The Mammoth Journey¹
is a Big Idea - a 21st Century 'whodunnit'. On the surface it is a multi-media investigation into the extinction of the much loved mammoth. Dig a little deeper and it'll turn into the mock 'criminal' trial of a serial killer as it becomes clear that we, modern man, did the dirty deed. At heart, however, this two-year long Mammoth Journey, which follows mammoth and man's migration from Africa to America, is a tailor made vehicle to explore just what modern man has done, is doing, and might do with Planet Earth.

As with every 'trial' of this kind there are (at least) two sides to every fact. Those who are convinced by the case for the prosecution draw heavily on a long and dispiriting list of similar crimes committed by mankind including the massacre of the buffalo in North America and the burning of today's rain forests, which has led directly to the loss of thousands of species.

The defense, however, points the finger at climate change over the years, which was indirectly responsible for wiping the dinosaur off the face of the earth. It also draws on a seemingly infinite pool of modern man's excellent deeds to ask how can homo sapiens, who have brought so much to the earth in the way of culture and science, be seriously accused of such a heinous crime?

A Voyage of Discovery

It's at BBCi's h2g2 community site, where The Mammoth Journey investigation starts. Thousands of h2g2 Researchers, many of whom are students, will be on hand to unearth evidence for both the prosecution and the defense. Their, evidence will be investigated during a two-year long expedition, a voyage of discovery, which follows twenty thousand-year-old tracks of the mammoth as it migrated from Africa to North America. Homo sapiens, modern man, followed in the mammoth's wake.

Yes, it was the mammoth, acting as a huge path clearer, that enabled man to leave Africa and conquer all four corners of Earth.

Every aspect of human life will be have to be uncovered if the case is to be properly heard including, for instance, the views of Jared Diamond as expressed in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel which asks: Why did history take such different evolutionary courses for peoples of different continents?

See booklist and more at Richard's Mammoth Journey Space

A Last Big Thought

If modern man is found guilty of wiping out the mammoth, the sentence cannot be life or capital punishment in order to prevent a repetition of this earth-shattering crime. Instead, the challenge for modern man is to change from being serial killers, to serial defenders of earth as we know it.

And that's a process that cannot even begin without global, interactive dissemination of knowledge in all media - a process that starts on BBCi's h2g2 and is presented globally on television by BBC World