The 21st century is under way, man has landed on the moon and we are exploring the widest boundaries of our universe. But what do we really know about our immediate environment?

What about the seasons, for example? The birth of spring and the arrival of winter are such familiar events for us all. Yet what controls the finely attuned reactions of living organisms to seasonal cycles? From a single blade of grass to the most majestic tree, from insects to mammals? And how will Nature adapt to the seasons if global warming continues as the majority of the scientific community foresees?

Researchers from many disciplines are working together on these issues and coming up with disturbing findings. Although nothing seems more familiar to us than the return of spring, for researchers it is a profound mystery.

From butterfly nets to DNA sequences, from Medieval registers to the latest satellites, Looking for Spring proposes some surprising discoveries in this study of the seasons through advanced contemporary science.

Viewers will be introduced to them through the studies currently conducted on the Alpine ecosystems. A true European natural heritage, Alpine landscapes are threatened with drastic upheavals by the ongoing climate change.

The project website http://missionsprintemps.arte.tv/ was launched in February. The aim is to engage local communities to encourage them take action around several environmental ‘missions’ in their neighbourhood and stimulate participative scientific research. Every week a new mission is launched on the internet, encouraging the web community to join in. With the participation of ordinary people, the scientists will collect precious information that will contribute to their scientific research.

Starting from this experience and looking ahead to spring 2013, the EBU wishes to expand the Franco-German platform into a pan-European one creating a real participative scientific crossmedia environment.