More About the Show

We occupy vast cities covering 10 percent of Earth’s land. Much of the rest we’ve covered with farms and pastures. We extract energy and raw materials from the Earth, divert and block rivers, and harvest food from the sea. We transport our bodies, products, and other species around the globe at will. And we do it not simply in service of basic biological needs, but to satisfy other, uniquely human desires… power, self-expression, curiosity.

Our insatiable minds have driven us to explore the tallest mountains and the depths of the ocean, to investigate the diversity of life and the fabric of the cosmos, and even to look inward and grapple with consciousness itself. We’ve cracked the genetic code and can read and rewrite DNA at will. And we’ve created music, art, literature, and culture of remarkable beauty. Yet for all of our ingenuity, our species can also be stubbornly short-sighted.

In Human Footprint, Biologist Shane Campbell-Staton travels the world to explore our global impact. In his quest, Shane discovers that although we often tell ourselves what it means to be human, the clearest vision of who we are emerges from what we do. In that way, Human Footprint is a journey not only to understand our human impacts, but to explore our human nature.