Lesson 1
This lesson will take an intersectional look at the issue of environmental justice. Students will learn how the issue of climate change relates to racial capitalism.
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Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism
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Discussion Questions:
- What is environmental racism? How does it show up? How does it relate to White supremacy and racial capitalism?
- How does environmental racism show up where you live? Where are major roads located, or waste processing centers? Are they in poor neighborhoods that have mostly residents of color?
- What is environmental justice? How would you define it? How is this an intersectional issue?
- How would your neighborhood or city look different if environmental justice was applied?
Lesson 2
In this lesson students will learn about the Land Back movement. They will analyze how this movement is part of Environmental Justice.
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The great hypocrisy of California using Indigenous practices to curb wildfires
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National Parks Should Be Returned to the Tribes
Discussion Questions
- What kind of landscape management practices did Native Americans have? How can they be used today to help combat the effects of climate change?
- Forest fires happen in California very frequently. Why do you think it has taken this long for people to collaborate with Native Americans and let them use their cultural burning practices?
- How is the #NoDAPL movement a part of Native American resistance to settler colonialism? What do you think should be the outcome of this situation?
- In “Why it’s Time to Give Native Americans Their Land Back” it is mentioned that Indigenous people are only about 4% of the global population but are responsible for 80% of the world’s biodiversity. The federal government owns much of the land that once belonged to Native Americans. Do you think it would make sense for the government to give these lands back to Native Americans to take care of? Should there be a program for tribes to purchase their land back like the Esselen tribe?
- How is Indigenous control over land part of the Environmental Justice movement? What would that look like? What impact would it have on Native American lives? On the lives of non-Natives?
