a wealth of big game." "Although Neanderthals and modern humans certainly crossed paths, in this vast continent encounters between them must have been rare." "Yet for Neanderthals, time was running out." "Their populations were shrinking." "About 30,000 years ago they vanished from the face of the land, possibly decimated by disease or conflict or an inability to deal with climate change." "15,000 years ago the shape of the Earth's orbit- and the tilting of its axis- would come to spell the end of the last great ice Age." "ln the northern hemisphere summers now became longer... and winters less severe." "As temperatures rose rapidly in Northern Europe- by as much as 10 degrees Celsius in less than a century- the melt gathered momentum." "Massive volumes of water, a hundred thousand years worth of snowfall, cascaded off the ice sheets." "This great melt swelled vast river networks." "Old rivers found new courses where the ice had once been." "Violent torrents carried a massive cargo of debris, filling low-lying valleys with rubble, thus creating Europe's plains." "Rivers like the Elbe and Volga would have been many times their current size and power." "From the smaller ice caps of the" "Alps and Pyrenees to the great northern ice sheets, rivers flowed in spate." "Much of this melt water was trapped before it reached the sea." "Tens of thousands of new lakes were created." "The most impressive of them all - 18,000 square kilometres- is Lake Ladoga on the Finnish-Russian border," "Europe's largest body of freshwater." "Free from the weight of the Scandinavian ice cap, the land began to rise, cutting Lake Ladoga off from the sea." "Today, it is a remote natural refuge- one of the wild fringes of Europe." "Lake Ladoga is also home to a rare animal which became trapped here about 9000 years ago when the lake was finally isolated from the sea." "Ladoga ringed seals." "Today, just a couple of thousand of them remain." "They once inhabited the open sea but have adapted to life in this freshwater lake." "Ice Age relics like these are found in cold enclaves across the continent." "As the climate warmed up, they retreated to" "Europe's highest latitudes and highest altitudes... wherever the arctic climate lingers on." "From the Alps to the Highlands of" "Scotland - mountain ranges across Europe are arctic islands." "Ibex are ice age immigrants from the mountain ranges of Central Asia." "Ibex would have followed the edge of the ice sheets to the west and remained here after the ice retreated." "During the cold periods, some of these ice age immigrants were spread across most of the continent." "Now remnant populations are thousands of kilometres apart." "The ptarmigan, a bird of the arctic tundra, now inhabits the Alps, northern Scandinavia and Scotland." "Their winter plumage- perfect camouflage and insulation - is an echo of the icy past." "Ptarmigans share these mountaintops with another ice age character, the mountain hare." "It has shorter ears than brown hares, helping reduce heat loss, and its broad feet make perfect snow shoes." "Snow buntings nest both in the high" "Arctic and 3000 km south in the high Alps." "But it's not only ice age animals that remind us of our frozen past." "Europe still bears the scars of the mightiest, most dynamic ice age force of all- a force that created much of the landscape we're familiar with today:" "Glaciers." "This is how Europe may have looked tens of thousands of years ago." "Glaciers may appear rigid and sedentary, but they're quite the opposite, particularly those on steep mountain slopes." "By condensing time they come to life." "Glaciers slip and slide at a surprising rate- up to 20 metres a week." "Like a river of ice." "The glacier's enormous weight makes the ice masses glide on a film of water." "As it glides, it rips rocks and boulders from the ground and pulls them along." "Like giant sandpaper, the glacier smooths its rocky bed." "The impact of glaciers on the landscape is all too clear... from the wide, U-shaped valleys of Scotland to the deep fjords of Norway." "And from Spain's Picos de Europa." "...to the gorges of the Alps." "But glaciers do more than carve out valleys." "Like super-sized conveyor belts, they carry massive loads of rocky debris, sometimes hundreds of kilometres from their source." "This rocky load piles up where the glacier ends or is left behind when it melts... forming distinctive piles of rubble known as "moraines"." "Some of the best evidence of this can be found here at Segonzano, in the Dolomites of Italy." "Lurking in the forest is a group of bizarre collection of pillars." "Legend has it that once these were trolls, punished for their carelessness." "They're actually the remains of moraine, dumped here by an ice age glacier." "Over thousands of years, rain has washed away the soft clays and gravels except where it was protected by a hard stone cap." "Strangely enough, even some seemingly desert landscapes owe their whole existence to the last lce Age." "Where has all this sand come from?" "When the Baltic ice sheet melted an enormous heap of rubble was dropped into the sea... eroded into sand... and then washed ashore along the northern flanks of Poland, like here at Slowinski National Park." "The process continues today... the glacial dunes are expanding by 9 metres a year... and swallowing everything in their path." "During the last lce Age, mineral-rich glacial dust, known as "loess", was blown from the Alpine ice cap as far as the Black Sea." "Millions of tonnes of it were spread across" "Eastern Europe along the Danube Valley laying the foundations for what has now become a rich agricultural landscape." "These super-fertile plains are the largest on the continent- almost 50,000 square kilometres of cropland yielding wheat, rye, barley and oats." "The breadbasket of Europe." "All this productive land we're so familiar with today, only exists because the peaks of the Alps were ground to dust by glaciers and carried here by the ice age winds." "After the great melt, when the ice sheets covering most of Northern Europe had disappeared, they left behind a barren, rocky moonscape." "But as temperatures rose, pioneering plants and lichens, which can cling to bare rock, began to re-colonize the land." "Gradually, in sheltered spots, more complex plants took hold..." "their