Earth day https://www.morningsidecenter.org/ en Climate Change Fiction for Students and Teachers https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-fiction-students-and-teachers-0 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Climate Change Fiction for Students and Teachers</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p style="margin-bottom:4px"><img alt="Books" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7a2bc94a-015f-476d-af9b-145915bb4411" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/jessica-ruscello-OQSCtabGkSY-unsplash.jpg" width="1920" height="1280" loading="lazy"></p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px"><em>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jruscello?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Jessica Ruscello</a> on Unsplash</em></p> <hr> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">Part of the problem of climate change is that the apocalyptic consequences of our carbon use are emerging slowly and globally, rather than in a single newsworthy disaster, making it difficult to muster the vision and motivation to fight it.&nbsp;Fiction and poetry exploring the possibilities of a changed and changing climate can be a powerful way to make these abstract futures more immediate.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">This guide, accessible online and as a&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/ClimateChangeFictionForStudentsAndTeachers_0.pdf" target="_blank">PDF</a>,</strong> includes lists of poems, short stories, novels, and films to consider reading and discussing with students, including, in some cases, questions for discussion.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">The <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-poetry-students-and-teachers"><strong>poems</strong>,</a> <strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers">short stories</a></strong>, and <strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers">novels</a></strong>&nbsp;in our listing take a positive, visionary approach to the subject of climate change, focusing on fighting and adapting to climate change. Through envisioning cultural tools and social strategies for transitioning to a post-carbon world, these stories offer inspiration and guidance for how we might address our very real problems—not just through magical new technology, but through cultural shifts that make use of the technology we already have.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">These texts could be used for whole-class reading, and could enrich a larger unit on climate change or even lead to students researching and creating their own artistic explorations of futures altered by climate change. Questions for discussion follow each listing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:4px">In addition, we've gathered some&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-dystopias-allegories-and-films-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">dystopias, allegories, and films</a></strong>&nbsp;that evoke other climate futures, for high school students and adults&nbsp;interested in reading further. This listing includes YA and adult fiction that is focused on the social and practical effects of climate change. Many of these latter texts vividly convey the emotional weight of various disasters that come with climate change. Some are straightforward climate dystopias, while others work as direct allegories.&nbsp;Finally, we've assembled a short list of films and tv shows exploring climate. You can <strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/ClimateChangeFictionForStudentsAndTeachers_0.pdf" target="_blank">view them all as a PDF</a></strong>, or explore with the links below.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Climate Change Fiction for Students and Teachers:</strong></h3> <blockquote> <ul> <li><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-poetry-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Poetry</a></strong><br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Short Stories</a></strong><br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Novels</a></strong><br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-dystopias-allegories-and-films-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Dystopias, Allegories, and Films</a>&nbsp;</strong>for high school students and adults</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/stories-voices/using-fiction-teach-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Sarah Outterson-Murphy's blog </a></strong>about her experiences using climate fiction in her high school English classes</li> </ul> </blockquote> <h2 style="margin-bottom: 16px;">&nbsp;</h2> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-07-18T14:38:44-04:00" title="Tuesday, July 18, 2023 - 14:38">July 18, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:38:44 +0000 Laura McClure 1748 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Climate Dystopias, Allegories & Films for HS Students & Teachers https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-dystopias-allegories-films-hs-students-teachers <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Climate Dystopias, Allegories &amp; Films for HS Students &amp; Teachers</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>This listing of fiction and movies is for high school students and adults prepared for challenging explorations of climate futures. It includes YA and adult fiction that is focused on the social and practical effects of climate change. Many of these latter texts vividly convey the emotional weight of various disasters that come with climate change. Some are straightforward climate dystopias, while others work as direct allegories.</p> <p>Finally, a short list of movies and tv shows exploring climate change.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>For more see:&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></strong></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-fiction-students-and-teachers-0" target="_blank">Introduction</a>: Climate Change Fiction for Students &amp; Teachers</em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Short Stories</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Novels</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-dystopias-allegories-and-films-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Further Fiction about Climate Change for High Schoolers and Adults: Dystopias, Allegories, and Films</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/stories-voices/using-fiction-teach-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Sarah Outterson-Murphy's post&nbsp;</a>about her experiences using climate fiction in her high school English classes</em></li> <li><em>See the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/ClimateChangeFictionForStudentsAndTeachers_0.pdf" target="_blank"><em>PDF</em></a>&nbsp;version of the guide<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> </blockquote> <hr> <h2><strong>Fiction for High Schoolers and Adults: Dystopias and Allegories</strong></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>Even if Everything Ends,&nbsp;</em></strong>by Jens Liljestrand (2023). Translated from Swedish, this story captures the boredom and panic of modern day first-world consumer culture as the people desperately try to ignore or escape the impending disasters small and large in their lives. Four successively younger narrators will each be affected by climate change for more of their life, and are each dealing with that sense of doom in different ways. As Sweden burns from protests and wildfires, none of the characters in this novel can believe that the social breakdown they expect in other countries is actually happening “here.” In their selfishness, in their smug pride in their orderly, comfortable, environmentally responsible homeland, the characters are easy to mock, but ultimately they are far too similar to us, their readers, for comfort. The book offers a painfully satirical contrast between the trappings of privilege and the sudden humiliations of suffering.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>Blue Skies,</em> </strong>by T.C. Boyle (2023). This novel delivers as rousing a satire of America’s near-future climate collapse as Liljestrand does of Sweden’s. Here, the wealthy congratulate themselves on their eco-friendly practices while recklessly buying, consuming, and wasting. Disasters approach so slowly that people don’t notice; they adapt seamlessly to the new normal as they lie to themselves about how bad it has become. The overall tone is hopelessness in the midst of a boring apocalypse, as each self-absorbed character uses alcoholism to dull the pain and deny their reality. Thoughtlessness and irresponsibility all of a sudden come home to roost as nature bites back.</p> <p><br> <strong><em>Birnam Wood, </em></strong>by Eleanor Catton<em> </em>(2023). Guerrilla gardeners become entangled with a tech billionaire on the edge of a New Zealand national park. The various ambitions of the main characters lead to unexpectedly disastrous consequences, as the allusion to Macbeth would suggest. While this book does not deal with climate change specifically, its focus on environmental devastation and repair frames a psychological thriller concerned with arrogance, idealism, attempts at control through technology, and the ways we deceive others and ourselves. With all our technological and social capital as a species, why are we so unable to stop our own environmental destructiveness? This book provides, if not answers, at least a detailed outline of the problem.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>Denial,</em> </strong>by Jon Raymond (2022). Set in a near future in which technology and criminal trials have dramatically reduced carbon emissions, this book follows a journalist who is about to expose a convicted climate criminal he has discovered living in hiding. But, the journalist begins to wonder, as he faces a terminal diagnosis and contemplates the throughlines of civilizations throughout history, what will this accomplish? Neither a utopia nor a dystopia, this somewhat hopeful vision of a changed future nevertheless expresses realism about the unstoppable effects of climate change, and more fundamentally, about our tendency to willfully ignore what we do not want to accept.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Unbalancing,&nbsp;</strong></em>by R.B. Lemberg (2022) depicts a community’s attempt to cope with warnings of apocalypse when all seems well. Nonbinary gender identities symbolize alternate ways of knowing and encountering the world. In the tension between escaping and healing a disintegrating land, characters seek love, patience, rest, and hope, despite disaster. The mode is more poetic, personal, and fantastical than socially incisive.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Scholomance Trilogy,&nbsp;</strong></em>by Naomi Novik, including A Deadly Education (2020), The Last Graduate (2021), and The Golden Enclaves (2022). This YA trilogy is an ironic take on the magical school genre, featuring a witty and somewhat unreliable narrator, close attention to class and power, and a beautifully-constructed 3-part plot with cliffhangers that pay off. Most importantly, the trilogy offers an inescapable allegory of environmental disaster and the need for climate justice, as those with the least power suffer the most from a doom selfishly (and knowingly) created by the privileged. Sacrifice and collaboration lead to an optimistic conclusion.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Everything Change Volume III,</strong></em> edited by Angie Dell and Joey Eschrich (2021), includes “Invasive Species” by Amanda Baldeneaux, a near-future story in which people are caught and stalled in the midst of slow ecological and economic disintegration, and yet life goes on without fanfare, and “Redline” by Anya Ow, about a rescue mission while clinging to survival in a heat-stricken Singapore. Everything Change Volume II (2018) includes “Monarch Blue,” by Barbara Litkowski, in which the extinction of pollinating insects has left the job of pollinating to the poor, and “The Last Grand Tour of Albertine’s Watch,” by Sandra Barnidge, which illuminates the economic and social tensions of disaster tourism. Everything Change Volume I (2016) includes “On Darwin Tides,” by Shauna O’Meara, in which a young girl struggles to survive without legal papers in a rapidly warming Malaysia, and “Victor and the Fish,” by Matthew S. Henry, in which wildfires slowly destroy not only fish but also the communities built around them.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Weather,</strong></em> by Jenny Offill (2020), traces the hyperaware depression of a librarian who becomes overwhelmed by a sense of oncoming climate doom, even as the banalities of daily life continue. The novel is mainly about the narrator’s efforts to accept and cope with loss: the loss of her health, the loss of her original career, the loss of ecosystems, the loss of a sense of safety, the loss of her hopes for her child’s future. Her struggle against depression is mystical, poetic, and won moment by moment, like the sobriety of her addict brother. If the world is indeed dying, as we all are, how do we appreciate it and care for it anyway? I also enjoyed the book’s companion website, <a href="https://www.obligatorynoteofhope.com/">obligatorynoteofhope.com</a>.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Interdependency Series,</strong></em> by John Scalzi (2017-2020) (The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, The Last Emperox). This series explores a far-future space empire that has thoughtlessly developed around a natural phenomenon it exploits without fully understanding. When scientists predict that cataclysmic change is coming, the profit motive and inertia make it difficult for society to take the drastic action needed to stave off disaster. While it’s not explicitly about climate change, the allegory is clear and could help students analyze the present moment. Be aware: mild sexual content and excess swearing.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>After the Flood, </em></strong>by Kassandra Montag (2019), imagines a scenario in which water rapidly covers the world and dramatic social change ensues, as a mother searches the increasingly lawless ocean for her stolen daughter. While it’s scientifically unlikely for the American Midwest to be flooded anytime soon, this novel’s depiction of the rapid unmooring of our modern society and way of life is devastating.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Overstory,</strong></em> by Richard Powers (2018), makes trees the unexpected protagonists through a dazzling use of symbolic connections, deep-dive science, and the epic interwoven timelines of multiple human and arboreal characters. This book turns the ordinary tree outside your window into an alien lifeform living on an entirely different timescale. A motley band of ecoterrorists defending a forest forms only one of several powerful narrative threads.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Broken Earth trilogy,</strong></em> by N.K. Jemisin (2015-2018), includes The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. This series depicts a fantasy world in which society is shaped around the need to survive recurring geological disasters, an allegory of the social and physical devastation of climate change. It also explores how power shapes racial and social identities, tying into issues of environmental justice.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Marrow Thieves, </strong></em>by Cherie Dimaline (2017) and sequel Hunting By Stars (2022). In this YA dystopian series, Native Americans flee mainstream settler culture, which is hunting them as a resource. The melting ice and rising oceans of a devastated climate future form a distant backdrop for this story, which focuses instead on the struggle to hide and survive in the still-beautiful wilderness of a broken world.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>American War, </strong></em>by Omar El Akkad (2017). When I first read this book several years ago, I thought its premise of a second American civil war, fought this time over the right to burn fossil fuels, was a little far-fetched. Who would be willing to fight and die for that? But as climate change continues to worsen, and as science denialism shows itself to be far stronger than even immediate threats to human life, it seems more likely that any realistic climate action America takes could be either too little/ too late, or violently opposed by much of the population. What comes after that? This book mostly focuses on the refugee crisis and political turmoil that climate change would cause.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Tales from the Warming: Envisioning the Human Impact of the Climate Crisis</strong> by Lorin R. Robinson (2017). These 10 “slice of life” vignettes offer exposition of possible futures, punctuated by frequent action and romance sequences. The most memorable stories include “Exodus,” concerning Polynesian islanders’ decision to leave their home, Viatupu; “The Perfect Storm,” in which a Bangladeshi man becomes a second Noah, following God’s prompting to save his family; and “Starting Over,” about Midwestern refugees moving to Greenland to farm.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities and Tool of War,</em></strong> by Paolo Bacigalupi (2011-2017). This YA series depicts a post-apocalyptic world of radical inequality after sea rise and warming. The novels explore similar themes as some of Bacigalupi’s adult stories and novels, including The Water Knife (2016), which is a thoughtful thriller that imagines corporations, states, and a reporter battling over water in the American Southwest as global warming takes a toll. Be aware: The Water Knife depicts sex, rape, and torture. The YA series (Ship Breaker) does not.