Spaceship Earth

The idea of Earth as an isolated spaceship took hold in the 1960s, championed by futurist Buckminster Fuller and given visual proof by the now-famous Earthrise photograph taken by Apollo astronauts. "Spaceship Earth" is both a literal reality and a metaphor that reshaped how humanity sees itself, helping spark the modern movement to save the planet. But what does that actually require of us?

For fifty years, scientists have worked to understand humanity's daily impact on the forces that keep our planet alive. Spaceship Earth is a five-part series exploring what they've learned — and what it means for our responsibility as the crew of the only known ship in the universe carrying life.

Filmed across Japan, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Iceland, the United States, Mali and several other countries, the series draws on some of the world's most prominent thinkers — physicists Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Takafumi Matsui, astronaut Ulf Merbold, anthropologist Jared Diamond, geologist David Hughes and energy analyst Daniel Yergin among them — alongside everyday people living with the degradation of our shared ship, and working to turn it around.