Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey

Episode 12 Summary

Our journey begins with a trip to another world and time: We bask on an idyllic beach during the last perfect day on the planet Venus before a runaway greenhouse effect wreaked havoc on the planet, boiling its oceans and turning its skies a sickening yellow. We tour the rubble in the Ship of the Imagination before traveling to Earth to climb the heights of a titanic edifice built by a tiny creature, the microscopic coccolithophore. The White Cliffs of Dover, its masterpiece, is revealed to be massive carbon vault.

Charles David Keeling discovered in 1958 that the Earth is breathing – a single breath takes a whole year. This leads us to a brief history of Earth’s atmosphere and a forensic exploration of the various hypotheses about global warming.

We take a dog for a walk at Drew Point, Alaska for an unforgettable illustration of the difference between weather and climate. Awareness of global warming and the technology of alternative energy are nothing new.

We take the Ship of the Imagination to intervene at some critical time travel nodes. A highlight is the glorious 1878 Paris Exposition where Augustin Mouchot uses his solar concentrator dish to power printing presses and ice-making machines. Then we’re off the Maadi, Egypt of 1913, where Frank Shuman is demonstrating his massive and effective solar powered machinery for irrigating the desert.

We grapple with the conundrum of our failure to take what science is telling us to heart. We evoke the memory of other, far more “impossible”, challenges and touch on the unanticipated “gift” of Apollo – the concept of Earth in the vastness of space. The Ship of the Imagination takes off in hot pursuit of the Apollo 8 capsule on its way to the Moon.

We conclude with a breathtaking vision of the magnificent future that is scientifically and technically within our grasp, if we will only awaken and seize it.