seeds carried on the wind." "ln time the soils were restored and the re-greening of Europe had begun." "Soon the continent lay swathed in grassland, peat bog and tundra." "For a while, animals like reindeer were in their element, exploiting these verdant pastures." "But as temperatures continued to rise, the reindeer retreated north." "The tundra on which they depended would soon be forest." "Conifer trees, like larch, spruce and juniper rapidly advanced North across the continent at about 500 metres a year." "Europe became cloaked in forest and echoed to a new chorus of life." "The spring mating dance of the capercaillie... a sure sign the seasons were in full swing..." "With the trees, came new settlers who also found their niche here- from tree climbers like pine martens to birds of prey... all seeking out the small mammals sheltering in the forest." "Red deer, grazers of the open tundra, now browsed in the woods." "Around 10,000 years ago these early coniferous woodlands were at their peak." "By then, the flanks of Europe had also undergone a radical transformation." "Sea levels had risen and risen ... by a 100 metres or more..." "defining the outline of the continent as we know it today.... with around one and a half million kilometres of coastline." "One of the most impressive new coastal landscapes of all lies in northern Norway." "Here, deep valleys were scoured out by glaciers and then drowned by rising seas, creating a network of fjords." "These waterways are as deep as the mountains are high." "Blessed by the nutrients and warmth carried here by the Gulf Stream, they teem with life and remain ice-free all year round." "Each year, the north Norwegian fjords lure hundreds of killer whales." "They come for the enormous shoals of herring that over winter here." "The impact of the Gulf Stream and the rising seas is felt right across western Europe, from Norway all the way to Ireland..." "France...and Scotland." "Pounded by the Atlantic, this rugged coastline is home to some unique concentrations of life." "Around 120,000 grey seals inhabit these waters also exploited by otters... ln the British Isles alone, some 6000 new islands were born during the postglacial melt." "The remote craggy cliffs offer perfect nest sites for birds like fulmars, guillemots, and gulls." "These are some of the most impressive seabird colonies in the world." "And because they're so inaccessible, predators pose little threat." "ln the summer the skies come alive." "Along the northern rim of Germany is a very different wildlife haven." "These are some of Europe's youngest coastlands... and a vital stopover for birds migrating up and down the East Atlantic." "More than 2 million visit every year." "For waders they offer a gastronomic treat of shellfish and worms." "But feeding here is always a race against time and tide." "And - there's another drawback." "All this commotion attracts one of the fastest and most agile hunters in the world." "The peregrine falcon." "After the last glacial period, these new coastal fringes, with their prolific supply of food, were also vital corridors for new arrivals, making their way up the Atlantic coast." "Here, from around 10,000 years ago, stone age people began to find a foothold along Europe's shores." "This was a brand new way of life... a diet based almost entirely on protein-rich shellfish... scallops, limpets, dog whelks and winkles." "And with food so readily available, they had time to develop cultural pursuits... making music and decorative jewellery." "While the northern margins of the continent remained a bleak place, the interior was changing radically." "Unsuited to the warming climate, the coniferous forests were now retreating, replaced by seasonal, deciduous woodland." "A diverse mix of trees like hazel, oak, elm, lime and beech spread their way north." "All sorts of different animals aided this re-forestation... by over-stocking their winter stores." "For a time access to the interior was only open to those that could fly or take advantage of waterways." "Fish like Atlantic salmon moved upriver from the sea to spawn." "This was now a pristine wilderness of endless forest broken only by rivers and lakes." "Soon the rivers would provide access to the forest." "It wasn't long before coastal dwellers began to head inland... to find a wild new world to explore and exploit." "Mature silver eels were another enticing lure." "The most efficient way of catching the eels was by intercepting them during their autumn migration to the sea." "People constructed elaborate basket traps of stakes and wickerwork to divert the large shoals." "Eels provided them with a reliable and highly nutritious source of food." "Large quantities could be kept alive or smoked for later." "While these corridors offered reasonably safe access to the fringes of the forest," "the deep interior must have seemed a very foreboding place." "lmpenetrable, gnarled and twisted and roamed by dangerous predators." "But in time it would be conquered." "For now, as the climate released its grip, a new force was on the rise... one which was destined to tame and transform Europe more rapidly than ever before." "Europe..." "For 2 million years ice has swept the continent." "Not just once, but many times..." "Then, some 20,000 years ago, the bitter climate begins to ease it's grip." "The continent is transformed..." "into the greenest on Earth." "And now a new force of change is gathering momentum." "This force will have relentless impact on Europe's wildlife it's margins and inland forests..." "...and across the face of the land." "This is the story of the struggle between Man and Nature... and the taming of the wild..." "Ten thousand years ago Europe is a land of virgin forest." "Just a few millennia earlier this was a treeless tundra... roamed by herds of mammoth and reindeer." "Now Europe's milder, more pleasant seasons attract waves of new immigrants." "With the woods so impenetrable, the easiest access is along the newly formed waterways." "These early hunter-gatherers follow the sweeping meanders of the Danube, Rhine and Rhone drawn by the abundance of fish, plants and waterfowl." "This is a totally new world, entirely different from the recent past..." "The thick under-storey is no place for migrating herds of large animals." "Big game is rare." "But