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future</strong></em>, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway (2016). This short book is not really a novel. It uses a non-fiction style as if written from the perspective of a historian four hundred years from now, chronicling how climate change destroyed civilization. In this imagined future, democracies cannot muster the political will to act against climate change in time, and only dictatorships like China respond fast enough to save their citizens.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Fragment,</strong> </em>by Craig Russell (2016), starts out as an eco-thriller about a collapsing Antarctic ice shelf, but develops into a tender exploration of interspecies communication and solidarity. Of the dozen or so narrators Russell weaves together, the most interesting is a blue whale.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><em>Gold Fame Citrus, b</em></strong>y Claire Vaye Watkins (2015). Having lost its water, the most essential of its various mirages, California has become a land of scavengers and outlaws. Makeshift families find purpose through building communities amidst physical devastation, but the human appetite for self-induced fantasies persists. The novel meditates on the varieties of ecological collapse (drought, nuclear waste, and a truly epic vision of desertification in the American West). The narrative style is complex and encyclopedic, threaded with a personal story of hope and failure. Be aware: some fairly explicit sexual content.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Clade,</strong></em> by James Bradley (2015). This interconnected series of brief snapshots tells the epic story of three generations of one family as they experience the slow burn of climate change over time. It examines the intergenerational relationships and emotions that emerge from long-term change of this magnitude.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, </strong></em>edited by John Joseph Adams (2015). Besides the stories listed above, this large volume explores different human relationships and emotions in the context of climate change, including standout tales about a Midwestern family facing desertification (“A Hundred Hundred Daisies,” by Nancy Kress), ecosystem destruction in the Pacific Northwest as humans move there to escape climate change (“The Myth of Rain,” by Seanan McGuire), journalists covering drought refugees in Arizona (“Shooting the Apocalypse,” by Paolo Bacigalupi), a family struck by a tropical pandemic (“Outer Rims,” by Toiya Kristen Finley), an environmentalist fighting technological solutions to climate change (“Eagle,” by Gregory Benford), a marriage crumbling along with dikes against the storms (“The Netherlands Lives With Water,” by Jim Shepard), and a meditation on denial as water rises (“Quiet Town,” by Jason Gurley).<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Orleans,</strong></em> by Sherri Smith (2013). This YA dystopia depicts a post-hurricane Gulf Coast where a blood disease has restructured society into tribes based on blood type. It explores issues of rebuilding communities and the power of technology vs. the power of relational bonds, through the perspective of a young Black girl trying to survive.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Flight Behavior, </strong></em>by Barbara Kingsolver (2012). This poetic novel looks at climate change through the perspective of a rural Appalachian woman who finds monarch butterflies in the forest, after climate change has pushed them out of their native Mexico. This book deals explicitly with the contemporary problem of climate change denial.</p> <p><br> <strong><em>The Alchemist,</em></strong> a novella by Paolo Bacigalupi (2011), later collected in <em>The Tangled Lands</em> (2018). In this fantastical allegory for climate change, any use of magic causes the growth of more and more deadly bramble, which threatens to sicken children and swallow towns. Ironically, the protagonist is secretly practicing magic in order to heal his own daughter from bramble disease.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Cloud Atlas, </strong></em>by David Mitchell (2004) is a difficult but rewarding read, told through six different stories, each embedded within the last and successively jumping forward in time. Collectively, they deal with how power inflicts violence on the powerless and how communities of empathy might develop against cultures of greed. Ecological devastation is a central theme, though war and nuclear weapons are more direct causes here than climate change.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Earthseed </strong></em>series (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents), by Octavia Butler (1993-1998). These two novels, groundbreaking early YA dystopias, feature a young woman who journeys in a disintegrating, overheating world to spread the message of a new religion in the face of relentless change. Unique in its own time and even more relevant today.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>“The New Atlantis,” </strong></em>by Ursula K. Le Guin (1975). This novella imagines a future America in which the combined forces of government control and corporate ownership have made art, knowledge, nature, and meaningful work all equally obsolete– or at least driven them into hiding. As the sea begins to invade the decaying continents of the old world, a new world may be arising from its depths.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>If you’re interested in post-apocalyptic visions, you may like <em><strong>Earth Abides </strong></em>by George Stewart (1949). Though its initiating apocalypse is a pandemic, rather than climate change, its central focus is the reciprocal relationship between people and their world, and how each changes the other.&nbsp; After the majority of people are gone, how does the earth change? And how do those changes, in turn, change the people who are left? As technological knowledge fades, the story explores whether we might ultimately be happier and wiser to let much of civilization go.<br> <br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <h2><br> <strong>Climate Fiction in Film</strong></h2> <p><strong>How to Blow Up A Pipeline </strong>(2023), by Daniel Goldhaber. This fictional film, working in the heist thriller genre, imagines how an intrepid crew might directly attack fossil fuel infrastructure in order to interrupt climate change. Even more powerful, however, is its thoughtful and sympathetic portrayal of the various environmental and personal reasons why each member of this crew chooses to take this desperate action.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Extrapolations </strong>(2023), by Scott Z. Burns and Dorothy Fortenberry. This series extends 30 years in the future to imagine how people’s everyday lives (or more specifically, the lives of multiracial, upper-middle-class Americans) might be affected by climate change, forcing its audience to consider “What would I do?” Each episode can essentially stand alone. The message is fatalistic and offers little hope for solutions; the emphasis rather is on the frightening future that awaits us, and how selfish we might allow ourselves to be along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Don’t Look Up </strong>(2021), by Adam McKay. This satirical film starts with the classic disaster movie trope of an asteroid hitting the earth, but removes all the triumphant heroism or unified patriotic fervor. Instead, we get denial, misinformation, and capitalist shortsightedness, epitomized in one character’s line to her anxious daughter, “Your father and I are for the jobs the comet will provide.” Even in a situation far more immediate and easier to stop than climate change, society is paralyzed. There is no miracle solution offered here, only a relentless diagnosis of the political and social inertia of our decadent and distracted culture.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>&nbsp;First Reformed </strong>(2017), by Paul Schrader. This film represents in a beautifully personal and dramatic way the spiritual crisis of a man coming to terms with ecological destruction. The protagonist, an alcoholic pastor, becomes radicalized when he realizes that his church is supported by fossil fuel money. His response to this information places him in the space between madman and prophet.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Sara Carrero</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-04-17T11:25:30-04:00" title="Monday, April 17, 2023 - 11:25">April 17, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:25:30 +0000 Sara Carrero 1752 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Climate Change Novels for Students and Teachers https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Climate Change Novels for Students and Teachers</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The novels on this list take a positive, visionary approach to the subject of climate change, focusing on fighting and adapting to climate change. Through envisioning cultural tools and social strategies for transitioning to a post-carbon world, these stories offer inspiration and guidance for how we might address our very real problems—not just through magical new technology, but through cultural shifts that make use of the technology we already have.</p> <p>These texts could be used for whole-class reading, and could enrich a larger unit on climate change or even lead to students researching and creating their own artistic explorations of futures altered by climate change. Questions for discussion follow each listing.</p> <p><strong><em>For more see:&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></strong></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-fiction-students-and-teachers-0" target="_blank">Introduction</a>: Climate Change Fiction for Students &amp; Teachers</em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Short Stories</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Novels</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-dystopias-allegories-and-films-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Further Fiction about Climate Change for High Schoolers and Adults: Dystopias, Allegories, and Films</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/stories-voices/using-fiction-teach-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Sarah Outterson-Murphy's post&nbsp;</a>about her experiences using climate fiction in her high school English classes</em></li> <li><em>See the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/ClimateChangeFictionForStudentsAndTeachers_0.pdf" target="_blank"><em>PDF</em></a>&nbsp;version of the guide</li> </ul> </blockquote> <hr> <h2><strong>Novels</strong></h2> <p><strong><em>The Light Pirate,</em> by Lily Brooks-Dalton (2022).</strong></p> <p>This novel explores the devastation of hurricanes, floods, and the loss of civilization in a surprisingly peaceful and optimistic mode. The novel tracks the birth and life of Wanda, whose connection with the Florida coastal ecosystem guides and sustains her through change and loss. The story works on three levels: It is a plot-driven survivalist adventure, a psychological exploration of the balance between loneliness and love in various types of relationships, and a dreamlike, speculative vision of an emerging relation between humans and the land to which they belong (a vision which, as noted in the author’s acknowledgements, owes a debt to the Indigenous tribes of Florida who lived it first). The book’s vision of social change is not in rallying civilization to fight climate change, but in imagining how the survivors of these changes might in turn relate to nature in a changed way, recognizing that security is an illusion and relationships require risk. In that, it reminds me of the visionary ecofiction of <em>Always Coming Home</em> (1985) and <em>Earth Abides</em> (1949). But it addresses climate change and sea level rise much more directly than those novels do.</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss: </em>How do different characters (Frida, Kirby, Phyllis, Lucas, Corey, Bird Dog) respond to climate change in different ways, and what are the key factors that help Wanda survive? If you had to survive in your local area without modern technology, what would you eat and drink, and what other needs would you have? What would change the most about your life, and what would remain the same?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>The Deluge,</strong></em> by Stephen Markley (2022).</h4> <p>This novel balances six narrators, each presenting a different response to the climate crisis through the chaotic span from 2020 to 2040. Including a radically bipartisan climate activist, a marketing strategist working to greenwash heavy industry, and a drug addict who falls in with ex-military eco-terrorists, among others, these narrators demonstrate the emotional weight of different paths people might take in their efforts to respond to a changing world. Set in the U.S. amidst dust storms and derechos, industrial wastelands, ubiquitous digital surveillance, and congressional subcommittee meetings, the book explores the way class, gender, race, and political identity shape our responses to climate change, particularly the tension between being a useless purist and being a selfish sell-out.</p> <blockquote> <p><br> <em>Discuss</em>: What makes some people respond to disasters with despair, and others with energy and joy? What emotional, ideological, and material sacrifices do various characters make to preserve humanity’s future, and are they worth it? Be aware: depictions of drug abuse, violence, and sex are probably not enough to make this 880-page novel attractive to any but the most determined teenage readers.<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><em>Termination Shock</em>,&nbsp;by Neal Stephenson (2021)</strong>.</p> <p>Adventurous, ironic, and lighthearted despite its subject matter, this novel follows wildly disparate characters, including the Queen of the Netherlands, a Texan hunter of wild hogs, and a Sikh martial arts kid. Their lives intersect in intricate and surprising ways, as each becomes involved with a businessman’s plan to go rogue on climate change by geoengineering the stratosphere. Ultimately, the slow, unreliable wheels of democracy cannot compete with the power of individual genius and/or propaganda in this action-packed narrative, though that action gets somewhat derailed at times by impressively-researched details of mechanical engineering and geopolitical history. Allusions to Moby Dick and The Iliad offer rich parallels.</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss:</em> When people go rogue with world-changing actions like building a sulfur gun without permission, are they courageous heroes or destructive lunatics? Is our society even able to tell the difference? When considering how to be safe in a rapidly changing world, do you think Uncle Ed is correct that “it was better to live somewhere obviously dangerous, because it kept you on your toes,” or not?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>The Ministry for the Future,</strong></em> by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020).</h4> <p>This novel imagines life in the 21st century as the effects of climate change—starting with a deadly heat wave in India—slowly &nbsp;&nbsp;begin to change the social order on earth from the bottom up. Through the international web of activists, terrorist cells, farmers, banking systems, and government coalitions that populate its pages, the book imagines in startling detail how the world might reverse its current course. The title refers to a new international organization working to enforce the Paris climate agreements, nicknamed "Ministry for the Future" because it is fighting for future generations. This is a terrifying but ultimately optimistic view of what that fight might look like and how it might turn out. Though this is another doorstop of a novel, the haunting tour-de-force of a Chapter 1 can stand alone as a text for discussion.</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: What response could or should a country like India make to climate change in light of its experiences in this book? Is violence in defense of the climate justified or not? Which of the solutions or actions to fight climate change as described in this book are the most plausible?&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>The Disappearing Shore,</strong></em> by Roberta Park (2019).</h4> <p>This is a short, mystical little novel-in-parts about our present and our future, with each layer of the story responding to the one before. In short vignettes, fictional farmers, activists, lawyers, and rock stars meditate on the natural world and the human forces of emotional/cultural inertia as climate disaster approaches. The final portions of the book ask what kind of new life humanity/nature can make in the ashes of trauma.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: Which of the characters’ stories in Part 1 do you most identify with? Which perspectives seem most odd or confusing to you? What changes have happened to humans between Part 1 and Part 2 of this story? In what ways might those changes be bad? In what ways might those changes be good? What has stayed the same?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><strong><em>Dry</em>, </strong>by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (2018).</h4> <p>What happens when the flow of water suddenly runs dry? This powerful YA dystopia follows a group of California teenagers as their lives suddenly go from “normal” to a horrifying fight for survival. All it takes is a drought bad enough that a few states upstream seize the remaining water for themselves, and California starts quietly losing its mind. The most striking part of this book is how long it takes for everyone to realize that everything has changed. It's so easy to deny and ignore what's happening in the quiet background of life, until suddenly you can't anymore.