ANTHOLOGY

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•  Environmental Justice (EJ) History

  • The EJ movement is rooted in activism driven by communities of color. The first national People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in October, 1991 was a groundbreaking meeting that gave rise to the 17 Environmental Justice Principles. (MS, HS, CC)

    • Give students time to read the above 17 principles and reflect. Students can share their thoughts/opinions/questions with a jamboard, or sticky notes. If in person, copy each principle and place each one around the room. Students can write their reflections on a sticky note they place under the principles. 

    • After they have written and posted their reflection, have a facilitated conversation about their thoughts from these principles. Students (or instructor) can lead this conversation by reading the principle and asking the group about their sticky notes.

  • Students may have more questions at this point.  At this point more context will help ground the following activities. (MS, HS, CC)

    • Begin with providing the EPA’s EJ timeline.  Then show this short Pro Publica: A Brief History of Environmental Justice video.  

    • Students can read this Robert Bullard interview or listen to this podcast.

    • Students can write a reflection.  

      1. Prompts:  What examples of environmental justice did you find powerful?  What questions do you have about environmental justice?  What do you think communities that are disproportionately impacted need to be empowered in their quest of justice?  

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• Environmental Justice case studies:  Instructors can jigsaw the listed case studies, or have students choose a case study to explore and/or present on. Use these slides to guide students. (MS, HS, CC)

  • UpStream by Dr. Beth Rose Middleton Manning focuses on Indigenous Water Access in California.

  • Dumping in Dixie:  Race, Class and Environmental Quality by Robert Bullard, the father of Environmental Justice.

  • Environmental Justice in the San Francisco Bay Area provides an overview of EJ issues for Bay Area residents.

  • The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein focuses on how U.S. law created segregated neighborhoods throughout the country, tying this history to EJ issues.

  • EJ Atlas:  “The EJ Atlas collects these stories of communities struggling for environmental justice from around the world”

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• Data Set exploration: Students can explore these maps to dive into community demographics, health outcomes and pollution exposures.  If you choose to use these resources, give students time and space to reflect. Students can choose a community to explore. Although these maps don’t explain why there is a pollution burden, they lay out what the problem is. See this resource for guided activities using CalEnviroScreen. (MS, HS, CC)

  • CalEnviroscreen:  California mapping tool that “help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution”

  • EJScreen:  EPA mapping tool for the United States

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• Storytelling: Present this slideshow on EJ Storytelling and its relationship to civic action and community empowerment. The lesson culminates in students creating their own environmental justice story based on the resources in the slideshow. Examples of photovoice, video narrative, and ethics are included. (MS, HS, CC)

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• Break students into groups. Assign each group one of the following environmental justice communities or organizations (or ask them to research local groups in the area). Have each group give a 10-minute presentation on each organization focusing on the mission, impact, and significance of each organization: (MS, HS, CC)

  • Communities for a Better Environment (CBE)

  • California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA)

  • EarthJustice

  • Sierra Club

  • National Resources Defense Council

  • Environmental Health Coalition

• Spend a week exploring the following topics in Intersectional Environmentalism: (MS, HS, CC)

  • Modern-Day Imperialism in the Global Waste Trade (toolkit)

  • Indigenous Environmentalism: The Rights of Manoomin (toolkit)

  • Reimagining Food Justice + Food Sovereignty (toolkit)

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• Dedicate two class sessions to having students report on environmental racism in groups using this lesson plan from Learning for Justice. (MS, HS, CC)

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• Natural Disasters: As a class, ask students to shout out the names of natural disasters they remember. Some students may remember recent California earthquakes and wildfires, the Texas freeze in 2021, or older events such as Hurricane Katrina or the polar vortex in winter 2018-2019. Write the name of each natural disaster on the board. Then, ask students to pick one natural disaster from the list and write down everything they know about it. Have them discuss in small groups what they remember. At the end of class, assign them to prepare a 5 minute presentation on the natural disaster they wrote about, focusing on how it affected marginalized groups in the area where it occurred. You may need to spend class time defining the term “marginalized” and giving examples of how specific disasters have caused the most harm among these groups. Case studies to consider are the lack of U.S. government response to Hurricane Katrina’s African American victims and Hurricane Maria’s Puerto Rican victims, despite Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. colony. (MS, HS, CC)

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• After teaching your class about environmental justice, ask students to create a poem, short story, or collage responding to the following prompt to close out your unit: What would your community look like if environmental justice was achieved? Describe how it feels to live in that world. (MS, HS, CC)