What is it about?
We provide a bird's-eye perspective on what the human species is doing, by compiling the first comprehensive global dataset of human activities and applying it to the entire population of 8 billion humans. The result is presented as an average human day, and reveals both surprisingly consistent behaviours across societies as well as important contrasts.
Featured Image
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The world can feel bewilderingly complex, and the solutions to global problems like climate change and inequality often seem difficult to grasp. Frequently we know a great deal about the local details of such issues within our own societies, but because societies are globally interconnected we can fail to see the big picture. This study provides a new way to see what humanity is doing, by combining all human activities at the broadest possible scope. We hope that our results will provide a better understanding of how human activities can change to coordinate action towards sustainable development goals.
Perspectives
Working on this compilation really enriched my view of how the world works, and I hope our results will provide the same kind of novel insights for others!
Eric Galbraith
McGill University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The global human day, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2219564120.
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