</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: What are some of the most surprising ways that the lack of water changed life for the characters in this story? What are some of the most important reasons people survive or don’t survive in this story? What advice do you think the characters at the end of the book would give their past selves at the beginning of the book? What advice would the characters give us today?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>New York 2140,</strong></em> by Kim Stanley Robinson (2017).</h4> <p>This massive novel imagines New York after fifty feet of sea rise has put Lower Manhattan underwater, and creatively (and often optimistically) explores the ways that buildings, food, transportation, politics, and economics might change in a new world after carbon, through a cast of characters including homeless water-rat kids, an airship viral video star, a self-important financial trader, and more.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: How does our economic system encourage climate change, both now and in this novel? What would it take to enact the renewable energy changes in the novel sooner? In what ways is life in this novel surprisingly like life today? How is it different? How would your life change if the sea rose fifty feet? How would you feel about living in such a world?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>Exodus</strong></em> (2002), Zenith (2009) and Aurora (2011), by Julie Bertagna.</h4> <p>These novels comprise an accessible YA trilogy set around 2100, when rising seas have submerged much of the world, sending refugees in search of a new home. The series explores the tension between technological and natural ways of living in a changed reality, and the counterintuitive value of compassion in a harsh world.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: Why do those with so much keep it for themselves, rather than sacrificing in order to share? What are the advantages and disadvantages of technological escapism vs living in the “real world,” especially as the real world seems to be falling apart?<br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <h4><em><strong>The Carbon Diaries 2015</strong></em> and <em><strong>The Carbon Diaries 2017</strong></em>, by Saci Lloyd (2009-2011).</h4> <p>This YA novel and its sequel humorously depict a teenage girl and her family dealing with electricity rationing and carbon taxes in London after extreme global weather events in the near future.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Discuss</em>: How would similar laws change your life? What would you spend your carbon points on? How bad would climate change have to get before politicians would be willing to enact such laws? What would it take to convince the public to accept them? How do selfishness and fear worsen the energy crisis? A discussion guide from the publisher is <a href="http://www.holidayhouse.com/docs/CarbonDiariesComboGuide.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp;</p> </blockquote> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Sara Carrero</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-04-17T11:25:29-04:00" title="Monday, April 17, 2023 - 11:25">April 17, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:25:29 +0000 Sara Carrero 1751 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Climate Change Short Stories for Students and Teachers https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Climate Change Short Stories for Students and Teachers</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>Below, we share a list of short stories that you and your class can use to engage in reading, writing, and discussing climate fiction. These stories take a positive, visionary approach to the subject of climate change, focusing on fighting and adapting to climate change.</p> <p>Through envisioning cultural tools and social strategies for transitioning to a post-carbon world, these stories offer inspiration and guidance for how we might address our very real problems—not just through magical new technology, but through cultural shifts that make use of the technology we already have.</p> <p>These texts could be used for whole-class reading, and could enrich a larger unit on climate change or even lead to students researching and creating their own artistic explorations of futures altered by climate change. Questions for discussion follow each listing.</p> <p><strong><em>For more see:&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></strong></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-fiction-students-and-teachers-0" target="_blank">Introduction</a>: Climate Change Fiction for Students &amp; Teachers</em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-short-stories-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Short Stories</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-novels-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Novels</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-dystopias-allegories-and-films-students-and-teachers" target="_blank">Further Fiction about Climate Change for High Schoolers and Adults: Dystopias, Allegories, and Films</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/stories-voices/using-fiction-teach-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Sarah Outterson-Murphy's post&nbsp;</a>about her experiences using climate fiction in her high school English classes</em></li> <li><em>See the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/ClimateChangeFictionForStudentsAndTeachers_0.pdf" target="_blank"><em>PDF</em></a>&nbsp;version of the guide</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h2><strong>Individual Short Stories</strong></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>“Those They Left Behind”</strong> by Jules Hogan, is in Everything Change Volume III, edited by Angie Dell and Joey Eschrich (2021, published at <a href="https://csi.asu.edu/books/everything-change-vol-3/">Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination</a>). This story contrasts the privileged who depart a dying Earth with those who, by force or by choice, stay behind. Whether through art, agriculture, or science, those who stay find a purpose in working to remedy the damage created by their ancestors.</p> <blockquote> <p>Discuss: Would you have left on the Ascents? Why or why not?</p> </blockquote> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>“Factory Air,”</strong> by Omar El-Akkad, is one of four climate fiction stories in the 2019 <a href="https://www.guernicamag.com/special/climate-fiction/">Climate Fiction issue of Guernica</a>. Of those stories, it is the one most concerned with the problem of how to fight the large-scale economic structures causing climate change.</p> <blockquote> <p>Discuss: Why does Cassie make the decision she makes at the end of the story? Would you make the same decision or not, and why?</p> </blockquote> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>“Sunshine State,”</strong> by Adam Flynn and Andrew Dana Hudson, in Everything Change Volume I, edited by Milkoreit, Martinez, and Eschrich (2016, published at <a href="https://climateimagination.asu.edu/everything-change/">Arizona State University's Climate Futures Initiative</a>). This short story imagines a secret solarpunk collective in the Everglades, working to adapt humans and ecosystems to climate change as the next big storm hits Florida.</p> <blockquote> <p>Discuss: What are the legal, social, and economic barriers to transitioning away from our current fossil-fuel system? What tools and strategies help overcome those barriers in this story?</p> </blockquote> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h2><strong>Short Story Collections</strong></h2> <h3>Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors</h3> <p>The collection Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors (2022, published at <a href="https://grist.org/fix/imagine-2200-climate-fiction-2022/">Grist</a>) includes twelve stories in which intersectionality shapes hopeful visions of a more sustainable world. These might be excellent stories to contrast with one or two other more dystopian futures: Ask students to argue for which versions of the future seem most likely to come true and why. Some of the most memorable are:</p> <ul> <li><strong>“Benni and Shiya are Leaving,” </strong>by Jerri Jerreat, offers an everyday utopia through the eyes of a mother and her child, as the mother moves for a new job and the two renegotiate their relationship. Along the way, it introduces us to the solar trains, rewilding projects, and communes of their world.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What are the challenges Benni and Shiya face in adapting to a new community? How has their world adapted to the challenges of climate change?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“A Holdout in the Northern California Designated Wildcraft Zone,”</strong> by T.K. Rex, is a humorous story of the burgeoning friendship between a forest hippie and an ecological management drone assigned to remove her.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Why is the drone supposed to remove the human from the wilderness? Does the drone make the right decision at the end of the story?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Seven Sisters,”</strong> by Susan Kaye Quinn, explores the everyday struggles of running a tea farm in an unstable climate– while caring for each other along the way.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What are the positive and negative aspects of this story’s world? How do the “sisters” care for each other amidst the stress of their situation?&nbsp;<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“The Florida Project,”</strong> by Morayo Faleyimu, imagines how a post-flooding Florida could become a wilderness area, replanted with native vegetation by those whose history on the land gives them a special love for it.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Why do Tray and Cora decide to go back to Florida? What makes family relationships similar to our relationship with a landscape?&nbsp;<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <h3>Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors</h3> <p>The 2021 collection of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors was published at <a href="https://grist.org/fix/series/imagine-2200-climate-fiction/">Grist</a>. Twelve different stories from different styles and genres, with illustrations, take divergent approaches to imagining a climate future that is at least somewhat hopeful. Here are four:</p> <ul> <li><strong>“The Cloud Weaver’s Song,”</strong> by Saul Tanpepper, imagines a far-future city above the Horn of Africa, where the desert drought has forced the people to build towers in the clouds where they can harvest water.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: How do various people in the story respond to the idea of change? Which ways of responding to change are healthier, and which are less healthy?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Tidings,”</strong> by Rich Larson, strings together five vignettes to imagine how our descendants might use technology not to destroy the natural world but to renew and reconnect with it and with each other – through a plastic-eating biological robot, livestreams, virtual reality, animal translation, direct neural connection…<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: In what ways has the world in this story become a more dangerous, damaged place? In what ways has it become more beautiful and connected?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“A Worm to the Wise”</strong> by Marissa Lingen. In a decaying near-future world, a young journalist works to reclaim and nourish the soil in a demolished housing development. The way she reorients her goals and rethinks her future might model society’s process as well.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Why does Augusta choose to work at the soil reclamation farm initially? What new reasons does she find for working there by the end of the story?&nbsp;<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“El, the Plastotrophs, and Me,”</strong> by Tehnuka Ilanko, is set in a communal household living in Aotearoa (New Zealand), practicing “devolution.” They use indigenous practices to lead the transition from an industrial world to a more sustainable future. Conflicts between heritage and belonging and between ideals and the necessity for compromise animate this story. Maori vocabulary might challenge students.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What does it mean to belong to a community whose heritage you do not share? To what extent can we live with imperfection in our quest for balance and sustainability?<br> <br> <br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <h3>The Weight of Light</h3> <p>The Weight of Light, edited by Joey Eschrich and Clark A. Miller (2018, published at <a href="https://csi.asu.edu/books/weight/">Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination</a>). The short stories in this collection envision the social possibilities and challenges of different kinds of solar power.</p> <ul> <li><strong>“For The Snake of Power,”</strong> by Brenda Cooper, explores the conflict between one young woman’s work at a public solar plant and her origins in the low-income community her company serves.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: How might climate change affect the gap between the rich and the poor? What does fair energy distribution look like? What can individuals and communities do to make sure energy is fairly distributed?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>“Under the Grid,”</strong> by Andrew Dana Hudson, is set in a decaying city under an emergency government, where solar infrastructure is funded by foreign investors, and local collectives manage people’s compliance with the new energy laws.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: As we make the collective transition to green energy, is there still room for individual freedom and choice? What are the advantages and disadvantages of individually owned solar in the story? How does the story represent the U.S. economy compared to China, and why?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>“Big Rural,”</strong> by Cat Rambo, explores the challenges for a rural community as coal mining jobs disappear and a new solar plant arrives, bringing few new jobs and altering the landscape.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What special cultural and economic challenges do rural communities face in transitioning away from fossil fuels?&nbsp; Who should make major energy decisions such as whether to build a huge solar facility in a particular area: corporations, the federal government, local communities, or some combination of the three? What are the pros and cons of each?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Divided Light,”</strong> by Corey Pressman, is a story about two competing communities in a desert after the end of fossil fuels. A city has built a giant corporate sunshade over itself, while nearby lives an artistic techno-utopia oasis in the desert, embedding biopowered solar panels into every self-sustaining machine, organism, and building.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What might be the artistic, cultural, and practical merits of these two different communities’ approaches to powering our lives?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <h3><br> <br> Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond</h3> <p>Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, edited by Jonathan Strahan (2016), includes fifteen stories set in a post-climate change future.&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li><strong>“Elves of Antarctica” </strong>by Paul McAuley is set within the next century, after much of the Antarctic ice sheet has melted and drowned many coastal and island cities. A worker for “one of the transnational ecological remediation companies” explores the new life emerging as the ice retreats.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Is there a conflict between using technology to try to slow climate change, vs. accepting the beauty of the natural world even amidst its changes?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Venice Drowned”</strong> by Kim Stanley Robinson depicts how people might stay and live on the rooftops and towers of Venice even after a devastating rise in ocean level, which has transformed it into a destination for extractive tourist divers.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: what are the differences in how Carlo feels about Venice, his home, vs. how the tourists feel about it? What allows him to let go of his pain and anger by the end of the story?</li> </ul> <p><br> &nbsp;</p> <h3>Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction</h3> <p>Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams (2015) includes two dozen stories, of which several stand out for their explorations of the social causes of climate change and efforts to stop it.</p> <ul> <li><strong>“Truth and Consequences,” </strong>by Kim Stanley Robinson (2015), excerpted from The Green Earth a.k.a. the Science in the Capital trilogy, depicts scientists and politicians working to fight climate change with massive terraforming projects after natural disasters strike the world.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: What would it take for our governments and industries to make similar changes today? Do these fictional visions give us energy to make them reality, or just allow us to relax and do nothing?