Theme: Climate Justice

Climate Justice

Paradise on Fire

Book — Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2023 paperback release. 256 pages.
A powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.
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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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Running (Book Cover)

Running

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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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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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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An “Earth ball” at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey, with the figure 350 — signifying the safe upper limit in parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Oct. 24, 2009: International Climate Day of Action

In the lead-up to an international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, climate activists organized a “day of action,” where millions of people gathered at thousands of events all over the world, demanding that governments and corporations work to slash CO2 emissions and enforce environmental protections.
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A giant puppet of a sea goddess made entirely of recycled materials walked through Glasgow during the COP26 climate change summit.

Nov. 6, 2021: Climate Justice Protesters Demand Reparations

An Indigenous-led rally at the site of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, drew more than 100,000 protesters to demand reparations for Indigenous communities and the Global South, investments in renewable energy instead of fossil fuels, and worker-led transitions to systems that would reduce poverty and injustice.
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