Humanity's Global Species Test: Three Global Environmental Crises. Short video and explanatory articles

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Humanity's Global Species Test: Three Global Environmental Crises. Short video and explanatory articles

Student pondering what grade to give humanity as a global species

A short video introduces the idea of allocating a grade to humanity as a global species.

The first evaluation criteria relate to the history of human population growth, poverty, and life span. The seond evaluation criteria are ecological and relate to biodiveristy, climate change and pandemics.

Audience is then asked to research, discuss and assign a grade. Two accompanying articles provide more information about the three global crises (climate change, biodiversity extinctions, pandemics) and how they are inter-related. The articles differ in audience (educators; students/general public).

The goal is to help learners understand that these three crises share a common overlying cause: humanity's role in damaging major Earth systems. A more inspiring conclusion is that practically any strategy that reduces the amount of climate change will also help in addressing global extinctions and reducing pandemic frequency.