Polar Extremes-Kirk Johnson

Polar Extremes, an upcoming NOVA special hosted by paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History Kirk Johnson, will take viewers on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places—beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic—Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet’s climate today—and in the future?