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Entanglement,”</strong> by Vandana Singh (2014), is a hopeful novella telling five interconnected stories of people in the near future fighting climate change in different ways, from the Arctic to India to America.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Can small actions have large effects in the world? How is this novella like an ecosystem itself?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>“The Precedent” </strong>by Sean McMullen (2010) is an extremely disturbing dystopian story about how the post-tipping-point generation takes revenge on those responsible. (Be aware: depicts torture and execution.)&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: How should we balance individual and collective responsibility for climate change? Who is responsible for the suffering of future generations, and should that suffering be punished?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“The Day It All Ended,” </strong>by Charlie Jane Anders (2014), is a hilarious satire of consumer culture in which a hip tech company has a secret plan to save the world without anyone noticing.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: Is it accurate that people would be more likely to spend money on frivolous gadgets than carbon-capture technology? How or why might that happen?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“The Tamarisk Hunter,”</strong> by Paolo Bacigalupi (2006), is also at <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/325/tamarisk-hunter-Bacigalupi">High Country News</a>. The story is about rural life in a water-starved American Southwest of the near future.<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: How do Lolo’s individual motivations and actions conflict with the collective goals of those paying him? Is that conflict inevitable? How are conflicts over water rights already shaping people’s lives today?<br> <br> &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>“Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet,”</strong> by Margaret Atwood (2009), is also at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/26/margaret-atwood-mini-science-fiction">The Guardian</a>. This 2-page letter from an extinct human race offers no explicit strategies for averting climate change, but its compactness makes it useful as a quick in-class read.&nbsp;<br> <br> <em>Discuss</em>: why is it important in the story that the gods had horns, beaks, or feathers? How did money become a god? Why did humans create deserts? What economic, cultural, or spiritual changes would need to occur for us to prevent the outcome in this story?</li> </ul> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Sara Carrero</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-04-17T11:25:28-04:00" title="Monday, April 17, 2023 - 11:25">April 17, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:25:28 +0000 Sara Carrero 1750 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Earth Day 2023 Lesson Collection https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/earth-day-2023-lesson-collection <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Earth Day 2023 Lesson Collection</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'filter_caption' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <figure role="group"> <img alt="Sunrise protest" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8a207923-cc42-4aba-9b26-1399a4bc3eb6" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Sunrise%20protest%20Peg%20Hunter.jpg" width="1023" height="682" loading="lazy"> <figcaption><em>Sunrise Movement protest in San Francisco, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43005015@N06/46267998755/in/photostream/">Peg Hunter</a></em></figcaption> </figure> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:13px"><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/biggest-us-climate-law-all-time">The Biggest U.S. Climate Law of All Time</a></strong>. Students explore how massive new climate legislation might affect their lives and how climate activists are using it to propel greater change.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:13px"><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-change-fiction-students-and-teachers">Climate Change Fiction for Students and Teachers</a></strong>. English teacher Sarah Outterson-Murphy provides brief descriptions of a range of short stories and novels exploring a changing climate, with questions for discussion. Also see Sarah's blog,&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/stories-voices/using-fiction-teach-climate-crisis">Using Fiction to Teach on the Climate Crisis</a>.&nbsp;</strong><br> &nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:13px"><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/celebrating-earth-day-earth-month">Celebrating Earth Day &amp; Earth Month</a></strong>. Honor the planet by engaging students in our lessons on the environment and climate.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/questioning-our-throwaway-culture">Questioning our Throwaway Culture</a></strong>. What is "throwaway culture" — and how do we participate in it? Students explore 'planned obsolescence' and a countering movement for the 'right-to-repair.'<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-emergency-cop26-youth-activism">Climate Emergency: COP26 &amp; Youth Activism</a></strong>. At this pivotal global summit on climate, young people are making their voices heard. In this activity, students discuss COP26 and urgent youth-led demands for action.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/how-young-people-are-fighting-climate-change-biden-era">How Young People Are Fighting Climate Change in the Biden Era</a></strong>. Students learn about and discuss the current state of the youth climate movement and how young people are helping to shape our nation's response to the climate crisis.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/are-we-ready-electric-cars">Are We Ready for Electric Cars?&nbsp;</a></strong> Students explore the accelerating move toward electric vehicles and consider&nbsp;how we might address some of the remaining obstacles to this transition.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/blog/why-limit-climate-crisis-science-class">Why Limit the Climate Crisis to Science Class?</a></strong> High school&nbsp;teacher Sarah Outterson-Murphy shares how her students developed their English skills by grappling&nbsp;with a&nbsp;"real, urgent, relevant, large-scale, yet-unsolved problem."&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>For even more, visit our <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/earth-day">Earth Day</a> page.&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Sara Carrero</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-04-10T08:35:48-04:00" title="Monday, April 10, 2023 - 08:35">April 10, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 10 Apr 2023 12:35:48 +0000 Sara Carrero 1746 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org The Biggest U.S. Climate Law of All Time https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/biggest-us-climate-law-all-time <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>The Biggest U.S. Climate Law of All Time</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><strong>To the Teacher</strong></p> <p>In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which allocates upwards of $370 billion toward policies designed to address the climate crisis. The provisions of that massive bill are now beginning to be felt.</p> <p>This lesson includes two readings on this legislation and how it is impacting the fight against climate change. The first reading provides an overview of the IRA and its significance as the largest piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. The second reading considers some of the shortcomings of the IRA and ways that climate activists are using the act as a tool to propel greater change. Questions for discussion follow each reading.<br> &nbsp;</p> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'filter_caption' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <figure role="group"> <img alt="Sunrise protest" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8a207923-cc42-4aba-9b26-1399a4bc3eb6" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Sunrise%20protest%20Peg%20Hunter.jpg" width="1023" height="682" loading="lazy"> <figcaption><em>Sunrise Movement protest in San Francisco, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43005015@N06/46267998755/in/photostream/">Peg Hunter</a></em></figcaption> </figure> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Introduction</strong></h3> <p>Ask students:</p> <ul> <li>Have you seen changes in your life because of the climate crisis?</li> <li>Have you or your family changed anything about the way you live because of the climate crisis?</li> <li>Are you aware of any recent government action to address the climate crisis?</li> </ul> <p>Share with students that in 2022, the U.S. government made the largest investment in addressing climate change in our nation’s history. Today we’ll learn more about how this legislation is beginning to be felt, how it might affect us – and what climate activists are saying and doing about it.</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Reading One</strong></p> <h3><strong>Biggest Climate Bill Ever: The New Inflation Reduction Act</strong></h3> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Climate%20Bill%20Handout_0.pdf"><em><strong>pdf version</strong></em></a><br> &nbsp;</p> <p>Many of us are keenly aware of the dire threat that climate change poses to life across the planet. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://grist.org/science/immediate-action-is-needed-to-ensure-a-livable-future-for-all-un-climate-panel-says/">warned</a> in a new report that dramatic measures are needed if we are to “secure a livable future for all.”</p> <p>At the same time, those who have been pushing for strong climate action have a major victory they can point to: In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which, among other provisions, allocates more than $370 billion to address the climate crisis.</p> <p>This is the largest investment that the U.S. government has ever made to address climate change, and the effects of the legislation are only beginning to be felt.</p> <p>Writing for Inside Climate News in December of 2022, reporter Dan Gearino gave historical context to the significance of the IRA, putting the act at the top of his list of the most substantive recent victories for clean energy. Gearino wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>The law’s climate and energy provisions include about <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19082022/inflation-reduction-act-electricity-prices-carbon-reduction/">$370 billion in new spending</a> on an array of tax credits and incentives designed to encourage the development of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and much more. The law is loaded with industrial policy, with incentives for companies to manufacture clean energy components within this country.</p> <p>The Inflation Reduction Act is “certainly as big a step in the right direction as we’ve had in a long time,” said Corey Schrodt, legislative affairs manager for climate at the Niskanen Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank that describes itself as politically moderate.</p> <p>How long? He points to the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Energy_Policy_Act_of_2005">Energy Policy Act of 2005</a>, signed by President George W. Bush, as the last example of Congress passing a major energy law. The law contained more than $20 billion, in today’s dollars, in energy-related tax incentives, and substantial funding for renewable energy development and research. ….</p> <p>[Even] with its shortcomings, the [2022] Inflation Reduction Act has provided funding and policy support that sets the tone for the remainder of this decade.</p> <p><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08122022/inside-clean-energy-2022-good-news/">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08122022/inside-clean-energy-2022-good-news/</a></p> </blockquote> <p>In a December 2022 article for CNBC, environmental policy reporter Emma Newburger <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/30/2022-climate-recap-whats-in-the-historic-inflation-reduction-act.html">recapped</a> some of the major investments in the act meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A few noteworthy allocations in the act include:</p> <ul> <li>A $60 billion subsidy to clean energy manufacturers in the U.S.</li> <li>$60 billion to address unequal impacts of climate change on overburdened communities</li> <li>$27 billion towards a green bank to fund clean energy projects across the country</li> <li>$20 billion to reduce emissions from the agricultural sector</li> </ul> <p>A variety of the law’s measures are now starting to take effect, including some that directly affect consumers. Starting in January, Americans <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/consumer-guide-inflation-reduction-act">can get</a>:</p> <ul> <li>30 percent off the purchase of an electric vehicle (a tax credit)</li> <li>up to $14,000 in tax rebates for buying efficient electric appliances</li> <li>up to $8,000 in tax rebates for home weatherization projects (depending on how much energy you save and your level of income)</li> </ul> <p>These provisions have started this year and will last until the end of 2032.</p> <p>Writing for The Conversation in September 2022, environmental engineering professor at UMass Lowell Jasmina Burek <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-cost-effective-energy-efficiency-investments-you-can-make-and-how-the-new-inflation-reduction-act-could-help-188506">summarized</a> how people can use some of the IRA’s programs to make their homes more energy-efficient, helping cut their energy costs. Burek writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>The biggest payoff for both saving money and reducing emissions is weatherizing the home to stop leaks. Losing cool air in summer and warm air in winter means heating and cooling systems run more, and they’re among the most energy-intensive systems in a home.</p> <p>The Inflation Reduction Act offers homeowners a hand [fixing leaks]. It includes a $150 rebate to help pay for a home energy audit that can locate leaks. Once you find the leaks, the act includes 30% tax credits with a maximum of $1,200 a year for basic weatherization work, plus <a href="https://www.rewiringamerica.org/policy/high-efficiency-electric-home-rebate-act">rebates up to $1,600</a> for low- and moderate-income homeowners earning less than 150% of the local median….</p> <p>The Inflation Reduction Act [also] includes up to $600 to help pay for window replacement and $250 to replace an exterior door….</p> <p>[And the] Inflation Reduction Act offers a 30% tax credit up to $2,000 available to anyone who purchases and installs a heat pump, in addition to rebates of up to $8,000 for <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/inflation-reduction-act-and-new-electric-appliance-rebates-a3460144904/">low- and moderate-income households</a> earning less than 150% of the local median income. Some high-efficiency wood-burning stoves also qualify….</p> <p>The entire energy and climate package – including incentives for utility-scale renewable energy, carbon capture and electric vehicles – could have a big impact for homeowners’ energy costs and the climate. According to several <a href="https://repeatproject.org/docs/REPEAT_IRA_Prelminary_Report_2022-08-04.pdf">estimates</a>, it has the potential to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by <a href="https://rhg.com/research/climate-clean-energy-inflation-reduction-act/">about 40%</a> by the end of this decade.</p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-cost-effective-energy-efficiency-investments-you-can-make-and-how-the-new-inflation-reduction-act-could-help-188506">https://theconversation.com/the-most-cost-effective-energy-efficiency-investments-you-can-make-and-how-the-new-inflation-reduction-act-could-help-188506</a></p> </blockquote> <p>The IRA represents the most significant piece of climate legislation that the U.S. government has passed to date. However, there is still debate about whether it goes far enough to address the full scope of the climate crisis.</p> <p><br> <strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Have you heard about the IRA in the news? Were you aware that this measure had passed?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Do you think your family might benefit from any of the tax credits or rebates in the IRA? If so, which ones? What can you do about it?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>In general, how do you think this legislation might affect peoples’ lives?</li> </ol> <ol start="5"> <li>According to the reading, the IRA “has the potential to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by <a href="https://rhg.com/research/climate-clean-energy-inflation-reduction-act/">about 40%</a> by the end of this decade.” Do you think this is a sufficient step forward? Why or why not?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Reading Two </strong></p> <h3><strong>Environmentalists Push to Go Beyond the IRA</strong></h3> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Climate%20Bill%20Handout_0.pdf"><em><strong>pdf version</strong></em></a></p> <p><br> While many consider the IRA to be the most important federal climate action to date, climate experts also point out that the act falls short of comprehensively tackling the climate crisis.