Theme: Environment

Environment

Harlan County USA

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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The Sense of Wonder

Book — Non-fiction. By Rachel Carson. 1998 (originally 1964). 112 pages.
An antidote to indifference and a guide to capturing the simple power of discovery that Carson views as essential to life.
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Photo of La Via Campesina women | Zinn Education Project

Food, Farming, and Justice: A Role Play on La Vía Campesina

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Chris Buehler, Julie Treick O'Neill, and Tim Swinehart. Rethinking Schools.
This role play invites students to take on identities of La Vía Campesina activists around the world, to compare/contrast circumstances in order to discover the common goal of “food sovereignty.”
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Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon. 2019. 448 pages.
Through poetry and prose, essays, photography, interviews, and polemical interventions, the contributors, including leaders of the Standing Rock movement, reflect on Indigenous history and politics and on the movement's significance.
Teaching Activity by Nick Estes (editor)
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aerial view of city map, representing different ZIP codes

Cooked: Survival by ZIP Code

Film. Directed by Judith Helfand. 2020. 54 minutes.
This documentary focuses on Chicago’s heat wave to look at how a weeklong tragedy is really a story about the “slow-motion disaster” caused by race and class inequality.
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Water and Environmental Racism

Teaching Activity. By Matt Reed and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools.
A mixer activity, inspired by the 2016 Democracy Now! documentary Thirsty for Democracy, introduces students to the struggle of residents to access safe water for drinking, cooking, and bathing in the majority-Black cities of Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey.
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Men searching through rubble after the Galveston hurricane. Source: Library of Congress

Sept. 8, 1900: Galveston Hurricane

An unexpected hurricane crashed into the Gulf Coast and devastated Galveston, Texas, leaving thousands of people dead and even more left houseless. The storm’s turmoil and destruction allowed white terror and fraud to flourish.
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