there are many other opportunities..." "By creating forest clearings... early hunters find simple ways to lure their prey..." "Man is not the only hunter." "People and predators have long been rivals...enemies." "But they share an interest - finding food." "And as the lives of animals and people begin to merge, a new approach is born the taming of the wild." "As hunter-gatherers roam the lush green heart of Europe, a radically new way of life now dawns on the south-eastern fringes... one that will transform almost the entire continent." "Europe's first farmers." "Around eight thousand years ago, they set to work, exploiting the fertile landscape of the eastern Mediterranean." "These newcomers have island-hopped from the Near East, lured by the gentle climate and rich soils." "They have brought with them some unique goods...key plants, tools and animals used for generations back in Mesopotamia... the cradle of civilization." "Even in the Stone Age, Europe's farmers have enormous impact:" "They soon replace hundreds of wild plant species with just a handful of their own... emmer wheat, barley, rye and olives." "If hunter-gatherers had never become farmers, the woodlands might have remained unscathed... but now the seeds of change have been sown." "With enough food available all year round... and with plenty of surplus..." "people can begin to settle." "The forest canopies that once covered" "Crete and Malta now give way to fields and pastures." "Agriculture flourishes at the expense of the wild." "ln the eastern grasslands, the early settlers exploit another revolutionary resource... wild animals that can be easily tamed." "From the Middle East came goats and sheep... brought in by the immigrant farmers." "Soon these animals would spread across the entire continent, and ultimately contribute to it's deforestation." "From the shores of the Mediterranean, agriculture is now on the move..." "Mnajdra - one of many sun temples on the island of Malta - erected by Europe's farmers more than 7,000 years ago." "These are the world's oldest standing buildings... calendars of stone, marking the times of sowing and harvesting... shrines of a civilisation in perfect synchrony with nature." "Like the rising sun, this new way of life creeps it's way across the continent... ln just two thousand years it reaches the Atlantic." "At Carnac in France, these standing stones are a testament to a once-thriving farming community." "Elaborate monuments like these are symbols of the massive changes to the European landscape, of settlement and ownership." "Of the thousands of megalithic sites, this is one of the youngest... and the most imposing of them all..." "Stonehenge...an enormous feat of engineering constructed with mathematical precision." "Over a hundred generations lived to it's rhythms." "Four thousand years ago," "Europe's primeval forests are assaulted by another demand... more aggressive than ever before ... and in remote areas so far untouched." "Metal-making." "The smelting of copper and bronze soon spreads from the Balkans and Cyprus across much of Europe." "But as early as 2,000 BC, the flourishing metal industry on Cyprus collapses." "It fails not because of the shortage of ore, but the lack of timber." "Metal means wealth and power." "Metal deposit's, scattered across the continent, become the key incentive for conquest." "And out of these struggles emerges Europe's mightiest super-power." "600 BC...the Roman Empire is on the march." "it's aim is not just conquest..." "but the civilization of wild Europe." ""Conquer with sword and spade" is the mission statement of the Roman army, making it the biggest road-building enterprise ever." ""All roads lead to Rome", the saying goes." "But the opposite is true..." "All roads spread from Rome." "As if capturing a wild animal, the Empire casts a network of roads across the continent, from Italy to Britain, and from Turkey to Spain." ""Via est vita", says the Roman proverb:" "The road is life." "The constant flow of livestock, goods, and ideas between the Eternal City and the most distant corners of the Empire would shape Europe's societies, landscapes and wildlife for thousands of years to come." "Cattle and grain pour in toward the capital." "Mediterranean animals and plants spread in the opposite direction... in what is one of the warmest periods in Europe's more recent history." "Roman culture travels on mule back." "The mule is a hybrid of donkey and horse, non-existent in wild nature." "It is mass-bred by the Romans as an all-terrain, all-purpose carrier." "Endless caravans transport olive oil, cheese, wine and weapons." "And raw metals." "Tin is perhaps the only reason why Rome conquered some of the colder and less inviting corners of the continent." "The tin mines of Cornwall, prized throughout antiquity, would be worked until modern times." "500 years of systematic clearing has pushed" "Rome's wildwood frontiers far north." "Only beyond the Rhine and Danube..." "true wilderness still exists." "But even in these remote woodlands wildlife is no longer safe." "There's a price on the head of big animals... and catching them is big business." "Roman trade reaches out to the remotest fringes of the continent, to regions as far north as Scotland and Siberia." "Tens of thousands of bears, wolves, and lions are taken to supply a gigantic entertainment industry." "By the first century AD, in Europe's forests, the brown bear is almost extinct." "ln the huge amphitheatres of major cities and in" "Rome's Coliseum, the populace screams for fresh blood each afternoon." "Even small garrison towns have their circus games, often in a makeshift arena." "Day after day, across the empire, thousands of wild creatures are slaughtered." "Then, abruptly, the glory that is Rome comes to an end:" "a brutal change of climate hastens it's downfall." "Failing crops force northern tribes to flee their homelands." "Wildlife reclaims the fields and pastures." "It seems as if a new lce Age is arriving." "For the first time in centuries, the frontier rivers freeze over, and invaders can cross the frozen Danube and the Rhine on foot." "The greatest empire on the European continent has imposed order for nearly a thousand years," "but it's power crumbles within decades - and with it ... it's palaces, it's cities and it's roads." "Yet Rome's