LIKE THE REST OF ITS INHABITANTS, I was entranced by Planet Earth. What a testament to the astonishing adaptability of Life. To think that there's an entire eco-system that lives entirely in the dark and exists on a diet of excrement. No, not the US electorate, but a cave full of cockroaches in Mexico.
However, the TV series barely touched on the miracle of genetic adaptation. Marine life is changing in response to our rapidly mutating ecology, of which global-warming is only one aspect.
I'm looking forward to the melting of the ice caps. Just think: soon we'll be able to swim down 5th Avenue or dive the Blackpool Tower. It's an ill wind (or rather, current) that does nobody any good.
Meanwhile, Mother Nature is already anticipating the huge shifts that face our civilisation. Contrary to mainstream scientific theory, fish are adapting incredibly quickly to rising pollution levels.
Take the Birdseye Wrasse, which excretes an envelope of mucus, then rolls in the sand. To the predator, it looks like the discarded packaging from a family-sized box of breaded coley fillets - a far more common sight in our waters than a living fish.
Artillery Crabs prosper in the submarine munitions dumps off Dorset and Devon. Here they have adapted to resemble unexploded World War One Howitzer shells. Sadly, this evolutionary tactic has been rather compromised by novice divers, who insist on bringing them ashore and tossing them onto branch campfires.
It would also seem that, when stressed, marine organisms can work together to produce quite sophisticated survival strategies. For instance, Electric Eels noticed that their arch-rivals, the North Sea Gas Eels, were in serious decline. So they gathered in large numbers in the Thames Estuary and demonstrated a grasp of the market economy by selling off their surplus current to the National Grid. Some even opened savings accounts at the Dogger Bank.
The Hose Pipe Fish has developed a way of converting salt water into fresh, which it pumps ashore by a vigorous movement of the dorsal fin to irrigate drought-stricken gardens in Sussex and Kent.
Perhaps most ingenious of all is the Clown Fish, which has won a place in the public's heart with its remarkable impression of the hero of Disney's animated movie, Finding Nemo. This is the first recorded instance of life successfully imitating art.
The alarming expansion of long-line fishing has prompted a rapid mutation in the Hammerhead Shark.
The new species, the Swiss Army Shark is far more versatile. Its head retains the conventional hammer function, but evolution has added a pair of scissors, a device for prising shark hooks from lips and a bottle-opener for use in the celebration of lucky escapes.
Dolphins have responded to environmental pressures by making themselves increasingly indispensable to humans - a strategy that is more ingratiation than evolution. Already they enjoy a de facto monopoly of casinos in the Florida Keys, control most beachfront properties in Atlantic City and are heavily involved in drug-running in the South China Sea. Their cheerful demeanour and winning smiles allow them to get away with almost anything.
To avoid the unwelcome attention of the Norwegians and Japanese, whales are becoming rapidly smaller. The Pygmy Sperm Whale is actually the size of a sperm. Invisible to the naked eye, it can be located only by its eerie "song", which travels under water for up to an inch.
Sometimes, Mother Nature just makes you feel so...humble.