Environmental Ethics Simulation: Population, Consumption, and Global Warming

Created by Shawneen Morrison, Many experts contend that the sustainable carrying capacity of Earth is approximately one third of the current world population. In this simulated ethical dilemma, a meteor has crashed into Earth accelerating the political process of deciding which third of humanity will survive. Since overpopulation, overconsumption, and contributions to global warming are all powerful components of historic patterns of unsustainability, survival decisions are made based on regional responsibility for those practices.

Participants are assigned regional advocacy roles to shed light on guilt or innocence for these factors and to articulate extenuating circumstances that may influence or outweigh culpability.

Advocacy roles are assigned proportionally to current world populations in order to provide a scaled view of differing worldviews.

Following opening arguments by regional advocates, a cross-examination rooted in data analysis ensues. Finally, all advocates vote on each region’s credit or culpability in each regard. The resulting scores are used as the basis for a class discussion about the ethics of resource use in our globalized, environmentally strained world.

This exercise is designed to maximize emphasis on Common Core objectives.

Included in this lesson:30 pages

★CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR STAGING THE SIMULATION

★COMPLETE STUDENT MATERIALS INCLUDING:

     • “CLASSIFIED” BRIEFING PACKETS

     • ALL PERTENENT REGIONAL DATA FOR NEGOTIATIONS

     • DEFINITION/SIGNIFICANCE HANDOUTS TO ACCOMPANY THE DATA SET

     • PERSPECTIVE(S) ON DATA PROMPTS FOR EACH REGION

     • VOTING BALLOTS

     • BALLOT NOTES SHEETS

     • CLASSROOM DISCUSSION GUIDE

★COMPLETE INSTRUCTOR MATERIALS INCLUDING:

     • EASY TO USE ORGANIZATIONAL MATERIALS

     • SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS

     • SIMULATION INSTRUCTIONS

     • DISCUSSION ANSWER GUIDE INCLUDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

     • COMMON CORE ALIGNMENT

★A SOURCE LIST FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DATA THAT CAN BE USED FOR SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH OR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

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