legacy remains inscribed on the landscape - in some places, like Hadrian's" "Wall in northern England, it's plain to see." "Within the borders of the Roman Empire, some corners had remained totally unexploited," "written off as sterile badlands." "This is not North Africa..." "but Spain, sun-parched and thirsty." "Towering over the desert are the snowy peaks of the country's highest mountain range the Sierra Nevada." "These mountains hold the key to the region's potential wealth... meltwater." "ln the right hands, this treasure will pay dividends." "After the fall of Rome, waves of invaders have come and gone." "The ones to stay are an army of canal builders " "Berber and Arab tribes from the northern rim of the Sahara." "For thousands of years, they had tapped the snows of" "Morocco's mountains..." "bringing the desert to life." "The Moors, as they came to be called, are expert at harnessing the flow of water." "From the eighth century on, they bring their expertise to Spain." "They construct dams, reservoirs and aqueducts... and intricate networks of canals - tens of thousands of kilometres of conduit's, large and small." "To irrigate, they must first level the ground." "Centuries after their arrival, every hillside within reach of a canal is terraced." "ln seven hundred years, the Moors turn" "Europe's driest land into orchards." "New fruit's they cultivate are reminders of the African heritage they have stamped on Spain's landscape." "Working miracles with water, the Moors create some of Europe's finest gardens." "The Alhambra, the seat of Granada's Muslim Kings, is a celebration of their favourite element a fantasy of fountains and fragrances, of marble and alabaster." "Throughout the Middle Ages, the societies that succeed the Romans have left their varied imprints on the land." "But the land, in turn, is reflected in the people's culture." "Nowhere is this more apparent than on the far side of the continent." "Scandinavia" " Europe's arctic fringe:" "cold fogs, dark winters." "No fertile soil for farmers." "But the seas are alive." "Here, the Gulf Stream meets cold nutrient-rich waters... feeding a wealth of plankton and vast shoals of fish." "This far north, life on land depends directly on life in the sea." "Ever since the Gulf Stream freed the fjords from lce Age glaciers, settlers have come to these coasts to harvest the ocean." "But as communities grew, many were forced to move on and discover distant, greener shores." "These northern tribes have become fearless navigators and enterprising traders." "Their ships, known as "Knorrs", are built for heavy loads." "Drying cod as they go, the Vikings can undertake extended voyages, from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean." "They even reach America." "ln Scandinavia, timber is still plentiful." "The Vikings ship it south where even the woodlands that Rome has left standing are becoming patchy." "Europe's ancient trees had come crashing down to clear land for farms, to build ships or houses, and for fuel." "Now, around the year one thousand, the wildwoods suffer a fresh onslaught." "Once again it is Rome that wields the axe." "The Roman Church takes up where the Empire has left off." "It founds scores of monasteries, and their purpose is not purely spiritual." "Many are given vast tracts of wooded land to clear." "The monks' mission is to also tame the wild." "Especially Cistercian monasteries, like Tintern Abbey, use advanced farming techniques." "Their libraries are databases of botany and horticulture." "Religious rulings alter Europe's landscapes." "Most abbeys are soon surrounded by fish farms." "Although monks must fast for up to 150 days a year, they merely abstain from meat - but not fish." "Across the continent, monastic fishponds create thousands of fresh havens for wildlife." "Yet some species suffer." "Beavers and pond turtles live in water, so the church declares them to be fish " "fit for consumption during fasts." "They soon disappear." "An abbey's civilizing mission bears fruit when the wildwood clearing of it's first foundation becomes the site of a new town." "By the 14th century, one in eight people in central Europe lives within town walls." "The streets of Europe's growing towns are paved with opportunity - and not just for humans." "Rats crowd into the new urban centres, drawn by the wealth of food and refuse." "Their presence foreshadows a lethal threat to civilisation." "ln the late thirteen-forties, an epidemic flares across the continent like wildfire, leaping from door to door and town to town." "ln just 3 years, half the inhabitants of Europe are dead." "Rats arriving on ships from Asia carry fleas with a killer bacteria... and the fleabites pass the plague on to humans." "Old and young, rich and poor, great and small succumb." "Many believe this to be the apocalypse, the end of the world." "It will take Europe's human population 250 years to recover to it's former levels." "For Europe's wildlife this is a long breathing space." "After the tide of terror recedes, few people are left to plant or harvest the fields." "Herds of livestock run wild." "...and Europe's big predators, shoved to the edge of extinction for centuries, return for a heyday." "When humans flourish, wolves, bears and lynx are the first to suffer." "Over the centuries, only plagues or extended wars have given them a chance to recover." "Throughout the Middle Ages, the higher" "Alpine forests have been cleared for grazing, forcing the tree line down." "But now, this constant attack is put on hold." "Europe's temperate climate means that, left alone, most of the continent's regions would revert to their natural state:" "unbroken forest." "After the Black Death, the wild can now regenerate." "For the first time in thousands of years, animals enjoy increasing freedom." "As fields and pastures lie uncultivated year after year," "Europe's woodlands soon widen their territory, filling up the farmland in an endless sea of trees." "But the truce does not last." "Late in the 16th century, the forests face the biggest assault ever." "It is the era of Europe's great navies, of overseas exploration and of momentous wars for sea power." "Tall ships need tall trees - mature wood in many shapes and species." "Ten thousand trunks are toppled to construct the biggest vessels yet built, huge