</p> <p>In its most recent report, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of climate scientists widely respected as one of the most trustworthy sources of expertise on climate change, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/20/ipcc-climate-crisis-report-delivers-final-warning-on-15c">has called</a> for even swifter and more drastic action than it had previously. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres followed the report by <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21730.doc.htm">calling</a> on developed countries such as the U.S. to significantly accelerate their deadlines for reducing their carbon emissions. The IRA’s estimated emissions reduction of 40% from 2005 levels by 2030 is not enough to put the country on track to meet these new updated global targets—or even the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/">own targets</a>.</p> <p>Writing for Scientific American in March 2023, energy and environmental policy report Jean Chemnick covered this discrepancy. Chemnick <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-just-warned-we-need-to-cut-emissions-by-60-percent-but-the-u-s-is-years-away/#">wrote</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The United Nations' latest climate assessment has upped the ante for energy policy in the United States, making it clear that rich nations need to cut their emissions more deeply than some of the most ambitious targets.</p> <p>The report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change introduced a new deadline that the world must meet to avoid the most catastrophic climate impacts. To limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, it found that global greenhouse gas emissions must decline by 60 percent by 2035 compared with 2019 levels…</p> <p>That translates to a 67 percent emissions cut by 2035 from a 2005 baseline — the year the United States uses as a benchmark. Even if the country met the Biden administration's goal of cutting emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030, it would have a long way to go in five years to make a 67 percent cut a reality.</p> <p>“That is extraordinarily challenging,” said Robbie Orvis, senior director of modeling and analysis at Energy Innovation.</p> <p>One reason is what he called "capital stock turnover." The Biden administration's target relies on getting people or companies to upgrade to more efficient or cleaner models when their old equipment needs to be replaced. The Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives for those upgrades — whether it be cars or coal-fired power plants — and upcoming regulations will likely boost the switchover as well.</p> <p>That gradual switch, however, may not be fast enough for the IPCC target.</p> <p>“To hit a target like 60 percent below 2019 by 2035, you start having to have people replace equipment before it's reached the end of its useful life,” Orvis said. “And that is, from a policy standpoint and an economic standpoint, much more challenging.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-just-warned-we-need-to-cut-emissions-by-60-percent-but-the-u-s-is-years-away/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-just-warned-we-need-to-cut-emissions-by-60-percent-but-the-u-s-is-years-away/#</a></p> </blockquote> <p>Policymakers are considering other measures aimed at decarbonizing the U.S. economy. However, based on the political battle required to pass the IRA, it is clear that similarly impactful policies will not be possible without the participation of social movements.</p> <p>Environmentalists – including youth climate activists from the <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/">Sunrise Movement</a> and BIPOC and Indigenous-led groups like the <a href="https://climatejusticealliance.org/">Climate Justice Alliance</a> – are well aware that the final IRA was at best a compromised version of the more expansive “Green New Deal” they had advocated for. They are pushing for more.</p> <p>In a February 2023 article for Waging Nonviolence, 350.org climate justice organizers Jeff Ordower and Daniel Hunter <a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/02/inflation-reduction-act-climate-bill-money-waiting-to-be-seized-activists-opportunity/">outline</a> some ways that the climate movement can use the IRA as a tool to further its efforts to build power and propel greater change. Ordower and Hunter write:</p> <blockquote> <p>Yes, the Inflation Reduction Act is the most consequential piece of climate legislation in the U.S. Yes, it’s also the only federal legislation. Yes, it’s imperfect… Yes, the negotiations exacerbated tensions between insider green organizations and those on the frontlines.</p> <p>[Still,] With all its limitations, the IRA can further our campaigns if we use the opportunity…Activists are already experimenting with some ways to leverage [the] money on the table.</p> <p>[The Sunrise Movement has] charted one pathway: building local Green New Deals and investing in the people and political power to make the next iteration of big policy possible. 350 Minnesota thinks that IRA funds can be leveraged as part of a Peoples Climate Equity Plan in Minneapolis that will actually implement a local Green New Deal prioritizing African-American neighborhoods in North Minneapolis first.</p> <p>In Detroit, organizers right now are door knocking low-income and working-class folks with offers to help deliver weatherization and solar. Since those benefits can only be accessed when taxes are due, they are working on upfront financing. By receiving those services, people are being brought into an organizing model that teaches about our unfair tax system and politicizes them for more organizing power.</p> </blockquote> <p>The 350.org organizers also write that there are “many more doors available” in the IRA that would open the door to organizing in working class and BIPOC communities:</p> <blockquote> <p>The IRA could be one pathway to delivering something real and tangible in communities where progressives do not usually organize…</p> <p>As organizers we can help deliver particular benefits situated in a larger campaign around educational justice or policy changes at the city or county level….</p> <p>Despite the lack of strong climate justice provisions inside the bill, as organizers we can use this moment to center racial and economic justice in our work. BIPOC and Indigenous led Groups like the Climate Justice Alliance are both pushing the administration to ensure that racial justice is centered in implementation and helping their groups capture the money needed for community run transitions.&nbsp;</p> <p>While utilities are going to continue resisting rooftop solar, stymying community-owned projects, and engaging in price-gouging — we can keep organizing. Even as we propose using the IRA’s carrot, we encourage wielding our sticks, challenging utility companies to democratize their governance, preventing people from getting their energy shut off and enabling all the new solar to sell energy back to the grid.</p> <p><a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/02/inflation-reduction-act-climate-bill-money-waiting-to-be-seized-activists-opportunity/">https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/02/inflation-reduction-act-climate-bill-money-waiting-to-be-seized-activists-opportunity/</a></p> </blockquote> <p>The fact that the IRA represents a political compromise, and that more action is needed for the U.S. to reach climate targets, means that social movements will continue to debate how to best use the legislation as a stepping-stone toward larger gains. The actions of young people will be an important part of that process.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>According to the reading, how does the IRA’s estimated impact of a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 stack up against the Biden administration’s goals? How does it compare with the UN General-Secretary’s updated goals for developed countries based on the most recent IPCC report?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>In your opinion, do these shortcomings of the IRA outweigh the successes of the act, or vice versa? How would you balance the pros and the cons?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>What do you think about how climate justice organizations plan to use the IRA to promote racial and economic justice in their communities?&nbsp;</li> </ol> <ol start="5"> <li>In your opinion, what next steps should the environmental movement take to address the climate crisis in the U.S.?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>What further changes in government policy, business practices, or personal behavior do you think are warranted? What might be some methods for motivating action around these changes?</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Extension Activities</strong><br> &nbsp;</h3> <p><strong>1.&nbsp; Use the IRA at home</strong></p> <p>Ask students to investigate the heat sources and appliances used in their homes – and consider the type of vehicle the family owns, if any. Could any of the provisions of the IRA help their family reduce their carbon footprint – and save money?&nbsp;</p> <p>Have students report back and discuss next steps.</p> <p><br> <strong>2.&nbsp; Research action groups</strong></p> <p>Ask students to research youth-led climate organizations, find out if they have any presence in your community, and discuss their findings.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>–Research assistance provided by Sean Welch.</em></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2023-04-10T08:22:26-04:00" title="Monday, April 10, 2023 - 08:22">April 10, 2023</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 10 Apr 2023 12:22:26 +0000 Laura McClure 1745 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Can Going Meatless Ease the Climate Crisis? https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/can-going-meatless-ease-climate-crisis <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Can Going Meatless Ease the Climate Crisis?</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><img alt="Meat" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e444cb6c-04cf-48e1-89b8-71fdad9e3b51" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/meat_0.jpg" width="900" height="512" loading="lazy"></p> <p><br> <strong>To the Teacher</strong></p> <p>Advocates of vegetarianism have long <a href="https://vegsoc.org/info-hub/why-go-veggie/environment/">argued</a> that a meat-free diet is not only healthier, but also an important way to reduce our own environmental impact. In the age of climate change, this argument is taking on new significance.</p> <p>This lesson has students explore vegetarianism as a response to the climate crisis. It includes two readings. The first looks at how global production of meat-based foods—especially in the U.S. and other high-income nations— contributes to climate change. The second reading discusses collective efforts by governments and activists to address the issue by changing food systems to reduce meat production and implementing stricter environmental regulations on factory farms. Questions for discussion follow each reading.</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>Introduction</h2> <p><br> Invite students to share their responses to this question:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li>Do you eat meat and other animal-based foods?</li> </ul> <p>Consider using an “opinion continuum” format: Post a sign saying “Yes” on one end of the classroom, and “No” on the other. Invite students to stand next to the sign that reflects their own response – or somewhere on a line between the signs if, for instance, they limit their meat consumption in some form.</p> <p>Once students have responded (either verbally or by positioning themselves along the opinion continuum), ask for volunteers who do not eat meat or who are somewhere in the middle on this question to share why they have made this choice. You might ask:</p> <ul> <li>Is it primarily because you have health concerns about eating meat?</li> <li>Is it primarily because you want to prevent harm to animals?</li> <li>Is it primarily because of environmental reasons, such as a concern about climate change?</li> <li>Is it a combination of all these?</li> <li>Are there other reasons affecting your decision?</li> </ul> <p>Ask students who do eat meat:</p> <ul> <li>Do you share any of these concerns?</li> <li>Have you considered cutting back on your consumption of meat? If so, why?</li> </ul> <p>Share with students that today we’ll be reading about and discussing why some people are choosing to cut back or eliminate their meat consumption as a way of reducing their personal impact on the climate.</p> <hr> <p><br> <strong>Reading One</strong></p> <h2><strong>Meat Consumption: A Major Cause of Climate Change</strong></h2> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Vegetarianism%20%26%20the%20Climate.pdf"><em><strong>pdf version</strong></em></a></p> <p><br> Advocates of vegetarianism have long <a href="https://vegsoc.org/info-hub/why-go-veggie/environment/">argued</a> that a meat-free diet is not only a healthier way to eat, but also an important way to reduce our own environmental impact.</p> <p>In the age of climate change, this argument is taking on new significance. Factory farming of animals for human consumption accounts for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/how-factory-farming-contributes-to-global-warming-1881690535.html">37%</a> of global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. It is also responsible for a sizeable percentage of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, with beef production accounting for the largest portion.</p> <p>The top three global meat and dairy producers, including Tyson Foods in the United States, collectively have a carbon footprint greater than fossil fuel giant BP. Furthermore, the global growth of factory farming is <a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/blogs/factory-farming-real-climate-culprit">expected</a> to triple by 2050.</p> <p>Writing for The Guardian in September 2021, journalist Oliver Millman reported on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study">research findings</a> that showed how meat production is an even greater contributor to global emissions than previously thought. Millman wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found.</p> <p>The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research. This enormous release of gases that fuel the climate crisis is more than double the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks">entire emissions of the U.S</a>. and represents 35% of all global emissions, researchers said….</p> <p>The raising and culling of animals for food is far worse for the climate than growing and processing fruits and vegetables for people to eat, the research found, confirming previous findings on the outsized impact that meat production, particularly beef, has on the environment….</p> <p>Grazing animals require a lot of land, which is often cleared through the felling of forests, as well as vast tracts of additional land to grow their feed. The paper calculates that the majority of all the world’s cropland is used to feed livestock, rather than people. Livestock also produce large quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.</p> <p>“All of these things combined means that the emissions are very high,” said Xiaoming Xu, [a] University of Illinois researcher and the lead author of the paper. “To produce more meat you need to feed the animals more, which then generates more emissions. You need more biomass to feed animals in order to get the same amount of calories. It isn’t very efficient.”</p> <p>….Scientists have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/10/huge-reduction-in-meat-eating-essential-to-avoid-climate-breakdown">consistently stressed</a> that if dangerous global heating is to be avoided, a major rethink of eating habits and farming practices is required. Meat production has now expanded to the point that <a href="http://www.fao.org/livestock-systems/global-distributions/chickens/en/">there are now approximately</a> three chickens for every human on the planet.</p> <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> Given such research findings, it is not surprising that many scientists and public policy advocates believe that reducing meat consumption—especially in America and other high-income nations—can play a significant role in the fight against global warming. Writing for the online magazine Carbon Brief, author Ayesha Tandon discusses a 2022 study <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/rich-nations-could-see-double-climate-dividend-by-switching-to-plant-based-foods/">modeling the impacts</a> of reduced meat consumption in high-income nations. Tandon writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>Animal-based foods have higher carbon and land footprints than their plant-based alternatives, and are most commonly consumed in high-income countries….</p> <p>High-income countries could cut their agricultural emissions by almost two-thirds through dietary change, the authors find. They add that moving away from animal-based foods could free up an area of land larger than the entire European Union.</p> <p>If this land were all allowed to revert to its natural state, it would capture almost 100 billion tons of carbon – equal to 14 years of global agricultural emissions – the authors note. They add that this level of carbon capture “could potentially fulfill high-income countries’ CO2 removal obligations needed to limit warming to 1.5C under equality sharing principles.”</p> <p>…Individuals in <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-are-low-and-middle-income-countries-bound-to-eat-more-meat">high-income nations</a> currently have the greatest potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through their dietary choices, because their diets are usually the most meat-oriented. