Critical Thinking in Global Challenges

Critical thinking is a skill that's important for all of us to continually develop. 

Luckily, the educational platform Coursera is offering their free course "Critical Thinking in Global Challenges" beginning on January 19, 2015. You can register on the course site. 

Here is the course overview:

"Critical thinking is the ability to gather and assess information and evidence in a balanced and reflective way to reach conclusions that are justified by reasoned argument based on the available evidence. Critical thinking is a key skill in the information age, valuable in all disciplines and professions. 

This introductory course will give you the opportunity to better understand what critical thinking is, and to practice and enhance your critical thinking skills. To do so, we will use the context of some important global challenges that affect us all, and to which we have no clear “correct” solutions: for example, the risk and spread of serious infectious diseases in epidemics in modern societies, the implications of increasing human population on global resources, energy, environment and climate, and the challenges of human health and wellbeing in the modern world. Possible solutions to global issues such as these are hotly debated, and give the perfect setting to practice recognizing and evaluating facts, ideas, opinions and arguments." 

Also of interest is the Coursera course: "Introduction to Sustainability" beginning in April 2015. This course "introduces the academic discipline of sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations." And it should provide a good overview of population, climate change, Peak Oil, agriculture, water depletion, and everything in between.