galleons." "Europe's prime timber is sent afloat to do battle." "July 1588." "The greatest invasion fleet to date, the Spanish Armada, meets it's opponent:" "the English navy." "Outnumbered, the English set fire ships adrift among the enemy anchored off Calais." "The Armada boasts 120 vessels, including 30 galleons - powerful but difficult to manoeuvre." "Panic and flames force the floating fortresses out into the North Sea." "As they round Scotland and Ireland a violent" "Atlantic storm batters the Spanish fleet, shattering many ships." "Near the coast of Ireland," "Spain's finest forests sink to the sea floor." "Although the Armada has not changed the course of history, some of it's wreckage will." "ln Ireland gathering seaweed to fertilise the thin, impoverished soils had long been a way to better crops in the few wind-protected valleys where wheat grows well." "But what washes ashore in the surf that summer of 1588 will revolutionise Ireland's and ultimately" "Europe's staple crops forever." "To the locals, a shipwreck near the coast is a stroke of good fortune." "This time, they scarcely know just how lucky they are." "Potatoes first made the journey from the" "New World to Spain decades earlier with Columbus." "They prove ideal rations for the Spanish navy." "To the rest of Europe, they are virtually unknown." "Irish farmers soon discover that this foreign plant from the slopes of the Andes is well suited to the short days, cold nights and poor soils of their island - better than anything they have planted before." "Soon, potatoes prosper where cereal crops failed." "The fate of the Irish rapidly becomes linked to a single plant." "Inside two centuries, fields and crops multiply tenfold." "So does the population, to more than eight million." "But then, in the winter of 1845, disaster strikes." "A stowaway from America, a fungus, rots the food stores in farm cellars..." "The following year, it ravages fields and farms." "Within a few months, millions lose their livelihood." "Advancing a hundred times faster than any other potato disease, it infests the whole country and sweeps on into mainland Europe." "This is the worst famine in Europe's history." "ln Ireland, the body count rises, eventually reaching a million." "One and a half million impoverished survivors desert their stricken farms." "Their mass exodus signals a shift to a new era that has already begun in England one that will alter the face of Europe more radically and rapidly than ever before." "This new economy is no longer based on crops, but on minerals and technology." "This is the mechanical age:" "a steam-driven revolution, accelerating at an unprecedented speed." "Machines now dictate the rhythm of life, the movements of the body, the rate of productivity." "Factories claw in crowds of labourers from rural districts to new industrial centres around the coalfields." "New means of transportation link far-flung places." "Canals run from coast to coast." "Coal fuels the revolution." "By the mid-eighteen-hundreds, fifty million tons go up in smoke each year, choking and blackening England's towns." "ln the most striking change to the landscape, sprawling cities swallow up green farmland." "The lndustrial Revolution begins in England, but soon, in the second half of the 19th century, palls of smoke hang over continental Europe." "Here, at first, the industrial revolution is fuelled by wood - especially around the Alps, where the remaining forests are plundered wholesale." "Rivers become conveyor belts." "Hundreds of thousands of foresters supply the iron industry with raw material for charcoal." "But so all consuming are the furnaces, that, in the long run, only the vast deposit's of coal can satisfy their hunger." "For industries to reach beyond Europe's borders, they need efficient transportation:" "giant steel ships - and an expanding rail network." "Britain exports railways all over Europe, linking port and mine to factory, city-to-city, nation to nation." "For the first time people can cover long distances with ease." "Now inhabitants of smog-ridden towns can escape to the countryside." "Suddenly, some are made aware of what is missing in their lives." "Clean air." "Wide open spaces." "Blue skies." "And, perhaps their greatest discovery the silence of true wilderness." "Ever since humans set foot on this continent, the Alpine peaks have been feared and avoided." "Up here, there was little to be gained." "But now, mountain climbers, painters and poets, botanists and geologists, even ambitious photographers, are crowding to these peaks." "These sons and daughters of the industrial revolution discover treasures that money cannot buy." "The most spectacular of these is the vast mountain wilderness in the very centre of a tamed continent." "They descend with a powerful new message:" "Wild Europe, in all it's varied glory, is worth protecting for it's own sake." "At the dawn of the 20th century, this message comes just in time." "As modern cities sprawl populations surge, manmade landscapes abound and ever-new inventions add to the human impact on land, climate and wildlife." "Europe's journey through time begins to take a new direction." "From consumption to co-existence with wild nature." "Europe's cities are turning into new wildlife havens and natural landscapes it's protected sanctuaries." "Civilisation and nature are more and more entwined." "ln Europe wildlife is everywhere, on farmland, in planted forest and wildwoods, on city fringes and in the continent's remotest corners." "Now, in the new millennium it's in human hands to keep Europe wild." "21 st century Europe  730 million people..." "A relentless force of change." "Man and Nature must find new ways to coexist." "ln Europe's cities, people and animals crowd together." "The changes that have made Europe what it is today... have been ever accelerating." "400 generations had to pass to take" "Europe from Stone Age farming to industrial agriculture." "Yet just 100 generations laid the densest road network in the world." "And it has taken only 10 generations to fell more forest than all their ancestors combined." "But these are nothing compared to the changes taking us in to the 21 st century." "New technology..." "New invaders..." "New efforts to bring back lost wildlife..." "And new wilderness..." "helping natives