Examining the threat: 'Dynamic Planet' delves into the people and animals on the front lines of climate change

Shirel Kahane-Rapport has faced her fears first hand.

Luckily, it was all documented on the PBS series, “Dynamic Planet.”

“Dynamic Planet” is a four-part series filmed over three years.

The series travels to the most extreme places on all seven continents to explore the work and lives of extraordinary people and animals on the front lines of climate change.

Examining the threat: 'Dynamic Planet' delves into the people and animals on the front lines of climate change

Highlighting what is under threat but also how the natural world is adapting in surprising ways, the series reveals how science, nature and Indigenous knowledge can prepare us for the future.

With the Earth heating twice as fast as it was four decades ago, the implications for our planet and everything living on it are ominous.

As temperatures rise, icecaps and glaciers melt, oceans warm, forests burn and weather patterns change, the world as we know it under threat. Ancient connections between plants, animals and people are undermined.

The rules that dictated stability have been rewritten, with new climate change winners and losers exposed. Although the scale of the problem can seem overwhelming, local conservationists, scientists and Indigenous leaders offer hope for the future. Their efforts show that it’s not too late to adapt, correct past mistakes, and care for and protect our world.

“ ‘Dynamic Planet’ shines a needed light on the incredible ways our planet and its inhabitants, both human and animal, can work together in some of the most extreme places on earth,” says Diana El-Osta, PBS senior director, multiplatform programming and development. “We are so excited to take our PBS audience around the world through the awe-inspiring stories of (the series).”

The four–part series, “Dynamic Planet” will broadcast at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. The following episodes will air at 7 p.m June 26, July 3 and July 10. The series will also be available to stream on the PBS app.

Kahane-Rapport appears in the first episode called “Ice.”

She and Dave Cade are seen in the West Antarctica Peninsula, an indicator place where things that are going to happen in the rest of Antarctica happen in the West Peninsula first.

The peninsula is already five degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in the 1950s, and the sea is free of ice for three months longer.

Kahane-Rapport and Cade are studying humpback whales to understand how they are changing their behavior in response to changing conditions. They use biopsies and tag data to learn what the whales are foraging on, where and when. The tags have sensors and a camera in them, as well as a radio so they can be located.

“It was pretty majestic and extraordinary to be part of,” she says. “It was scary because we were on a very small boat. You feel so small because everything is giant around you.”

Kahane-Rapport is an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Her lab uses morphological and biomechanical techniques to study the ecology and conservation of the world’s largest animals, filter-feeding fishes and whales.

Prior to Old Dominion University, she was a postdoctoral scholar in Misty Paig-Tran’s lab at California State University, Fullerton.

She completed her Ph.D. at the Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, with Jeremy Goldbogen.

Kahane-Rapport and Cade were on the trip and finished shooting in March 2020.

The world had just shut down from the global pandemic, and the cruise ship that was supposed to pick the pair up was canceled.

From there, they had to scramble to find alternative ways to get home.

“We came back to a very changed world,” she says. “We’ve been waiting for three years to see the series. I’ve published a paper since then. The editing on the series took a long time, but we kept doing our work. I’ve continued to do research and keep track of the whales that we tagged four years ago. It’s going to be amazing to have the world finally see what we were up to.”