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The Premise of Surviving Earth Almost three decades have passed since producer Tim Haines reimagined natural history with Walking with Dinosaurs, using CGI and animatronics to bring to life the beasts that roamed these lands millions of years ago. With his latest project, Surviving Earth, a docuseries premiering on Thursday on NBC, explores eight mass extinction events going back 450m years through the lives – and eventual annihilation – of the creatures that preceded or existed alongside the dinosaurs. The Event Details But what is essentially a series on death is actually a series on life, or really, the resilience of it – “how life bounced back” from the volcanic eruptions, flooding and drought that have repeatedly wiped out nearly all lifeforms, Haines told the Guardian. “The biggest message of the show is that the Earth is an incredibly changeable place and life has evolved on it, which means that life has evolved to cope with change,” Haines said. “No matter what the Earth has tried to do, life has always managed to crawl through it and come out the other side stronger.” The Data Analysis Haines worked with more than 300 scientists to breathe life into the creatures in Surviving Earth, consulting with paleontologists and paleoclimatologists from around the world over the course of three and a half years. While CGI technology and the visual details of CGI animation are better now than they were in 1999, when Walking with Dinosaurs premiered on the BBC, the process of putting the series together was not too different, Haines said. The Impact Analysis The concern lies in the speed at which humans are driving the climate crisis. But as the first species to be aware of such, Haines said, humans also have the unique opportunity to be the first species to stop the damage and find a way to make the Earth continue to be inhabitable for them. “The program isn’t here to lecture anyone or tell anyone what to do, but it’s blindingly obvious that if the Earth changes, you have to acknowledge that and change with it as much as you can,” Haines said. The Prediction “The program isn’t here to lecture anyone or tell anyone what to do, but it’s blindingly obvious that if the Earth changes, you have to acknowledge that and change with it as much as you can,” Haines said. Surviving Earth begins on NBC on 11 June with dates in the UK and Australia to be announced. Surviving Earth begins on NBC on 11 June with dates in the UK and Australia to be announced