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/51/13412">Animal-derived products</a> drive 70% of food-system emissions in high-income countries but only 22% in low–middle-income countries….</p> <p>“To put this in perspective,” [said Dr Sonja Vermeulen, the lead global food scientist at WWF,] “it’s about the same positive impact as all countries signing up to and implementing the COP26 declaration on the transition to 100% zero emission cars and vans globally by 2040.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/rich-nations-could-see-double-climate-dividend-by-switching-to-plant-based-foods/">https://www.carbonbrief.org/rich-nations-could-see-double-climate-dividend-by-switching-to-plant-based-foods/</a><br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <p>With research clearly demonstrating that the use of animal products for food is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, the question of whether to eat vegetarian has become an urgent topic of discussion in a world already feeling catastrophic impacts from climate change.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Discussion:</strong></p> <p><br> Discuss the questions below as a whole group or in small groups that will briefly report back to the rest of the class.</p> <ol> <li>According to the reading, what percentage of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by food production? In what ways might the production of meat contribute to climate change?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>Some advocates argue that since high-income nations produce the majority of greenhouse gases caused by meat production, they should bear a proportionately larger share of responsibility for taking steps to reduce emissions. What do you think of this argument?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>Would you consider changing the way that you eat in order to contribute to the fight against global warming? Why or why not? How might making changes to your diet affect your life?</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Reading Two</strong></p> <h2><strong>Addressing the Environmental Impact of Meat</strong></h2> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Vegetarianism%20%26%20the%20Climate.pdf"><em><strong>pdf version</strong></em></a><br> &nbsp;</p> <p>In terms of taking steps to reduce the environmental impact of our diets, shifting to fully plant-based eating is just one possibility.</p> <p>While some advocates believe that we should go vegetarian (meaning that people would stop eating meat) or vegan (which additionally involves giving up dairy and other animal products), others argue that even taking smaller steps to reduce meat consumption can have a big impact. This is the reasoning behind <a href="https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/meatless-monday/about">Meatless Mondays</a>, an advocacy campaign started in 2003 that encourages individuals and groups to go meatless one day per week.</p> <p>The campaign has since been adopted by schools, hospitals, and other institutions in more than 40 countries around the world. Recently, <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/135-19/mayor-de-blasio-chancellor-carranza-brooklyn-borough-president-adams-citywide#/0">New York City</a> has implemented Meatless Mondays in all of its public schools and hospitals.</p> <p>Reducing meat consumption to help the environment is not just a personal issue. We can also take collective action. Recognizing the large role that industrial production of meat-based foods plays in contributing to climate change, policymakers and activists have been promoting changes to our food systems designed to protect the climate. In an August 30, 2022, article for the website The Beet, journalist Maxwell Rabb reported on recent climate initiatives in the U.S. and abroad that aim to reduce meat production. Rabb wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>[The City of San Diego’s]<a href="https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/san_diegos_2022_climate_action_plan_0.pdf"> </a><a href="https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/san_diegos_2022_climate_action_plan_0.pdf">Climate Action Plan</a> concludes a two-year effort from a coalition of 20 local organizers. San Diego’s comprehensive carbon-neutral campaign will set a new standard for city action regarding dangerous environmentally-unfriendly practices.…</p> <p>The climate plan outlines that San Diego plans to reduce its meat- and dairy-related emissions by 20 percent. The plan also notes that it hopes to cut its water footprint by the same percentage. The city plans to promote a plant-based agriculture and food system to replace the existing animal agriculture industries….</p> <p>Last July, the<a href="https://thebeet.com/berkeley-california-now-home-to-first-plant-based-city-council/"> </a><a href="https://thebeet.com/berkeley-california-now-home-to-first-plant-based-city-council/">Berkeley City Council</a><a href="https://thebeet.com/berkeley-california-now-home-to-first-plant-based-city-council/"> </a>announced that it would replace approximately 50 percent of its animal-based food expenditures with plant-based options by 2024. The transitional efforts aim to cut waste and greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the city government. The campaign marked the first step in the city’s plan to cut animal-based products from all city-run establishments including municipal buildings, senior centers,&nbsp; the jail, and more, according to The Daily Californian.</p> <p><a name="_47ljrb92c3n4"></a>….Outside of the United States, several countries have launched plant-based inspired initiatives to combat climate change, including <a href="https://thebeet.com/denmark-invests-in-plant-based-fund/">Denmark</a>. This April, the country invested $100 million into a fund exclusively devoted to promoting plant-based education, sales, and innovation in the country. The program aims to undercut the negative environmental consequences of Denmark's large meat industry.</p> <p>One campaign, <a href="https://thebeet.com/the-plant-based-treaty-expands-on-paris-agreement-for-a-better-food-system/">The Plant-Based Treaty</a>, aims to expand upon the existing climate goals set by the Paris Agreement, emphasizing that the country and its citizens must adopt plant-based practices to successfully counter the worsening climate crisis. Organized by three tenets (Relinquish, Redirect, and Restore), the initiative emphasizes the urgency needed to protect the planet.</p> <p><a href="https://thebeet.com/san-diego-climate-change-plan/">https://thebeet.com/san-diego-climate-change-plan/</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> In addition to initiatives like these, which focus on reducing public consumption of meat, environmental groups have also been seeking to increase regulation of industrial producers of meat-based foods.</p> <p>Writing for Bloomberg in March 2022, journalist Deena Shanker reported that environmental groups are lobbying Congress to regulate meat producers and enable the Environmental Protection Agency to control carbon emissions from livestock production. According to Shanker:</p> <blockquote> <p>“In addition to fueling the climate crisis, factory farms release dangerous toxins into the air we breathe and the water we drink,” environmental groups wrote in <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Allow-EPA-to-Regulate-Factory-Farm-Emissions-Organizational-Sign-On-Letter-.pdf">a letter</a> to lawmakers in February. The EPA has authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate these emissions, but the appropriations riders have been included for years, keeping the agency from doing so, the groups argue.</p> <p>“Please do all within your power to ensure EPA has the resources to hold this industry accountable for its emissions,” urged the groups, which include Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Food &amp; Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the National Family Farm Coalition.</p> <p>.…“The bottom line is that environmental regulation of agriculture has always been extremely limited in the United States,” said Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the technical director of the food program at World Resources Institute. “As a general rule, it’s just because of the political clout of the agricultural industry.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-10/spending-bill-to-limit-environmental-regulation-of-livestock">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-10/spending-bill-to-limit-environmental-regulation-of-livestock</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> The science clearly demonstrates the environmental impact of industrial meat production. However, due to the political power held by the agriculture industry, it remains to be seen whether environmentalists will succeed in establishing stricter regulations in the future.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Discussion:</strong></p> <p><br> Discuss the questions below as a whole group or in small groups that will briefly report back to the rest of the class.<br> &nbsp;</p> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>Have you heard of Meatless Mondays before? What do you think of the idea? Does your school or others you know of participate in it?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>Controlling the greenhouse gas emissions of the meat industry is not merely a matter of personal choices we might make about our diets. What are some collective measures that people are taking?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>What do you think: Should addressing the impact of meat production be part of the effort to combat climate change?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>What do you think are the best approaches to tackling this issue?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2><strong>Closing</strong></h2> <p>Ask students to share one thing that stood out for them in the discussion today.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>—Research assistance provided by Aaron Jorgensen-Briggs</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-11-01T09:40:05-04:00" title="Tuesday, November 1, 2022 - 09:40">November 1, 2022</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:40:05 +0000 Laura McClure 1704 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Celebrating Earth Day & Earth Month https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/celebrating-earth-day-earth-month <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Celebrating Earth Day &amp; Earth Month </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Earth Day (April 22) and Earth Month are an opportunity to engage students in exploring issues related to the environment, the climate, and youth activism.</p> <p>See our <strong><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/earth-day">Earth Day lesson collection</a></strong> for ideas!</p> <p>You might also consider marking Earth Month by recognizing the indigenous people who once lived on the land you now occupy. See our lesson on <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/creating-class-land-acknowledgment-statement">creating a class land acknowledgement statement</a>. Students might also explore ways that indigenous peoples <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51806291">around the world</a>, now and in the past, have related to the earth.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-04-18T09:36:19-04:00" title="Monday, April 18, 2022 - 09:36">April 18, 2022</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:36:19 +0000 Laura McClure 1666 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Questioning our Throwaway Culture https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/questioning-our-throwaway-culture <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Questioning our Throwaway Culture</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p class="Normal1">&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>To The Teacher:</strong></p> <p>Too often, the products we buy are designed to be disposable. Whether it’s a mobile phone, a pair of earbuds, or a microwave, if an item we are using stops working, it usually gets thrown away. Even if we want to fix it, we often have no ability to do so. To combat this culture of disposability, a growing movement called “right to repair” is attempting to encourage more sustained relationships with the items we buy.</p> <p>This lesson includes two readings that explore throwaway culture and the right to repair movement. The first reading discusses the concept of “planned obsolescence” and encourages students to think about their relationships with items often treated as readily disposable. The second reading looks at the objectives of the right to repair movement and recent legislative momentum to make the idea a reality. Questions for discussion follow each reading.</p> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'filter_caption' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <figure role="group"> <img alt="https://www.flickr.com/photos/villeneuvedascq/27280398240" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="71637860-7606-46f7-878a-8288190e7efc" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/RepairCafeUK_0.jpg" width="800" height="296" loading="lazy"> <figcaption><em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/villeneuvedascq/27280398240">Repair Cafe in France</a></em>.&nbsp;</figcaption> </figure> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Introduction</strong><br> &nbsp;</h3> <p>Ask students:</p> <ul> <li>What are some items that you or your family sometimes throw away that could be either reused or repaired?&nbsp; (Consider: common plastic items, like bottles; earbuds; old electronics; broken furniture; old appliances; clothing that could be repaired or used by someone else…)<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Can you think of items that seem designed to be thrown away? (This is also called “planned obsolescence.”)&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>Have you ever tried to have something repaired, and found out that it was next to impossible?</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Why would products be designed for obsolescence – that is, to be thrown away?</li> </ul> <ul> <li>What impact does this have on us as individuals and for society at large?&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p><br> Tell students that today we’ll read about and discuss what is sometimes called “throwaway culture” and how it affects us – and learn about a growing movement called the “right to repair.”&nbsp;</p> <p>See this <a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Throwaway%20Culture%20Readings.pdf">pdf handout</a> of the readings and discussion questions below.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Reading One<br> Planned Obsolescence and Our 'Disposable Society'</strong></h3> <p><strong><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Throwaway%20Culture%20Readings.pdf">pdf handout</a></em></strong></p> <p><br> Too often, the products we buy are designed to be disposable. Whether it’s a mobile phone, a pair of earbuds, or a microwave, if an item we are using stops working, it usually gets thrown away. Even if we want to fix it, we often have no ability to do so.</p> <p>In many cases, companies have intentionally made “in-home” repairs difficult and expensive in order to encourage consumers to buy new products instead of fixing our old ones.</p> <p>Our society is heavily influenced by both the desire for convenience and by “throwaway culture,” in which we buy countless single-use items in disposable packaging and trash even more expensive purchases after limited use.</p> <p>In the United States, more than 100 billion plastic bottles are sold and more than 14.5 million tons of single-use plastic packaging are created <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/02/09/trashing-throw-away-society">every year</a>. While we are getting somewhat better at recycling paper and plastic, the problem of disposability extends further to high-tech items that contain heavy metals and other hazardous components.</p> <p>As Madrid-based business reporter Clara Hernanz Lizarraga <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-right-to-repair-gadgets-is-a-climate-issue/2021/08/28/974bd350-07bd-11ec-b3c4-c462b1edcfc8_story.html">reported</a> in Bloomberg News on August 28, 2021, “Discarded electronic goods generated an estimated 53.6 million tons of waste in 2019, and only 17% of that was properly recycled. This trash contains heavy metals and compounds including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, which if not disposed of appropriately can expose communities to the risk of cancer, birth defects and mutations.”</p> <p>The problem of electronic waste is only growing. Writing in The Atlantic in 2016, reporter and financial-services specialist Syed Faraz Ahmed <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/">explained</a> about how this problem has changed in the past two decades:</p> <blockquote> <p>Electronics have always produced waste, but the quantity and speed of discard has increased rapidly in recent years. There was a time when households would keep televisions for more than a decade. But thanks to changes in technology and consumer demand, there is hardly any device now that persists for more than a couple of years in the hands of the original owner. As per<a href="http://www.endseurope.com/39711/electronic-goods-life-spans-shrinking-study-indicates"> </a><a href="http://www.endseurope.com/39711/electronic-goods-life-spans-shrinking-study-indicates">the report of ENDS Europe agency</a>, built-in obsolescence increased the proportions of all units sold to replace defective appliances from 3.5 percent in 2004 to 8.3 percent in 2012. The share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within the first five years grew from 7 percent of total replacements in 2004 to 13 percent in 2013.