The North American plains have become a cold desert, and Africa has collided with Europe, enclosing the Mediterranean Sea. The Amazon rainforest has dried up and become grassland. Ice sheets extend as far south as Paris in the northern hemisphere and as far north as Buenos Aires in the southern hemisphere.

The early episodes describe a world after an ice age, when giant seal-like sea-birds roam the beaches and carnivorous bats rule the skies. Ice World: 5 million years in the future Four ecosystems from each period are explored and described. The Future Is Wild explores twelve different future ecosystems across three future time periods: 5 million years in the future, 100 million years in the future, and 200 million years in the future. From 2016 onwards, there has been talk of 'relaunching' the franchise through various projects, such as an action-adventure TV series and The Future is Wild VR (a virtual reality videogame), though no new media has yet materialized. There have also been cancelled projects, such as a potential movie adaptation, as well as a sequel series, The Future Is Wild 2. The success of The Future Is Wild spawned a large multimedia franchise, including books, children's entertainment, exhibitions, theme park rides, educational material, and toys. Wildly successful, The Future Is Wild continues to be broadcast to this day and has been shown on TV in more than 60 different countries. The 2002 series was an international co-production, involving the British BBC, the Franco-German channel Arte, the German ZDF, the Austrian ORF, the Italian MFE - MediaForEurope (via their Mediaset division), and the American Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. The Future Is Wild was first conceived by independent producer Joanna Adams in 1996 and developed together with various scientists, including Dougal Dixon, best known as the author of the 1981 book After Man, which also explored future wildlife. Though the settings and animals are fictional, the series has an educational purpose, serving as an informative and entertaining way to explore concepts such as evolution and climate change. The Future Is Wild explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three future time periods: 5, 100, and 200 million years in the future, in the format of a nature documentary. The Future Is Wild (also referred to by the acronym FIW) is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. BBC, Arte, ZDF, ORF, Mediaset, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel

Dougal dixon