Film. Directed and produced by Barbara Kopple. 1976. 103 minutes.
This documentary tells the story of a Kentucky coal miners' strike and the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Nick Estes. 2019. 320 pages.
In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement.
Teaching Activity by Nick Estes
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Book — Fiction. By Natalia Sylvester. 2020. 328 pages.
A story that celebrates young people who find themselves as they come to political consciousness and commitment.
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Book — Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2021. 256 pages.
A powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.
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Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Lucy Diavolo. 2021. 224 pages.
A small volume made up of short student-friendly readings that offer lots of teaching possibilities.
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Book — Fiction. By Aya de León. Serialized in six parts at Orion Magazine. 2021.
A young adult novel that deals with immigration rights, climate justice, the Green New Deal, and youth activism. Available for free download at Orion Magazine.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein and Rebecca Stefoff. 2021.
Young leaders are showing the world that this moment of increasingly dangerous climate change is also a moment of great opportunity — an opportunity to change everything for the better.
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Teaching Activity. By Suzanna Kassouf, Matt Reed, Tim Swinehart, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, and Bill Bigelow.
The stories of twenty people whose lives were touched by the New Deal of the 1930s come to life in this classroom activity, intended to open students' minds to the possibilities of a Green New Deal.
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Film clip. Pacific Climate Warriors. 2019.
During the Global Climate Strike on Sept. 20, 2019, the Pacific Climate Warriors in Portland showed up at their rally carrying their identity with pride and speaking their truths as Pacific islanders fighting for their homes.
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Film clip. Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner. Various years.
Video poems by a Marshallese artist show the injustices and harm of environmental racism, nuclear weapons, and climate change around the world.
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Teaching Activity. By WorldOregon's Young Leaders in Action.
In this role-play, students explore the challenges and perspectives of people — climate refugees — who have "no option except escape" from homes devastated by climate change.
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Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
A lesson about multiple cohorts of climate activists: Indigenous leaders in the Climate Justice Movement, valve turners using civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and the legal team that uses the “necessity defense” in the courts.
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Teaching Activity. By Caneisha Mills.
This people’s tribunal begins with the premise that a heinous crime is being committed as tens of millions of people’s lives are in danger due to COVID-19. But who was responsible for this crime? Students weigh the evidence.
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Films. Directed by Jan Haaken and Samantha Praus. 58 minutes & 57 minutes.
Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance explores the work of attorneys, valve turners, and other water protectors in Minnesota. Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line examines climate resistance in the Pacific Northwest.
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Teaching Activity. By Rachel Hanes. Rethinking Schools.
A 2nd-grade teacher shows how connecting a student's home to the classroom led to profound lessons for all her students — in this case, about pipelines and climate justice.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein. 2019. 320 pages.
This collection of essays makes a case for a Green New Deal — explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.
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Article. By Bill Bigelow.
The story of how teachers, parents, and students in Portland, Oregon organized to demand that climate change be taught honestly and to pass a climate justice resolution.
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Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools Blog, September 2019.
A call to action for teachers to join students, whether in the streets or in classrooms, by using their voices for climate justice.
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Film. By Christopher Walker. 1996. 52 minutes.
This documentary reveals the funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling story of the battle waged by indigenous people to preserve their way of life in the Amazon, in the face of international capitalism and colonialism.
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Teaching Activity. By Flannery Denny. Rethinking Schools, Summer 2019.
A math educator brings data from a friend’s solar panels — and the story to win them in their community — into her 7th-grade classroom to build a bridge between math and climate justice education.
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Article. By Moé Yonamine. Rethinking Schools, Summer, 2019.
A high school ethnic studies teacher describes how students in the Pacific Island Club used poetry to refocus the narrative surrounding climate justice onto frontline communities.
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Article. By the Rethinking Schools Editorial Board. Rethinking Schools, Summer 2019.
The Green New Deal will only be brought to life by people who grasp the enormity of the crisis that humanity faces and the radical changes necessary to address it. This requires that we teach a climate justice curriculum.
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Film. By Lynne Cherry and Young Voices for the Planet. 2019. 6 minutes.
This short documentary features the activism of Jaysa Mellers, a young adolescent girl who rallied her community to challenge local air polluters.
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Poetry. Edited by Melissa Tuckey. 2018. 460 pages.
A collection of poetry about colonial dispossession, the environmental crime of war, food and culture, resource extraction, resistance, and the Global South.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Winona LaDuke. 1999.
Native American activists provide testimonies to indigenous efforts to resist oppression and fight both cultural and environmental degradation in the face of U.S. colonialism.
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