</p> <p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> This growing problem of waste and throwaway culture did not happen by accident. Corporations have deliberately encouraged disposability in order to sell more products. “Planned obsolescence,” a strategy in which producers make goods disposable so that consumers must continue to repurchase new goods, began in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, as mass production was becoming popular. It has become more and more prevalent ever since. Ahmed continues:</p> <blockquote> <p>Manufacturers have also used software updates to privilege newer models of smartphones and computers, invisibly pressuring consumers to buy new devices just to maintain parity of experience. And companies have also increasingly ended support for older models or the operating systems that run on them. WhatsApp and Facebook, for example, recently<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/22/facebook-nixes-blackberry/"> </a><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/22/facebook-nixes-blackberry/">announced</a> that they will stop providing support for their apps on certain older models of Blackberry.</p> <p>Following the lead set by razor blades, printer manufacturers have realized that they can make more money selling ink and toner than the printer hardware itself. According to a Financial Times<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/98df02e2-fc49-11d8-bb3a-00000e2511c8"> </a><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/98df02e2-fc49-11d8-bb3a-00000e2511c8">report</a>, a gallon of ink for the typical printer costs the consumer around $8,000. But the prices of printers are so low that once their initial ink supply is spent, the consumer is tempted to buy a whole new machine.</p> <p>This idea of pushing consumers to buy new items quickly by artificially reducing the lifespan of products is hardly new. In 1924,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel"> </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel">Phoebus</a>, a cartel between Osram, Phillips, Tungsram, and General Electric, insured that light bulbs did not exceed an expected life span of 1,000 hours. This cartel was dissolved in 1939, when Eastern European manufacturers started producing low-cost bulbs.</p> <p>But today, planned obsolescence has broader and more serious consequences. Electronic waste is a global ecological issue. It raises concern about air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, information security, and even human exploitation.</p> <p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> With consumers under pressure to buy the latest models of gadgets and smartphones, and with manufacturers feeding the creation of toxic trash, the consequences of throwaway culture are becoming ever more evident.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>What stood out for you in this reading? Why?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>What is “planned obsolescence” and why has it become more prevalent?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>What are some examples of manufacturers encouraging people to buy new products instead of fixing older ones?</li> </ol> <ol start="5"> <li>Think of instances in your life where you have seen throwaway culture at work. What did you think about this?</li> </ol> <ol start="6"> <li>What steps do you think that we can take as individuals or collectively to address the culture of disposability? What role do you think that government should have in confronting this problem?</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Reading Two<br> Defending Our “Right to Repair”</strong></h3> <p><strong><em><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/Throwaway%20Culture%20Readings.pdf">pdf handout</a></em></strong></p> <p><br> Around the world, a growing movement known as “right to repair” is challenging throwaway culture and encouraging more sustained relationships with the items we buy.</p> <p>At both local and federal levels, the movement is advocating for laws to allow consumers to repair their own technological devices, from cars to cell phones, rather than discarding them when they break. As technology reporter Thorin Klosowski <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/what-is-right-to-repair/">explained</a> in a July 2021 article in The New York Times:</p> <blockquote> <p>The idea behind “right to repair” is in the name: If you own something, you should be able to repair it yourself or take it to a technician of your choice. People are pretty used to this concept when it comes to older cars and appliances, but right-to-repair advocates argue that modern tech, especially anything with a computer chip inside, is rarely repairable.</p> <p>Legally,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/opinion/sunday/right-to-repair-elizabeth-warren-antitrust.html"> </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/opinion/sunday/right-to-repair-elizabeth-warren-antitrust.html">American shoppers are mostly already allowed</a> to repair whatever they buy (those warranty-voiding stickers you’ve probably seen on gadgets are<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/04/ftc-staff-warns-companies-it-illegal-condition-warranty-coverage"> </a><a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/04/ftc-staff-warns-companies-it-illegal-condition-warranty-coverage">usually bogus</a> under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act), but practically speaking, people are often denied the information or the parts to do so. This is where the right-to-repair movement comes in.<a href="https://www.repair.org/"> </a><a href="https://www.repair.org/">The Repair Association</a>, a right-to-repair advocacy group, has several policy objectives, including some that can be corrected with laws and others that require a shift in buyer expectations. Those objectives are<strong>:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Make information available: Everyone should have reasonable access to manuals, schematics, and software updates. Software licenses shouldn’t limit support options and should make clear what’s included in a sale.</li> <li>Make parts and tools available: The parts and tools to service devices, including diagnostic tools, should be made available to third parties, including individuals.</li> <li><a name="_onm5ss8a0t54"></a> Allow unlocking: The government should legalize unlocking, adapting, or modifying a device, so an owner can install custom software.</li> <li><a name="_zcykyw7lwolu"></a> Accommodate repair in the design: Devices should be designed in a way as to make repair possible.</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/what-is-right-to-repair/">https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/what-is-right-to-repair/</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> Right to repair is a growing movement internationally. European regulators have been leading the charge, implementing rules as early as 2019 that require manufacturers of household appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, and TVs to make repair manuals and spare parts available to consumers.</p> <p>The movement has also had some legislative successes in the United States. Twenty-five states are considering right to repair legislation. In June 2021, New York moved a step closer to passing a bill when the state senate approved the Digital Fair Repair Act, which would require manufacturers to make repair manuals and parts available to customers.</p> <p>The following month, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that aims to increase competition and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/tech/right-to-repair-biden-executive-order/index.html">directs</a> the Federal Trade Commission to issue rules supporting independent repair shops.</p> <p>Kyle Wiens, the founder of a technology repair service IFixit, has described how right to repair can reduce global waste and improve the daily lives of consumers. In a July 13, 2021 op-ed for the Washington Post, Wiens <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/13/biden-ftc-right-to-repair/">wrote</a> about the recent progress on this front:</p> <blockquote> <p>On Friday, President Biden issued a sweeping<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/"> </a><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/">executive order</a> promising action on various fronts — from drug prices to fees charged by airlines — to improve competition within the American economy. Among the most consequential if often-overlooked issues the order addresses is the “right to repair.”</p> <p>Right to repair is a David-vs-Goliath battle. Local repair businesses have been frustrated for years at being shut out from servicing the products we all depend on. Apple, for instance, does not allow independent shops to repair home buttons on iPhones. Nikon has<a href="https://www.ifixit.com/News/34241/nikon-is-killing-its-authorized-repair-program"> </a><a href="https://www.ifixit.com/News/34241/nikon-is-killing-its-authorized-repair-program">stopped selling service parts</a> to local camera shops, forcing many out of business. John Deere withholds software that farmers need to keep their modern tractors running, making farmers beholden to dealerships even for the most basic fixes. Farmers are<a href="https://uspirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/american-farm-bureau-reaffirms-support-right-repair"> </a><a href="https://uspirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/american-farm-bureau-reaffirms-support-right-repair">so frustrated</a> that they turn to sketchy sources — like Ukrainian firmware companies — for tools to fix their own equipment….</p> <p>The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating anticompetitive repair practices for years, but trade associations have blocked real reforms (often at the state level). A sign that the FTC is getting more aggressive on this issue came in May, when it released a bipartisan report (signed on to by all its commissioners), “<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-restrictions/nixing_the_fix_report_final_5521_630pm-508_002.pdf">Nixing the Fix</a>,” that concluded that “there is scant evidence to support manufacturers’ justifications for repair restrictions.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/13/biden-ftc-right-to-repair/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/13/biden-ftc-right-to-repair/</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> Most of the current fights around right to repair are happening at the state level, where corporations are lobbying heavily against proposed legislation. According to U.S. PIRG, a non-profit consumer protection agency, electronic manufacturers including T-Mobile, AT&amp;T, and Tesla have all lobbied against right to repair bills.</p> <p>In Colorado, where activists are pushing for right to repair legislation, a recent bill was shot down in the state senate. Reporting for Vice, multimedia journalist Matthew Gault <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx8w7b/colorado-denied-its-citizens-the-right-to-repair-after-riveting-testimony">outlined</a> the testimony of one individual, Kenny Maestas, who spoke at a March 2021 hearing about how he would benefit from right to repair:</p> <blockquote> <p>Maestas, who uses a wheelchair, drove this home in his testimony before the committee. Maestas spent a long time in the hospital and when he came home, his mobility was restricted. An electric wheelchair helped him get around, but it was broken. The right arm of the chair was broken and the battery would no longer hold a charge...</p> <p>Maestas said that the electric wheelchair company had the battery and spare parts on file to fix his chair, but the company’s procedure required a technician to first inspect the chair before making a repair. It was another 28 days after the tech first arrived before Maestas was mobile again. It was more than 60 days before his chair was working again.</p> <p>“It’s never appropriate to make a human being with a critical care need wait over two months for a repair that could have been completed in two days,” he said. The committee asked Maestas no questions.</p> <p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx8w7b/colorado-denied-its-citizens-the-right-to-repair-after-riveting-testimony">https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx8w7b/colorado-denied-its-citizens-the-right-to-repair-after-riveting-testimony</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> Despite testimony from disability-rights activists, farmers, and environmentalists, only one committee member voted in favor of the bill.</p> <p>Given the opposition to right to repair by tech companies and their lobbyists, expanded consumer and environmental protections will require ongoing pressure from grassroots campaigns if they are to become law.</p> <p><br> <strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>What stood out for you in the reading?&nbsp; Why?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>How much of the material was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>What are the goals of the “right to repair” movement?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>Have you experienced a product becoming less useful or functional over time? When this happened, did you feel that fixing it was an option? Do you think right to repair protections could have helped you in this instance?</li> </ol> <ol start="5"> <li>Companies that lobby against right to repair say that they should be able to control their intellectual property and that making products easier to fix could make users’ data less secure. What do you think about these arguments? How might defenders of right to repair respond?</li> </ol> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Closing</strong><br> &nbsp;</h3> <p>Ask students to share:</p> <ul> <li>What is one object that you use that you wish was built to last – or was repairable?<br> &nbsp;</li> <li>What is one step you could take to fight “throwaway culture”?</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Research assistance provided by Celeste Pepitone-Nahas.</em></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-11-08T13:01:27-05:00" title="Monday, November 8, 2021 - 13:01">November 8, 2021</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:01:27 +0000 Laura McClure 1625 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org Climate Emergency: COP26 & Youth Activism https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/climate-emergency-cop26-youth-activism <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span>Climate Emergency: COP26 &amp; Youth Activism</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p class="Normal1"><strong>To The Teacher</strong></p> <p class="Normal1">At this pivotal moment in the global climate crisis, leaders of nations from around the world will be meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss how governments should respond. The United Nations-sponsored COP26 (for “Conference of the Parties”) runs from October 31 to November 12, 2021.</p> <p>Observers consider this to be the most crucial meeting on climate since world leaders gathered in France in 2015 to create the Paris Agreement, a framework of goals and actions that various nations vowed to take to reduce their carbon emissions and confront the climate crisis.</p> <p>Through a video and two readings, students consider the significance of the COP26 meeting, then learn about and discuss how young people are working to hold politicians at the summit accountable.</p> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'filter_caption' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <figure role="group"> <img alt="Vanessa Nakate" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0012c411-459b-40bd-92aa-32dcfb5cba10" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Vanessa_Nakate.jpg" width="512" height="381" loading="lazy"> <figcaption><em>Ugandan climate activist&nbsp;Vanessa Nakate: “It's time, it's time it's time."&nbsp;Photo by Paul Wamala Ssegujja.</em></figcaption> </figure> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/filter/templates/filter-caption.html.twig' --> <hr> <h3><br> <strong>Introduction</strong></h3> <p>Ask students:</p> <ul> <li>Do you know what COP26 is?</li> <li>When is it and where is it?</li> <li>What is it about? &nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>Elicit or explain that COP26 is a major global conference on climate change that taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, from October 31 to November 12, 2021. Government leaders from around the world will be at this UN-sponsored summit, where they will make decisions about the planet’s future.</p> <p>Tell students that youth activists will be there too. To better understand why, show students this 2-minute video from Reuters, in which young climate activists from around the world talk about what they want to see happen at the COP26 conference:</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A40wD44r-3w">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A40wD44r-3w</a></p> <p>After watching the video, ask students:</p> <ul> <li>What stood out for you in the video?</li> <li>Do you share some of the concerns the activists are expressing?</li> <li>Do you think that what happens in Glasgow matters? Why or why not?</li> </ul> <p>Tell students that today we’ll be reading about and discussing why COP26 is considered one of the most important global meetings of our time, what it might mean for us, and how youth are responding.<br> &nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3><strong>Reading One<br> What is the COP26 Summit and what might it accomplish?