to return." "Since it's birth billions of years ago," "Europe has been in a constant state of change it's wildest fringes are timeless reminders of the fundamental forces still at work today... and which will ultimately shape the future of this unique continent." "Rome - where Europe's taste for city life began." "Two thousand years ago, this was the sole metropolis on the continent." "Today, three out of four Europeans are city dwellers not all of them are human." "For every million people in Italy there's over half a million cars and here in Rome, nearly as many motorbikes..." "Even in the middle of winter, there's plenty of basking to be done..." "But at this time of year it's not without risk..." "Romans have learned to be wary of clouds..." "Huge numbers of winter tourists are flying in from the north..." "Rome's ancient soothsayers used to read the future of the Empire from the flight patterns of these birds." "But today, when swarms of starlings darken the sky, you don't need to be psychic to divine imminent disaster." "Starling droppings are extremely corrosive... eating fabric, paints, metal and stone... and they're as slippery as soap." "Three million birds come here each winter." "For one reason only..." "The city is literally a "hotspot"... significantly warmer than the surrounding countryside." "Cities burn lots of fuel." "Their buildings absorb sunlight and smog helps to retain the warmth." "Each evening, as the starlings descend on Rome, they rain down tons of foul smelling droppings." "But the empire strikes back." "Volunteers set out to defend the city." "These new legions come armed with searchlights and loudhailers... blasting out starling distress calls." "The message is loud and clear..." "but will it be heeded?" "Starlings are not the only birds that have adapted well to the urban environment." "Vienna..." "at it's heart Saint Stephen's one of Europe's finest cathedrals." "Massive, yet intricate, it has caught the attention of many a visitor over the past 500 years including kestrels." "The gothic architecture mirrors the limestone crags of the nearby Alps." "Kestrels like pigeons are drawn to cities because they're natural cliff dwellers, seeking shelter in high and inaccessible places." "Bats also find sanctuary here but a night hunter haunts these belfries the stone marten." "It's not after bats..." "but pigeon eggs." "From the roof of Vienna's cathedral to Charles Bridge in old Prague, hundreds of thousands of stone martens patrol Europe's city streets - unseen and unsuspected." "Even people can find themselves victims." "Martens can't resist cars." "Beneath the bonnet there's a cosy den... and plenty to chew on... ln just one night in Munich, West Germany, a single stone marten damaged 100 cars." "Martens are wily creatures... but you'll certainly know if one has paid you a visit." "On the bright side, stone martens can increase personal fitness... and even the use of public transport." "But on the down side... are the steadily rising premiums for car insurance." "Daybreak in northern Spain." "The medieval town of Alfaro is anything but sleepy..." "European white storks are natural tree dwellers, but with a shortage of big, old trees, they resorted to boulders." "And with over crowding of these, they were forced to think again." "Now some 140 stork families reside on Alfaro's cathedral alone." "But they're not here just for the real estate..." "On their doorstep, there's an endless supply of food ..." "Europe produces over 2 billion tons of household waste per year... plenty of opportunity for scavengers..." "Griffon vultures are only too keen to join the feast." "Rubbish dumps offer more than just food." "For urban red foxes they also provide valuable den sites." "Estimates suggest some 10,000 red foxes may live in London alone." "These highly adaptable scavengers are now establishing themselves in cities right across the continent." "And they're not the only ones." "Budapest." "Spanning the river Danube," "Hungary's capital is a city flanked by woodland  making jogging something of an adventure sport." "During the rutting season, wild boar can give you a good run for your money." "The woodlands around Budapest, Berlin and Vienna are full of them." "The increased protection of wild boar in central, eastern and southern Europe has allowed numbers to soar." "Many of these normally secretive forest dwellers have now lost their fear of man:" "they're overrunning villages, city suburbs and farmland." "Farmers of ten find there's been an early harvest and that their fields have even been ploughed." "Over millennia of agricultural growth, some wild animals have found ways to exploit the intensively groomed landscape." "All of this was once impenetrable forest." "Europe's moderate climate... and rich geological past... make it the most fertile continent on Earth." "6 million square kilometers of prime fields and pastures." "From the rice fields of Italy to the tulip fields of Holland " "Europe's agriculture is big business." "Each year 3 billion tulips are harvested in Holland and sent all around the world." "The continent produces around 250 billion Euros worth of crops." "Where does all this leave wild nature?" "ln the days of traditional farming, hares were a frequent sight;" "but heavy use of chemicals and radical landscaping drove them from the fields." "But now there's a greater awareness of the needs of wildlife..." "Hares are making a healthy comeback across much of Europe's farmland... but they've still got to watch their backs." "For roe deer some fields make important fawning grounds." "But thousands fall victim to agricultural machinery during the summer harvest..." "Pink footed geese use the farms of western Europe as valuable stopovers." "Here they refuel during their long journey to Europe's remotest corners..." "The untamed north an arctic wilderness stretching from Scandinavia to the Pole." "It's one of the world's most inhospitable climates, only the hardiest can live here all year round." "But come summer, under the midnight sun, the skies are alive with visitors." "Europe's remote northwest fringes are peppered with islands and bathed by the Gulf Stream." "These ice free waters are among the most productive in the world." "But it's not just Europe's highest latitudes that have remained beyond our