人類足跡
人類足跡不僅是我們改變世界的方式，亦是人類與地球之間跨越過去與未來的聯繫。我們改變世界，世界也反過來改變我們。在尚恩長大的美國南部，一片古老海洋孕育出一種農作物，以及人類為培育它而創造的殘酷經濟，永久重塑了我們的世界。
這趟旅程從阿拉巴馬州伊普斯的白堊岩開始，一片八千萬年前隱藏於海床、黑土帶的岩石，為美國棉花產業提供肥沃土壤。十九世紀，全球的棉花經濟在非裔奴隸的勞動力上建立起來，對美國的土地、文化，甚至美國人的遺傳基因產生了深遠影響。美國南北戰爭結束了奴隸制，但棉花的影響通過大遷徒、黑人音樂、文化的傳播繼續發展，正因這些，白堊紀時代的海濱今天顯現為公民行使合法投票權的「藍色地帶」。
棉花的故事正是人類足跡的精髓：在微小化石的基礎上，一群人奴役另一群人，為工業提供動力，重塑了地貌、文化和美國人民的基因。人類改變世界、重新定義命運的力量從未如此清晰，正如尚恩在旅途中發現，「人類足跡的這部份結果就是——我」。
雙語廣播：粵語/英語 (電視版 及 網上版)
播出時間：(首播) 2025年5月12日 星期一 晚上10時
The Human Footprint is more than just the ways in which we transform the world. It’s the connection between humanity and our planet – past and future. We change the world, and the world changes us back. In the American South, where Shane was raised, a primeval ocean allowed one crop – and the cruel economy we crafted to nurture it – to reshape our world forever.
The journey begins at the White Cliffs of Epes, Alabama, where the rocks underneath the Black Belt – the rich soils that supported America’s cotton industry – are laid bare as an 80-million-year-old seafloor. In the 19th century, a global cotton economy was built here on the backs of enslaved Africans, creating profound impacts on America’s land, cultures… and even our DNA. The Civil War ended slavery, but the legacy of cotton continued to grow through the Great Migration and the spread of Black music and culture. Because of that influence, the shores of a Cretaceous sea are revealed today as a “Blue Belt” of citizens exercising their legal right to vote.
The story of cotton is the essence of the Human Footprint: on a foundation of microscopic fossils, one group of people enslaved another to power an industry – reshaping a landscape, a culture, and the very DNA of the American people. The power of humanity to transform the world, and redefine our destinies, has never been more clear. As Shane realizes during his journey, “This part of the Human Footprint… is me.”
Bilingual: Cantonese/ English (TV Version & Web Version)
Time: (First run) 2025.05.12 MON 10:00pm