</strong></h3> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/COP26%20Handout.pdf"><strong><em>pdf version</em></strong></a></p> <p><br> At this pivotal moment in the global climate crisis, leaders of nations from around the world are meeting in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss how governments should respond. The United Nations-sponsored COP26 (for “Conference of the Parties”) runs from October 31 to November 12, 2021.</p> <p>Youth activists will also be gathering in Glasgow to demand swift and far-reaching action.</p> <p>Observers consider this to be the most crucial meeting on climate since world leaders gathered in France in 2015 to create the Paris Agreement, a framework of goals and actions that various nations vowed to take to reduce their carbon emissions and confront the climate crisis.</p> <p>The 197 countries that signed the Paris Agreement agreed to collectively cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise, and the climate chaos that is already resulting from that rise, from floods to fires to violent storms.</p> <p>The commitments they made were informed by scientists, who believe that to limit the worst impacts of global warming, we must keep global temperature rise at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). At the Paris meetings, participating countries also agreed to check in on their commitments, and make updates to them as necessary, every five years.</p> <p>COP26, delayed one year by the Covid-19 pandemic, marks the first five-year “checkpoint” where countries must report on whether they are achieving the goals outlined in Paris. Leaders are under extra pressure to demonstrate that they are doing enough to keep up with their commitments, and some countries have stepped up their efforts in advance of the summit.</p> <p>Reporting for CNN, digital news producer Ivana Kottasová <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/biden-climate-change-global-funding/index.html">outlined</a> some recent decisions made by global leaders to help curb global emissions. Kottasová writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>This past year of deadly wildfires and floods in many parts of the world has left little doubt that climate change is here now, and is touching all corners of the Earth. UN Secretary General António Guterres on Tuesday appealed to world leaders to act,<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/world/un-climate-change-speeches-intl/index.html"> </a><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/world/un-climate-change-speeches-intl/index.html">warning</a> that humanity was on track for a climate "catastrophe."</p> <p>But there are signs of hope….</p> <p>US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he would<a href="https://cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/biden-climate-change-global-funding/index.html"> </a><a href="https://cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/biden-climate-change-global-funding/index.html">double America's financial commitment</a> to help developing nations confront the climate crisis to $11.4 billion per year. He will need Congress' approval to appropriate those funds.</p> <p>It's a U-turn from the years under the previous US administration, when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement.</p> <p>Chinese President Xi Jinping also made a big announcement Tuesday, saying his country will<a href="https://cnn.com/2021/09/21/world/un-climate-change-speeches-intl/index.html"> </a><a href="https://cnn.com/2021/09/21/world/un-climate-change-speeches-intl/index.html">not build any new coal-fired power projects</a> abroad. Though China itself remains the world's largest consumer of coal, the announcement effectively ends a long history of China bankrolling coal plants in places like Africa, eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.</p> <p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/biden-climate-change-global-funding/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/biden-climate-change-global-funding/index.html</a><br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <p>While these statements from the US and China are positive developments, the overall progress made by nations to date in cutting their carbon emissions has been far from adequate.</p> <p>The website <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/">Climate Action Tracker</a> indicates that, among the 36 countries that have reported their progress toward Paris Agreement goals, only Gambia has currently met its obligations under the treaty. Most other nations have fallen far short of their commitments, including the world’s largest polluters, including China, the US, India, and Russia.</p> <p>As COP26 approaches, many critics are concerned that the countries negotiating will not do enough to keep global warming below the critical level needed to prevent catastrophic climate change.</p> <p>As Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent for The Guardian explains, COP26 is a good opportunity to take stock of global progress on combating climate change. Harvey <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/protesters-urge-boris-johnson-to-take-cop26-climate-talks-seriously">writes</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>There has been important progress on COP26 in the last six months. An increasing number of countries, including<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/22/china-pledges-to-reach-carbon-neutrality-before-2060"> </a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/22/china-pledges-to-reach-carbon-neutrality-before-2060">China</a>, the EU and the US, have set targets to reach net zero emissions around mid-century. Many have also set targets on emissions for 2030, including the UK, the EU and the US….</p> <p>One of the big achievements of the UK presidency is to keep the COP26 talks focused on limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.… Setting a strong target for the summit is just one step, however: ensuring a concrete program of action comes out of COP26 must be the main goal. Veterans of the UN talks warn that several key elements are still missing….</p> <p>National plans on emissions cuts, called<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/23/which-country-has-made-the-biggest-climate-commitment"> </a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/23/which-country-has-made-the-biggest-climate-commitment">nationally determined contributions</a> or NDCs, are the bedrock of the Paris climate agreement. But the<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/co2-emissions-nations-pledges-far-away-from-paris-target-says-un"> </a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/co2-emissions-nations-pledges-far-away-from-paris-target-says-un">plans submitted so far to the UN</a> would mean temperatures rising by more than 2C. China, the world’s biggest emitter, has<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/05/china-five-year-plan-emissions"> </a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/05/china-five-year-plan-emissions">yet to submit an NDC</a>….</p> <p>Another big issue for COP26 is funding. Developing countries were promised they would receive $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance, to help them cut emissions and cope with the impacts of climate breakdown. That<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/09/rich-failing-help-fund-poor-countries-climate-fight-warns-un-chief-antonio-guterres"> target has not yet been met</a>, and failing to meet it is eroding trust among developing countries.</p> <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/protesters-urge-boris-johnson-to-take-cop26-climate-talks-seriously">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/protesters-urge-boris-johnson-to-take-cop26-climate-talks-seriously</a><br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <p>Given these concerns, environmental organizations and activists, including many young people, are organizing in advance of COP26, demanding&nbsp; decisive action to avert a climate catastrophe.</p> <p><br> <strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>What struck you&nbsp; most about the reading?</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>What is the significance of the COP26 Summit? What is the meeting meant to accomplish?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>Scientists believe to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we must limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. What progress has been made toward this goal, and in what ways has international action been inadequate?</li> </ol> <ol start="5"> <li>The Global Climate Tracker shows that the world’s most developed nations are responsible for the great majority of historic carbon emissions. And yet, poorer countries in the global South are likely to experience many of the worst impacts of global warming. How do you think global leaders should address this imbalance?<br> &nbsp;</li> </ol> <hr> <h3><br> <strong>Reading Two<br> How Young People are Preparing to Be Heard</strong></h3> <p><a href="https://www.morningsidecenter.org/sites/default/files/documents-pdfs/COP26%20Handout.pdf"><strong><em>pdf version</em></strong></a></p> <p><br> In advance of COP26, young people around the world are organizing to push world leaders to take bold action. These activists are using protests in the streets as well as meetings of their own.</p> <p>"Everyone is talking about making promises, but nobody keeps their promise. We want more action," explained Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 22, a youth climate activist in Dhaka, Bangladesh. "We want the work, not just the promises."</p> <p>Demonstrations such as school strikes and protests that shut down city transit have intensified in the run-up to the summit. The <a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/">Fridays For Future</a> student movement (inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg) organized a global school strike on September 24.&nbsp; According to Reuters, demonstrations were planned in more than 1,500 locations. The protests began in Asia with small-scale demonstrations in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and spread throughout the day to European cities including Warsaw, Turin, and Berlin. &nbsp;</p> <p>Activists have noted the power of being in person with one another after the long periods of lockdown and isolation prompted by the Covid pandemic. Reporters Karla Adam and Rick Noack <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/24/fridays-future-greta-climate-protests/">interviewed </a>several young activists for The Washington Post on September 24, 2021. Adam and Noack wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>Many protesters in different parts of the world commented on the importance of being able to attend demonstrations in person again.</p> <p>Patricia Kombo, a 25-year-old media analyst from Nairobi, said that a group of about 40 people gathered in a local park and tagged Kenya’s Ministry of Environment in their social media posts from the rally. They were then invited to the ministry’s office, she said, where they met with their delegates for COP26. “It was great to actually talk to them,” she said, adding that protesting in public still offers “a lot of visibility.”</p> <p>Sommer Ackerman, a 24-year-old in Helsinki, was among the 150 or so who gathered outside of Finland’s Parliament to demand urgent action, with a focus on local issues such as forestry. “We are sick and tired of empty promises,” she said. “It’s not good enough to set targets for 10 or 20 years out; the world will be even more on fire than it is now.”</p> <p>She said that during the pandemic, activists in Finland “always tried to find a way,” and relied on social media, tweet storms and writing messages around the city with chalk.</p> <p>Dylan Hamilton, a 17-year-old marching through the streets of Glasgow, said that since the last big march before the pandemic, climate concerns have gained more traction in political circles. But he said he was unconvinced that action would match the rhetoric.</p> <p>“The government’s messaging has gotten better, but emissions are still going up,” he said. “We want them to go down, and will keep marching until they do.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/24/fridays-future-greta-climate-protests/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/24/fridays-future-greta-climate-protests/</a><br> &nbsp;</p> </blockquote> <p>In addition to street protests, young people are also participating in gatherings of their own designed to insert the voice of young people into the official process. The Conference of Youth, which will take place from October 28 to October 31, directly before the COP26 summit, will bring together youth activists from more than 140 countries to draft a policy proposal reflecting views of rising generations.</p> <p>In late September, youth climate activists between the ages of 15 and 29 from 180 countries gathered in Milan, Italy, for a three-day Youth4Climate summit, to discuss ideas, propose concrete actions, and develop a declaration to present to politicians at COP26.</p> <p>While such meetings create important opportunities for young people to speak out, leading youth activists have insisted that they will not be patronized by politicians who refuse to take their concerns seriously. At the Milan conference, Vanessa Nakate, a 24-year old activist from Uganda, and Greta Thunberg, the 18-year-old Swedish student whose personal school strike propelled the Fridays for Future movement, criticized world leaders for failing to live up to their responsibilities. An AP News report <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-business-science-summits-africa-aa79d1c9b8e056c3eea04bd8d93381b2">quoted</a> statements by Thunberg and Nakate:</p> <blockquote> <p>“They invite cherry-picked young people to pretend they are listening to us,″ Thunberg said. “But they are not. They are clearly not listening to us. Just look at the numbers. Emissions are still rising. The science doesn’t lie.”...</p> <p>Nakate, a 24-year-old activist from Uganda, said pledges of 100 billion euros ($117 billion) a year to help countries particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change have not materialized, even as wildfires in California and Greece and floods in Germany and Belgium show that “loss and damage is now possible everywhere.”</p> <p>“In fact, funds were promised by 2020, and we are still waiting,” she said. “No more empty conferences. It’s time to show us the money. It’s time, it’s time, it’s time.”</p> <p>Nakate dramatically underlined how climate change is affecting Africa, “which is ironic given that Africa is the lowest emitter of CO2 emissions of any continent except Antarctica.”</p> <p>Just last week, she said she saw police taking away a body that had been washed away by violent storms in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, while others searched for more victims. Her mother told her that one man dragged off by the water had been trying to protect the goods he was selling.</p> <p>Nakate collapsed in tears after her emotional speech, getting comfort from Thunberg, who followed her to the podium…</p> <p>[Thunberg] has clearly heard enough from leaders, whom she said have been talking for 30 years while half of all carbon emissions have occurred since 1990, one-third since 2005.</p> <p>“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words. Words that sound great but so far have led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. Of course we need constructive dialogue, but they have now had 30 years of blah, blah blah. And where has this led us?” she said.</p> <p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-business-science-summits-africa-aa79d1c9b8e056c3eea04bd8d93381b2">https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-business-science-summits-africa-aa79d1c9b8e056c3eea04bd8d93381b2</a></p> </blockquote> <p><br> The message from young activists is clear: today’s politicians will not see the full impact of climate change in their lifetimes. It is young people who will be most affected – and their demands must be addressed.<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>For Discussion:</strong></p> <ol> <li>How much of the material in this reading was new to you, and how much was already familiar? Do you have any questions about what you read?</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li>Youth-based environmental groups are escalating protest efforts in advance of the COP26 summit. Meanwhile, some activists are also participating in formal talks to draft proposals for leaders at the summit. What do you think are the pros and cons of each of these approaches? Are both of them worthwhile? Explain your position.</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li>Activists Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg expressed concerns that politicians are not taking young people seriously. What did you think of their statements?</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li>If you were given the opportunity to attend the Conference of Youth prior to the COP26 summit, what message or ideas would you bring?</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Research assistance provided by Celeste Pepitone-Nahas.</em></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> <span>Laura McClure</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/user/templates/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--teachable-moment-lesson.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-10-15T13:45:31-04:00" title="Friday, October 15, 2021 - 13:45">October 15, 2021</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/system/templates/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'core/modules/node/templates/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap/templates/system/links.html.twig' --> Fri, 15 Oct 2021 17:45:31 +0000 Laura McClure 1619 at https://www.morningsidecenter.org