easy reach." "The Alps..." "a wilderness towering over the very heart of the continent." "Europe's tallest and most extensive mountain range." "The Alps are flanked by sprawling forest but Europe's most prolific woodlands are found further East here...among the Carpathians and Balkans." "Traditional farming persists, more in harmony with nature..." "For centuries little has changed... ln Europe's Wild East, farmers and herdsmen have always lived peacefully alongside big predators." "ln the West, these same animals were feared and persecuted." "These forests are now crucial reservoirs for animals that have vanished from much of the rest of Europe." "Slovakia and Romania are home to the greatest numbers of bears, wolves and lynx on the continent." "For half a century this thriving eastern forest was largely cut off from the remaining pockets of woodland in western Europe." "From the Baltic to the Black Sea," "Europe was split in two..." "The dividing line 3,000 kilometres long." "The Iron Curtain was a border of death, inhumane and unnatural secured with mines, booby traps, electric fences, watchtowers, attack dogs and thousands of military troops and border police, with the order to kill." "Day and night, guards watched for any movement along the border." "Inside the fence was a five kilometre wide strip of land... for decades, a no go zone..." "When the lron Curtain eventually came down, the fence was demolished, minefields were cleared... and watchtowers levelled." "Today, only a few traces of the Curtain still linger - like the odd patrol track." "But what does remain is a green corridor across the continent." "And here, wild Nature is quick to reclaim abandoned buildings... and derelict military bases... creating a new kind of wilderness." "For the first time in a century, wolves are back in Germany." "They have made their own way from the east." "A former Soviet military base not far from" "Berlin is now a refuge for returning wildlife." "The old border of death..." "has become a new corridor of life." "Along it's length, countries have united to help create a string of new national parks." "There are few places on the continent where Nature now has such free reign... and already wildlife is on the move." "Lynx thrive in the vast woodlands of Poland and Slovakia, but for the past century they've been on the brink of extinction in western Europe." "Now, Europe's big cats are slowly making a comeback." "The wild backcountry of former Yugoslavia has always boasted a healthy population of brown bears." "Some have already made their way back to the West, reaching as far as the Alps." "But even with the help of new green corridors, they - and many others face serious obstacles." "Road accidents account for about half of the all the animal fatalities on the continent... most of them on the smaller country lanes." "With 5 million kilometres of tarmac," "Europe's roads could wrap around the Equator a hundred times." "There are 1 10 million cars in Europe." "On some carriageways tens of thousands streak by every day." "Roads like these are totally impassable." "With more and more roads under construction, what chance do animals have?" "What's happening here- and elsewhere across the continent is actually a glimmer of hope." "A green bridge...200m wide..." "and spanning the motorway." "It's carefully planted with shrubs and trees... and positioned to re open an old migration route." "And there's another means of access across the continent from east to west..." "waterways." "They've always been important corridors for wildlife." "Thousands of trees are being felled along these backwaters of the Danube." "The loggers...beavers." "After endless persecution they'd all but disappeared from central and western Europe by the end of the 19th Century." "But since their re introduction near Vienna just a decade ago, they're busily reclaiming their old territory..." "These sheltered wetlands along the former lron Curtain are ideal... and beaver numbers are rising fast." "It's one of Europe's most successful homecomings." "Now, thanks to reintroduction programmes in several countries, the population across the continent has recovered to over 250,000." "So few western Europeans have ever seen a truly pristine riverscape..." "Only 2%% of all the waterways on the continent are still natural." "And this is a river delta in it's natural state... the Danube...meandering it's way through Ukraine," "Bulgaria and Romania..." "a vast expanse of wetland." "The lower Danube is now the only place on the continent where - far from being a disaster- annual flooding is welcomed." "The flood plains sustain a wealth of aquatic life... some 80 kinds of fish and as many molluscs." "This, in turn, support one of the richest congregations of bird life on the continent... nearly three hundred different species..." "For Dalmatian and White pelicans, the world's largest reed beds are crucial breeding grounds." "But wildlife does not have this special river all to it'self." "This is the same river in the west- cut off from it's natural floodplains." "Both the Danube and the Rhine rivers have been radically straightened, deepened and narrowed, dyked and dammed." "As road networks are overloaded, traffic turns to these rivers as alternative highways." "200,000 vessels a year cross the Dutch German border, making the Rhine the world's busiest waterway." "By the mid twentieth century, industrial waste and domestic sewage polluted Germany's biggest river." "A chemical disaster in the Sixties was the coup de grace:" "it killed off the last fish." "Until the nineteen twenties, the Rhine supported commercial fishing all the way from the North Sea to the Alps." "Most prized of all was salmon, but today the old tales of monster catches sound like fishermen's yarns." "ln recent years the tide has turned." "Rather than forcing the river to accommodate big ships... they're being replaced by smaller vessels..." "Strict anti pollution laws are now in force;" "rivers and lakes right across western" "Europe are significantly cleaner than they were 50 years ago." "While some wildlife is returning to the Rhine by it's own accord, the Atlantic salmon hasn't found it easy." "It needs a helping hand." "Each summer, for almost twenty years, millions of specially bred youngsters have been released into the tributaries of the river." "If just one in ten thousand of these little fish survives, it's counted a success." "Young salmon face all sorts of hazards along the way... both natural and man made." "Just a handful of adults make it back to Germany each year from their feeding grounds far out in the north Atlantic." "They're given an official welcome by the press and politicians." "Some of these re introduced salmon are now spawning, raising the hope that this busy river will one day return to it's former glory." "Each year, more and more visitors come to Cologne, to attend the River Rhine festival." "They now have good reason to celebrate." "Like the Rhine, only a decade ago, the river" "Elbe was poisoned and dead." "Here, too, a clean up is underway... and wildlife is returning." "But with the return of life have come surprises." "The fishermen are netting more than just fish." "It's eels they're after..." "and it's a good haul... but their catch is being plundered by a stranger to Europe's waterways." "Mitten crabs." "These voracious invaders pose a serious threat to resident wildlife." "Mitten crabs are not native to Europe." "So how did they get here?" "Europe's big coastal ports" " Dover," "Hamburg, Rotterdam, Bilbao, Folkestone are all gateways for intercontinental shipping and trade." "A single port like this might deal with 3 million containers a year." "That's over 300 every single hour, day and night, arriving from every part of the globe." "Although measures are taken to keep out pests, the overwhelming volume of goods makes it nigh on impossible." "Every year, 150 new alien species make it ashore." "Most will not survive." "Others find a small niche." "But some become massive invaders." "Mitten crabs first arrived from Asia decades ago." "Ironically, it was the cleaning up of Europe's rivers that allowed them to advance inland... and wreak havoc." "But as invaders go, the mitten crab is not the most destructive." "The killer that could cut a swathe through" "Europe does not arrive in spectacular swarms." "Finding one is like looking for a needle in a haystack." "It may be hidden in any wood product from East Asia." "It's a deadly monster the Asian longhorn beetle." "Most wood parasites specialize in certain trees." "Their populations only explode under rare conditions." "But the larvae of the Asian longhorn beetle can feed on any wood." "If they escape into the wild and reproduce freely," "Europe's forests might look like this." "A graveyard in Swansea, Wales." "British cemeteries often look wild..." "but this one is different." "For years, the local authority has battled against an overwhelming onslaught." "It's a struggle against a seven headed hydra." "Japanese knotweed, imported from Asia long ago to grace Europe's gardens, has jumped the fence." "it's poisonous roots can reach 3 metres down... and it's powerful shoots will outgrow any native competitor." "Even if all the trees are killed off by alien beetles, at least the countryside will still be green thanks to alien plants." "If ever there is a lack of greenery in Europe... it's probably man made." "Just consider this landscape... lt looks like some future fantasy... but this is Europe today." "The Mar de Plastico, the Sea of Plastic in Almeria, southeastern Spain." "It's visible from the moon." "Below the surface:" "optimum growing conditions." "Computers regulate the water and nutrients...the temperature, humidity and the carbon dioxide." "400 truckloads of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are packed every day of the year." "Climate control has turned" "Spain's poorest region into one of Europe's richest." "But all this depends on one thing..." "...the sun." "Life on our planet is driven by energy sent in from space, from 155 million kilometres away." "The amount of energy the Earth receives from the sun is unimaginable, but you can get a glimpse of it here in Spain, at Europe's first solar power station." "ln a ballet of perfect synchrony, 200 mirrors concentrate their reflections on a single receiver." "The operating temperature here reaches 1000 degrees Celsius." "Even a slight variation in solar power reaching the earth can radically change our living conditions." "Across the continent, we can already see this happening." "Europe is heating up - with dramatic consequences." "ln recent years, Alpine resorts have had to take matters into their own hands." "Tens of thousands of snow cannons bombard the slopes." "Without them, the huge tourist industry would already be in meltdown." "Chillingly, from now on, the most dramatic transformations on this continent will be driven by climate change." "When glaciers melt, sea levels rise." "And as oceans warm up, they expand, drowning coastlines." "The Thames barrier was built to save London from exceptional tides." "Already the barrier is proving too low." "It's not certain how much longer the sea can be kept at bay..." "A rise of a metre per century is entirely possible." "At the next millennium, London might still look like this... but not when the tide comes in." "If global warming persists," "England's capital would be completely swamped." "But then the pattern of the past two million years has been a seesaw of cold and warm periods, with the Gulf Stream changing it's course." "And that could put an entirely different spin on things." "London...and Berlin." "Both stand where the last ice sheets ended." "During the next lce Age, life might only be possible under glass..." "At the peak of the last glacial period, everything north of Berlin was a white, windy waste." "This would be nothing new- it's happened countless times before..." "Equally possible..." "Paris might become a tropical forest again... or be swallowed by desert sands..." "There's no reason to think that climate change will ever end..." "Nor will any of the more fundamental forces that have shaped the continent come to rest." "250 million years from now," "Europe is destined to merge with Africa... forming a new super continent." "But for now, this is a continent of living treasures abundant, but not infinite to be shared by humans and wild nature." "Europe's treasures: it's teeming cities it's pleasant farmland and it's raw wilderness..." "They're all worth keeping." "They're all worth sharing." "They all combine to make this continent unique."